Letybid – Beauty, Skin Care, Make-up Artist Interview
Q: What surprises you most about working as a makeup artist?
A: How cruel some people in this industry can be and what a roller coaster it can be. And on the other hand how generous other people are and how strong relationships can be built just by sharing this one passion no mater the nationality.
Q: What is your favorite or most exciting aspect about your job?
A: I hate routine, I love travelling, I find it refreshing to meet new people all the time, but I must say every particle in my body is attracted to colours and textures…I couldn’t stay away from makeup even if I wanted.
Q: Tell a little about yourself personally and if you attended school or you are a self taught makeup artist?
A: I’m a 29 years old half danish half Uruguayan freelance makeup artist. I went to makeup school 11 years ago, and enjoy attending master classes whenever there’s something new and attracting coming up. I see makeup everywhere since I can remember. My hubby hates knowing every product name and description “as a man he’s not supposed to know that stuff”…but I’m always commenting new founds with him as it’s the most exciting thing when I find a new favourite product or I get suddenly inspired by something…jeje
Q: Do you think going to school for make-up artistry is important to excel in the business later on?
A: I don’t think it’s mandatory, I know many colleagues who are highly talented and have actually taught me a few tricks and they’re totally self-taught themselves but are very passionate about it and have lots of experience in the industry. But I do think it takes a lot more and harder work to prove yourself in the industry if you’re self taught, one of the advantages of attending school is that it provides you your first contacts and support, I do think that it’s very important to choose carefully the best school possible that will lead you in the beginning of your new career not just teach you the basic stuff and provide some experience but also showcase your capabilities (provide you a book). I’ve also realised that artists who have attended school usually have a clear working “system” while self taught artists tend to be more messy and less “systematic” when working.
Q: Did you always wanted to be an artist, or did you stumble upon your talent by chance? Who or what inspired you to become a makeup artist?
A: I always wanted to be an artist no doubt, I remember being so excited when I had the opportunity of sneaking into my mom’s dressing room and get a hold of her makeup when I was very little, I experimented with almost everything I could find…my mom told me I once covered my babysister in flour to paint her white (I don’t remember this cause I was like 5 years old and my sis was 4). I like painting on everything but specially people, I like beauty makeup but am totally in love with artistic makeup.
Q: Describe your “Classic Approach to Beauty.” how do you define beauty?
A: I think beauty is ageless, it’s natural, it’s there to be highlighted, it’s clean, it has nothing to do with perfection or transformation, I find most times it takes very little products but a very good eye. Most of the time I’ll work 90% on complexion. I love corrector/concealer, airbrush foundation, very little or no powder, highlight, contouring, subtle blush, and then choosing the talent’s main feature (mouth or eyes) to emphasize a bit.
Q: What individual products and brands you’re “addicted” to at the moment and you use on a daily basis?
A: As said on previous point:
1) Concealer/corrector – Like Temptu SB wheel, MUFE camouflage, Yaby concealers and correctors
2) Airbrush foundation, blush, highlight and contour – Temptu SB and OCC aqua
3) Powder foundation, blush, highlight, eyeshadows and pearlpaints all from YABY
4) Lipstick – Yaby, OCC liptars, 5) False lashes no special brand
Q: What are some of the most basic but effective skin care tips in general that you have, that are really important?
A: Never skip your daily routine, being constant is a lot more important than doing luxurious shock treatments. Cleaning and hydrating skin, and protecting it from the sun. Having a healthy lifestyle (no stress, enough sleep, healthy diet, drinking loads of water). I always drink a glass of mineral water as soon as I get up in the morning before anything else.
Q: What is the biggest skin care dont’s?
A: Sun exposure with no sunblock. Stressing the skin, harming it with too intense treatments or abusing skincare treatments. Going to bed with makeup on.
Q: Have you had an extreme, crazy or bad experience with a skin care product or during a makeup session? If so, what happened?
A: Not really because my family is full of MUAs, hairstylists and my cousin is my dermatologist (she’s a doctor as well as my dad)…we’re served and we’re very careful and conscious about the products we use.
Q: What do you find to be the most common mistakes women make with makeup? What’s the worst thing a woman can do to her skin?
A: Using aged products…I’ve sneaked through some of my friends makeup bags and found VEEEERY OLD PRODUCTS they were still using. Apart from that, a very common mistake is caking on makeup like mad or by the contrary not concealing blemishes but applying sheer foundation all over…there’s no point in doing that, I’d prefer only concealer and no foundation at all.
Q: What do you think are best/worst trends in the makeup / skin care industry right now?
A: I love the diversity that’s going on right now, I think it’s great to see so many different trends, smokey eyes, pin up style, and so many other, everything is in. There’s nothing I hate, I just think not everyone can wear everything, it’s important to find what suits a face.
Q: Do teenage girls needs to splurge on high-priced makeup products, or are drugstore items are just as satisfactory?
A: I don’t like teenage girls wearing tons of makeup to start with. Some drugstore brands are totally fine, specially when it comes to eyeshadow, blush, lipstick and mascara which is what teenagers should wear if anything (I don’t think they need foundation, maybe some concealer), they don’t last as much as pro products but you can achieve very nice results with them.
