What element must a great Makeup Artist understand to be successful?

Makeup Course student – Chino Van Der Wiel – demonstrating not only beautiful makeup, but her clear understanding of colour and incorporating it to compliment the whole image as a finished product.

To be a truly great makeup artist, one element that you must have is a strong understanding of colour (there are many other aspects as well, but colour is extremely important).

When I’m working the first thing I want to know is what is my client, or model, wearing? That is – what tones is she wearing? Are they warm tones or cool tones; what actual colours are they and how can I incorporate these colours and tones into her makeup in a way that enhances her complexion, her eye colour and her hair colour.

I teach this to my students – you must be able to really look at these elements and know what product, what colour, what shimmer or eyeshadow, what blush and what lip colour will tie in with the way your model is being styled or, with what your bride or client is wearing (the colour of her jewellery must also be considered when making these decisions).

Here is my students work – Chino Van Der Wiel, who only finished Module 1 Makeup Course this week. You can see in this photo shoot that she has considered the tones of the fur hood, and woven those tones into the makeup to beautifully compliment the models features and skin colour. It makes me really proud to see my students executing high quality work (before she’s even started Module 2) – her future is already way down the path to being a very successful makeup artist.