MUAs, when did you feel confident enough?

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cheekychick

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Basildon, Essex
Sorry this is a long one, I apologise in advance.

I've been trained in make up for nearly 2 years (Vtct)
I've also attended classes with various other companies (illamasqua, local make up artists, sue moxley, Essex make up & hair academy, Essex beauty school) to try and learn as much as I possibly can from different people.
My make up knowledge is spot on (without being big headed) I've read so many books, researched etc I'm confident in my knowledge it's just transferring it to a face that I'm not confident with.

I also watch tutorials and practice when I can (Around my day job & at weekends which is a bit difficult)

I have my kit all bought & prepared and offer make ups to family & friends but I don't feel confident enough to advertise for clients I don't know.
I feel stupid & like I'm never going to feel ready. Obviously my friends & family will only tell me I should and that I'm good enough but I don't feel it at all.

I did a wedding trial & on the day make up and the lady was really happy. This was in August.
I came across her on a Facebook page & had a little bout of confidence but it's gone again. I feel like giving up and that I'm never going to get there.

How long did it take you to feel confident enough?
I'm obviously not naturally talented in this area which is why I'm trying to work super hard but I'm just working out if I'm wasting my time or should persevere with it.

I'm so passionate about make up but I don't want to be in this position for another 2 years. [emoji17]

I'm also 4 months pregnant and have a summer house I can work from so this is added pressure as I ideally wanted to work a couple of days from home whilst on maternity leave & after baby is born.
My mind is in a spin

Can anyone offer me some constructive advice?
Thanks
Sam
 
have you any pics of your work? :)
 
I think you've just got to do it. You clearly have the skills and the passion but insecurity is holding you back and the only one who can conquer that is you. What's the worst that can happen? If you make a mistake, you can simply wipe it off and start over. Write a list of your skills and a list of areas you feel you need to improve on, bet the skills list is a lot longer! Just go for it, grab the bull by the horns and do it! You're a strong, confident woman [emoji3]
 
have you any pics of your work? :)

I have but most of it is on myself and I have terrible circles that I can't get rid of no matter how much make up I put on them.

I also find my iPhone photos don't do the make up justice which is why I don't use any on my business pages.
They just make it look worse [emoji85] then I literally end up deleting all the photos I take because I don't feel they are good enough.

I'll put some up now. x
 
I have but most of it is on myself and I have terrible circles that I can't get rid of no matter how much make up I put on them.

I also find my iPhone photos don't do the make up justice which is why I don't use any on my business pages.
They just make it look worse [emoji85] then I literally end up deleting all the photos I take because I don't feel they are good enough.

I'll put some up now. x


I felt the same about this - my iphone pics just made my lovely work look - blah!! I've invested in a DSLR camera with an advance lens and OHMYGOD my make ups look amazing - true to life but just beautiful! If you want the technical info then I can give to you, best £400 I've spent! x


In terms of your confidence, I still get nervous doing brides, I'm relatively new to the make up game (been in Beauty for 10, but specialising in make up for a year) and make up is HARD. Everyone has their pre-existing style and preferences for make up, and we are aiming to improve what they currently do. However, excuse my french, you know your shit! You know better than the client, you can see their face shape and skin etc, you are professionally trained.

You are a good make up artist, even though I've not seen your work I can already tell. I can tell because you have invested in yourself. Not just watched a youtube video and then put 'Mua' after your name on Facebook. Start small and do some friends make up, take lots of pictures and choose the ones you are happiest with and put on facebook. I get the majority of my make up bookings via facebook.
 
Also! My other two pennies! I look at other MUA's work all the time, and I often doubt myself. There are so many mua's doing massively heavy eyes, bright white hightlight and the darkest brows I've ever seen! From a split second view, it looks beautiful, but when you look closer and imagine what it would look like in real life.. well I think it looks pretty scary! But anyway, I'm glad that I stay away from that and its not my style because I get plenty of bookings doing a more natural, glowing make up!
 
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(June 2015) This was my first ever client from my confident phase. she doesn't wear make up at all so wanted very natural.

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(July 2015) a friend (tattoos her eyebrows on- they are not my work)

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My first and only bride. (August 2015) Brows tattooed on (I literally did nothing to them) and again her husband hates make up so had to be natural. Very safe in respect of how much work I had to do.