Q: What feature(s) do you love to accentuate?
A: COMPLEXION
Q: What are your steps for the perfect, flawless, natural look?
A: 1) Cleaning face, prep and priming
2) Grooming Eyebrow and filling in if necessary 3) Eye priming and contouring/higlighting
4) Cleaning up any fallouts and prime again if necessary
5) Correcting and concealing
6) Airbrushing foundation
7) Airbrushing contour, highlight and blush
8) Mascara
9) Lip staining or lipgloss (depends on the lip shape) but I don’t like lining the lips when going for natural look
Q: What is a really quick way to change a day look to a special occasion or nighttime face?
A: If the eyes are nice I’d line them and smoke them out a bit. If the lips are beautiful I’d line the lips and maybe apply a red lip shade
Q: What are the differences between applying makeup on models and on real women?
A: Models are generally already groomed and follow a better skin routine, they’re less “picky”, real women are less confident about how they look and what makeup can do for them. I feel that when I’m going for a photo shoot I do what I want to do and even when working for the model (for their book for instance) it’s more like she’s part of my kit, of my materials that I can work with. A real women is more like a CLIENT and will be much more demanding and also very insecure which she will try to pass on to me, she’s the client and I’m working for HER, that’s why I normally talk to brides before I even touch them on the day of the trial, I take one hour to know the bride and also to get her to really “feel” me and know I’ll be listening but I’M IN CHARGE.
Q: In terms of eyeliner, if you had to choose between a pencil, liquid, or creme/gel based, which one would you choose? Why?
A: I love them all but I’d go for a creamy pencil I think it’s so verstile, I can contour a whole eye with it (with the pencil technique), use it as a base, smoke it out and any wet eyeshadow will do a liquid liner if I needed one. I have actually got black, gray and brown in all formats (gel, liquid, cake and pencil) in my kit but will do blue and all other colors from wet eyeshadow.
Q: Lip gloss or Lipstick. Which product is best? Why?
A: I like them both but could do with only gloss because I can mix any eyeshadow in and make custom colour and choose how sheer or how pigmented I want it, plus if I don’t want it to look glossy I’ll just throw some more shadow on the lip after applying the gloss…I can work with only one gloss and many pigments but if I only had one lipstick I’d be much more limited.
Q: What should a client consider before deciding to try permanent makeup? What is the difference between permanent and semi-permanent makeup?
A: I’m not a huge expert, I don’t do permanent nor semi-permanent makeup and I don’t like talking about things I don’t completely master, if one of my clients would ask me, I’d refer them to their dermatologist for an
objective pro-opinion.
Q: What brand/type of concealer is your favorite for covering up the after effects of a late night out i.e. under-eye circles, blemishes?
A: Temptu, MUFE, Yaby
Q: How about airbrush spray makeup trend? Are these products better or easier to use than standard sponge or finger application? If yes when would you recommend using them?
A: Way better, I’ve been doing airbrush makeup for five years now and it’s so much easier and quicker to do complexion (I’m a total complexion freak), I don’t do eyes nor brows though as I feel I have more control with my manual application and mainly because I feel like it’s too automatized (not very personal) everyone would look the same. It’s also great for HD projects because the main advantage and what makes it so easy to use is that it lands on the face already blended with no hard work nor strikes showing from a brush, so up close shoots look flawless even on HD format.
Q: What do your clients think of you? What are some individual testimonials?
A: They are always very happy with my work but what I like the most is that I’ve made great friends with some of my clients because I’m always in such a good mood, and I know it’s because I love to work and I’m so happy every time I get the chance to put my hands on a person’s face or body to paint it, I like some projects a lot more than others but I enjoy every time I do makeup and the client enjoys it with me.
Q: Would you share some of your future goals, your life motto, any words of wisdom that get you by in life and professional career?
A: I want to work as much as I can, I want to travel, meet other artists, I want to fund a makeup school and professional makeup store, I want to be a mom, my family will always come first, my friends second, my work third. I won’t suffer over criticism that doesn’t help me, but I will always be open to learning from other people. I’m always working on restraining my ego, I think it’s important to be humble in order to be open to new possibilities and learning something new every day.
I think it’s important to be generous because all you give to the universe it will give back to you in one way or another, and that also applies if it’s negative things you give out so be careful.
Q: What tips and advice do you have for aspiring makeup artists just starting out?
A: Find the right people, right school or right mentor and look not only for talented people but also for good people, don’t expect things to happen from one day to another, be aware that you will have to give a lot before you start to receive anything from this industry, either in the form of money or in the form of efforts. Don’t expect other people to love your work or you’ll be disappointed a lot of times, make sure YOU are happy with it and then try to read criticism with a very cool head, realising who is just being mean, whose words are really wise and adjust your work only when you agree to it.
Train, train, train, your eye, your hand and put all of your senses in. Make sure to keep records with proofs of all of your jobs (even if it’s a horrible photo from your mobile phone) an artist’s CV are the people you’ve put your hands on and you’ll need to prove it. Most importantly ENJOY YOUR WORK EVERY DAY, if you find yourself not being happy for five days in a row, you need to do changes.
