Make-up has always been in my life. Some of my fondest memories are centred around makeup: watching my mum put on her make-up at her dressing table; the smell of her Fashion Fair ’Rum Raisin’ coloured lipstick. As soon as I was able to reach that dressing table I was soon pinching that lipstick and smearing it across my face along with other pretty, sticky concoctions in their beautiful pots and packaging. Like most little girls, I used to love to play dress up and my older sister would do my make-up and dress me in her clothes, and I would strut around the house in my sister’s or my mum’s high-heels, pretending to be a supermodel!
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| The signs were there from an early age! |
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| I always knew how to stike a pose! |
Little did I know that those early days would have an influence on my future career. After university, I spent four crazy years as a professional dancer and commercial model, until chronic injury, an inability to maintain a size 6-8 figure and the need for something a bit more stable and ‘normal’ put an end to that career. During that time, I put my face in the hands of many a make-up artist and was always amazed that with the stroke of a few brushes, I could be transformed from a very plain girl with bad skin into someone that some might consider beautiful. I would always watch carefully to see what products, techniques and brushes they were using on me and then go out and buy them to try and recreate the look at home. Doing my make-up is the best part of getting ready for a night out as far as I’m concerned; as important as the shoes and outfit and far more important than the hair! I have amassed a great deal of products over the years and anyone that knows me well, will tell you that that my makeup bag is the size of most people’s overnight bag. When I’m having a bad day, I like nothing better to treat myself with a new lip-gloss or eyeshadow, or to buy fashion magazines just to look at the models in the ad campaigns and figure out what make-up artist has done.
When the dancing and modelling career ended, and after much deliberation and soul-searching, the ‘stable’ career that I chose was Events Management. I wanted to make beautifully styled events that people would remember and be inspired by. Essentially, I just wanted to make things pretty. Unfortunately, no one told me that in a period of economic recession a) a career in Events Management is not a ‘stable’ career and b) beauty is the last thing anyone thinks about when holding an event! Consequently, I found myself working on a lot of very corporate, very uncreative projects, and although I have risen very quickly from entry-level to managerial level in the industry, I can’t say that it has really satisfied my need for creativity.
So, I find myself once again, at a career crossroads. I’m turning 29 in a few days and I don’t want to stay on a career path that continues to make me miserable. I don’t think I am cut out to have a normal, stable 9-5 and I still just want to make things pretty. So I have decided to go to enrol on a make-up course to become a professional make-up artist. This blog will document my journey to becoming a MUA and I will be sharing some of the tips and techniques that I learn along the way, as well as some of my must have products for make-up perfection.
I hope you enjoy it...