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(August)
My friend who has very hooded eyes that I practiced on

I've put dates purely to see if there's improvement between them all. x
 

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(All make ups on myself) no filters just lighting in the room I was in or natural light.


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Something I learned on a course
 
Please be harsh, I need it!
I don't want anything sugar coated. I just want to be the best I can possibly be & Be able to feel confident and know exactly where I need to improve. x
 
I think you've just got to do it. You clearly have the skills and the passion but insecurity is holding you back and the only one who can conquer that is you. What's the worst that can happen? If you make a mistake, you can simply wipe it off and start over. Write a list of your skills and a list of areas you feel you need to improve on, bet the skills list is a lot longer! Just go for it, grab the bull by the horns and do it! You're a strong, confident woman [emoji3]

Thank you. I'm going to do a list tomorrow!

I just worry about what the client will say, then I worry they will tell other people. [emoji85] x
 
I felt the same about this - my iphone pics just made my lovely work look - blah!! I've invested in a DSLR camera with an advance lens and OHMYGOD my make ups look amazing - true to life but just beautiful! If you want the technical info then I can give to you, best £400 I've spent! x


In terms of your confidence, I still get nervous doing brides, I'm relatively new to the make up game (been in Beauty for 10, but specialising in make up for a year) and make up is HARD. Everyone has their pre-existing style and preferences for make up, and we are aiming to improve what they currently do. However, excuse my french, you know your shit! You know better than the client, you can see their face shape and skin etc, you are professionally trained.

You are a good make up artist, even though I've not seen your work I can already tell. I can tell because you have invested in yourself. Not just watched a youtube video and then put 'Mua' after your name on Facebook. Start small and do some friends make up, take lots of pictures and choose the ones you are happiest with and put on facebook. I get the majority of my make up bookings via facebook.


Thank you.
That's exactly what I didn't want to be! One of those who does a 5 min course then claims they are a make up artist. I just honestly don't feel worthy enough for that title yet.
I have issues with the way I look and think it stems from that. (I hate my nose & dark circles and no amount of contouring & highligting can change it [emoji51])
I think people will look at my face and think - she chat even make herself look good how's she going to help me?! I try to act confident but I feel far from it. x
 
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This is a very natural look well done. To improve on this i would have given her more coverage over her blemishes on her chin. Her right eyebrow arch should have been filled in higher, Can you see the couple of hairs just above the brow, if you brought the brow powder up higher it would have evened out her brows a little more, i personally would have faked the tails of the brow a bit thicker to to balance the brows, use a colour 2-3 shades lighter to map out your shape then a darker colour to add hair like strokes for a natural look. Her eyeshadow crease colour is the perfect tone for her but is not blended out enough and is taken to high, the majority of the colour density should be by the crease of her eye but it should seamlessly blend, i can see clearly where it stops. I feel like the foundation is slightly too dark for her also, but it looks like it has oxidized on her rather than an incorrect shade chosen, if applying liquid foundation to a client with oily skin, remember to go a shade lighter than you think you need as the oils in their skin will oxidize with minerals in the foundation and dry darker and slightly more orange.

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The side view of this client is beautiful. Your blending of the eyeshadow on the top lid is done very well, but you have not joined the shadow at the outer corner of the eye seamlessly between the top and bottom lid, you eyeshadow should have been pulled down more and blended out more on the lower lid. You false lashes are popping up on the inner right eye and they also applied too far out, they are dragging the eye down and blocking your cat eye shaped shadow. Use the bottom lash line as a guide, imagine a line from corner of nose to outer edge of eye, don't ever put a lash past this line for an ordinary make up look (there are exceptions to this but this is a general rule)

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Did she have eyeliner tattooed on her lower lid? I think the liner is too strong on the lower lid it looks very unbalanced as their is nothing on the top lid. If its make up on the bottom lid i would have chosen a softer colour and blended it out more, if its been tattooed on, i would have gone slightly heavier on the top lid to balance it out and used a soft brown to help blend out the lower lid. Guys always say they hate make up, but thats because they hate badly applied make up that is obvious, I'm sure if they saw any girl with a full face of well applied make they would think that she is not wearing much make up. I've been on dates with guys who have openly said i hate girls who were too much make up and i have been taken aback because i go ALL out when i go out and when i say , well you'll hate me so they look confused and say i'm not wearing much at all. Ha! If they only knew!! Guys think wearing make up is when your foundations is too dark, your blush too strong , your eyes over lined etc. Good make up = No make up in the eyes of guys trust me :) I think this client would have benefited from a soft brown blending into the crease and a natural pair of false lashes, i think her mascara looks quite clumpy.

