MUA Life: Tips on Building Your Freelance Makeup Kit
Starting as a freelance makeup artist can be hard, especially if you don’t really know where to begin with building a separate makeup kit for your freelance jobs. There are so many products to choose from now, it’s daunting to narrow down what you really need and will use. I remember starting out and thinking “if I use brand x or only have this much makeup will they think I’m less qualified than another makeup artist out there?”. Then there’s the fact that the initial investment can be quite expensive, makeup has an expiration and you’re not even sure how many makeovers you’ll be doing for your first year. I’ve been doing freelance makeup artistry for more than five years now and it’s not until about three years ago when I really felt like I had my freelance kit together and in a place where I can confidently walk into a gig and know that my kit has more than enough products necessary to do any special occasion makeup from natural glam to dramatic glitter and glowy goddess. I’ve made some rookie mistakes when I was just starting out and some of which cost me quite a bit of money. I figured that since the busy season for many makeup artists has just begun, I want to go ahead and share some tips on building your makeup kit for any aspiring makeup artists out there.
Start Small and Slow - You don’t have to have the largest makeup collection to start offering your services. As long as you have some key products and know how to practice safe hygiene practices, you will be able to start offering your services a lot sooner, especially to friends and family. When you are starting out, there is no shame in sharing some of your personal products with your freelance kit, provided that their packaging does not promote contamination (comes with a pump or spray). You also don’t need multiple options of the same makeup type (i.e. 5 different neutral eye palettes, multiple contour and highlighter kits, all the lipstick and lipgloss shades), just enough to get makeup done from start to finish will be enough, when you’re just getting started. I would also urge you to slowly build up your kit with staple makeup essentials first, and then venturing out to getting more fun add-ons later on, as you become more aware of what you prefer to use when doing makeup. Keep in mind that what works for your face, may not always work for all of your clients.
Mini Sets Are Key - The best way to get a variety of products without breaking the bank is by taking advantage of mini sets that many brands now offer. You are still just starting out, so my guess is you don’t have back to back clients yet that will deplete your kit supply right away. Many brands now offer mini sets of their best selling lipglosses, lipsticks, highlighters, etc. This is a great way to have so many more products without spending too much on many on full-sized ones, and also not having to worry about them going bad before you get around to using all of them. I’ve made this mistake before where I bought full-sized products, only to throw them out a few years later while barely even using them.
Artistry Palettes - It’s really a lot easier for makeup artists to get started with building their kit nowadays compared to a decade ago. Before, finding quality eyeshadow palettes with more than 4-6 eyeshadows were impossible, but now there’s just so much more options at great competitive prices. The one thing I will suggest though is as much as you are tempted to get a cheap eyeshadow palette, say from Morphe or BH Cosmetics for under $30, I say splurge a bit more and get ones from companies that cater their products to makeup artist and have better ingredients and formulation. From my experience, mass manufactured eyeshadow palettes from these companies don’t tend to hold their color value as the day goes on and tend to blend into a muddy mess when you start blending out the colors. It’s much better to have a palette of eyeshadow that has 12-15 quality colors that are staples for creating glamour makeup, than have one with more options, but don’t really wear well throughout the day. Some palettes I highly recommend are Viseart, Natasha Denona, MAC and Huda Beauty.
Brands for Makeup Artists - There are a few makeup brands that especially caters to makeup artists that are well known in the industry but not so much to the regular makeup consumer. These companies tend to produce makeup products that have great quality and lasting power, without breaking the bank. Mehron, Graftobian, RCMA and Danessa Myricks are some of the brands that come to mind. These brands also produce wonderful cream foundation palettes, which is great if you want to have a variety of foundation colors in starting your freelance kit, but don’t want to spend too much on it.
Tradeshows and Pro Discounts - The best way to save money when building your kit is to attend trade shows that offer huge discounts (25-40% off) from many leading professional makeup brands in the industry. The International Makeup Artist Trade Show (IMATS) and The Makeup Show are the two most popular ones that I know of, however, they only happen in major cities like New York and LA in the US. Most of these trade shows are open to makeup artists and other professionals in the beauty industry (photographers, models,etc) but do ask for proof of credentials, like a business card, to satisfy this requirement. Another way to get discount is by signing up with major makeup brands’ pro discount program. This one requires an application and need a bit more proof of credentials to be able to get approval to their pro programs. Some major brands who have this is MAC, Makeup Forever, Anastasia, Urban Decay, Naimie’s and Stila. Lastly, Sephora and Ulta tend to do a semi-annual sale of 15-20% off and most makeup brands do their own friends and family sale around the Holidays, if the first two options are harder for you to acquire a discount.
Brushes - This will most likely be where you’ll spend a huge chunk of your kit budget in the beginning, because having a set of brushes that you can use to do 2-3 people’s makeup at once can get really expensive. It’s perfectly acceptable to start with getting cheaper sets from Morphe or Sigma at first, and slowly build your professional brush kit slowly as your freelance work grows. Professional brushes are made with durability in mind; when you are using and then cleaning makeup brushes again and again in one day, you need something that can withstand that heavy usage. I’ve had my MAC makeup brushes for almost 10 years now, and most of them are in great condition, even after so much use. Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for my cheaper makeup brushes — most either have lost too much hair or gone too floppy to be useful in my kit.
Hygiene - Probably the most important aside from your artistry and the makeup in your kit. Make sure to invest in disposable applicators, soatulas, lash and lip wands and q-tips to help apply makeup products and prevent cross-contamination. Get high-quality brush cleanser and makeup sanitizing spray as well and have alcohol and hand sanitizer handy in your kit. You do not want to risk spreading any infections to any of your clients.
I definitely didn’t know all of these information when I was just starting out, but I’ve learned a lot since then. Additionally, there were not as many product options that were available to me before than there is now, so I really want a lot of you to take advantage of these things.
To my fellow makeup artists out there, what are some key products on your kit? And to my fellow beauty enthusiast, what makeup products do you consider to be a staple to your makeup routine?