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(August)
Hooded eyes are very hard to do make up on and i honestly feel that this eyeshadow look does not flatter this clients eyes. Her eyeliner is too thick which is extenuating her hooded eye, it should at the very least be more tapered at the inner corner, the colour is far too high up by her nose and the purple is not blended out well at all, you should have used a medium brown over the top to get a better blend into her skin tone. for hooded eyes it is much more flattering to have 1/3 light to 2/3 dark as you can't see where the lid over hangs this way, you can have a lighter lid but it takes more work and tweaking to get it to look right, i have quite hooded eyes i'll see if i can find a pic to show you what i mean :)


Your own make up is beautiful, but again there are pics where your eyeshadow could have been blended a little more seamlessly, you have also matched your foundation perfectly to your own skin tone but seem to struggle with clients to get the right shade and tone of their skin. As for your dark circles you need to be using a good colour corrector first, many people choose the wrong colour corrector you will need quite a dark peach because your circles are dark and then place concealer of your skin tone over the top of that, no amount of concealer alone will cover them :)

All in all i think your good enough to work on paying clients, there are certainly much poorer make up artist working and making money from it and the only way to learn is to get out there and work on people and learn from your mistakes. 9 times out of 10 an client would never notice the above in my critique and i have been very critical about everything but just to show you where you could improve.
 
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This is a pic of a smokey look on me, I have quite hooded eyes but keep my liner and shadow very tapered in the inner corner of my eyes, because everything is well blended I have been able to use a lighter colour over 2/3 of the lid but when looking straight it looks like I've a dark lid. If I had put 2/3 of the lid dark I would have had a very similar look that would be more forgiving if my blending wasn't spot on :)
 
I feel a lot of the same things as you. I did a VTCT makeup course a few years ago, but didn't feel that I was good enough after that to take on 'real' clients. I only really want to do weddings, so I did a short bridal course and I felt better after that (for a while) but still not good enough to charge and work on strangers. Eventually, last year I signed up at School of Makeup and started all over again. I do think this has been the best course I've done, and mainly because it's all practical. You can read dozens of books, but it's practice at applying that makes the difference with confidence I think. I would imagine if you did 3 or 4 strangers, you'd feel totally different after even that small amount of experience - at least, that's what I hope!

I have signed up to a portfolio building website with the aim of practising doing makeup on strangers. I feel that if I'm not being paid, I won't feel as much under pressure, and yet I will get the chance to meet someone totally new and do makeup for them on the spot. It will be nice if I get some portfolio pictures out of it, but really I'm viewing it as a confidence building exercise more than anything.

I think it's true that the quality of your pictures will be dictated more by your camera and lighting than how good your makeup is. I borrowed my husband's camera when I did my 'portfolio day' at makeup school, and the snaps I took turned out quite nice, although if you see the professional edited pictures they do look much better. A while ago, someone was asking Noreen about time for print shoots, and she advised hiring a model and photographer to get good pictures as it's easier, quicker and probably cheaper in the long run than doing lots of work for free to get good pictures. Have you thought about doing that? Maybe you'd feel more confident if you had some really great images of your work? I am attaching the professional shots from the 'portfolio day' that we did as part of my course at School of Makeup. I'm not brilliant at makeup by a long stretch, but professional images will show your work to its best advantage and look good on your website. Any constructive feedback most welcome! Remember I'm not talented at makeup, it's not a natural thing for me, but like you I do LOVE it so I really want to be good at it!

Bridal 1.jpg
Bridal 2.jpg
Evening 1.jpg
Evening 2.jpg
 
I'm not any help but what course did you do with Essex hair and make up academy and what did you think of the training?
 
I worry about make up too and always doubt myself....I guess everyone has different techniques
 
Your own make up is beautiful, but again there are pics where your eyeshadow could have been blended a little more seamlessly, you have also matched your foundation perfectly to your own skin tone but seem to struggle with clients to get the right shade and tone of their skin. As for your dark circles you need to be using a good colour corrector first, many people choose the wrong colour corrector you will need quite a dark peach because your circles are dark and then place concealer of your skin tone over the top of that, no amount of concealer alone will cover them :)

All in all i think your good enough to work on paying clients, there are certainly much poorer make up artist working and making money from it and the only way to learn is to get out there and work on people and learn from your mistakes. 9 times out of 10 an client would never notice the above in my critique and i have been very critical about everything but just to show you where you could improve.

Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. I really appreciate it. I'll go through again when I'm home and write down all the things I need to work on.

With the first pic, because it was my first client I listened to what she wanted and I think it made me not want to overly do up her face and make her look too different as they kept stressing 'natural'. But her skin was very oily with lots of blemishes and I was worried I was going to make her look cakey when she definitely did need more coverage. Thanks for the tip with oily skin & using a lighter shade I'll definitely keep that in mind for future reference.

With the bridal make up she didn't have tattooed liner, that was all my doing but she requested I use black eyeshadow as a liner as it would look look softer.
Then She was adamant she didn't want any eyeshadow on at all.
She had also had a lash lift which had gone wrong. Her lashes were all curled waytoo far into her eyelids so that they were touching her lids and curler in different directions and just looked a mess in general.
It was 100% one of he hardest times of my life [emoji85] I was so stressed that day. It has put me off of weddings! She kept going downstairs to show her husband to be the trial make up and was like he hates this, he hates that so I changed it so many times.

The make up on my friend with the hooded eyes. That was on a course! The trainer told me my work was fantastic blah blah blah. I have another pic of what she thought was great but she made me take the eyeshadow up way too far up I think. It sort of went into drag queen territory.
I've been taught so many different ways of doing things by different muas it's confusing.

Everything you have said makes total sense, I'll definitely work on that and update this post.
Thank you Noreen x
 
I feel a lot of the same things as you. I did a VTCT makeup course a few years ago, but didn't feel that I was good enough after that to take on 'real' clients. I only really want to do weddings, so I did a short bridal course and I felt better after that (for a while) but still not good enough to charge and work on strangers. Eventually, last year I signed up at School of Makeup and started all over again. I do think this has been the best course I've done, and mainly because it's all practical. You can read dozens of books, but it's practice at applying that makes the difference with confidence I think. I would imagine if you did 3 or 4 strangers, you'd feel totally different after even that small amount of experience - at least, that's what I hope!

I have signed up to a portfolio building website with the aim of practising doing makeup on strangers. I feel that if I'm not being paid, I won't feel as much under pressure, and yet I will get the chance to meet someone totally new and do makeup for them on the spot. It will be nice if I get some portfolio pictures out of it, but really I'm viewing it as a confidence building exercise more than anything.

I think it's true that the quality of your pictures will be dictated more by your camera and lighting than how good your makeup is. I borrowed my husband's camera when I did my 'portfolio day' at makeup school, and the snaps I took turned out quite nice, although if you see the professional edited pictures they do look much better. A while ago, someone was asking Noreen about time for print shoots, and she advised hiring a model and photographer to get good pictures as it's easier, quicker and probably cheaper in the long run than doing lots of work for free to get good pictures. Have you thought about doing that? Maybe you'd feel more confident if you had some really great images of your work? I am attaching the professional shots from the 'portfolio day' that we did as part of my course at School of Makeup. I'm not brilliant at makeup by a long stretch, but professional images will show your work to its best advantage and look good on your website. Any constructive feedback most welcome! Remember I'm not talented at makeup, it's not a natural thing for me, but like you I do LOVE it so I really want to be good at it!

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Thank you for your reply. Your photos and beautiful!
I'll definitely invest in a decent camera once I've worked on my application more. I just wish I could afford a proper in depth course to go over everything again but it's totally out of the question until I start making some money. Xx
 
I'm not any help but what course did you do with Essex hair and make up academy and what did you think of the training?

I did their cut crease masterclass which didn't teach me cut crease at all. (It taught me nothing)

Also the mastering eyes course which again didn't teach me hardly anything.
Most of their courses are run by make up artists with not much experience to be honest. Although my application was not great, I had a lot more product & make up knowledge then the actual trainers did. Was a waste of money and it wasn't certificated just a masterclass.
Xx
 
View attachment 193723

This is a pic of a smokey look on me, I have quite hooded eyes but keep my liner and shadow very tapered in the inner corner of my eyes, because everything is well blended I have been able to use a lighter colour over 2/3 of the lid but when looking straight it looks like I've a dark lid. If I had put 2/3 of the lid dark I would have had a very similar look that would be more forgiving if my blending wasn't spot on :)


This looks lovely! x
 

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