Makeup School: Day 17-19 - Fashion Catwalk

Good makeup artists are not only determined by their creativity and makeup skill, but also by their speed, resourcefulness, and ability to coordinate with others. In the whirwind rainbow world of fashion, time is short, models are plenty, and the show must go on.

Fashion catwalk makeup is roughly split into two categories:
Conservative
Where the clothes take priority and the makeup complements, but does not overpower the collection.
Creative
Makeup can make a statement, be bold, colourful, downright weird, and generally not suited for a trip to the supermarket.

Conservative fashion catwalk makeup on Shelley based on Kelsie's face chart design

The sessions for fashion catwalk were adrenaline-inducing and marked a turning point in our training where we start to hone our application skills and speed, as all the basic techniques were now covered. Our trainers initiated scenarios and challenged us to apply a full face of makeup in 20mins, with bad lighting, inconvienient positions, last-minute changes, use of pre-designed face charts or looks from magazine tearouts without prior preparation. We also ran a production line, apointed a 'head makeup artist' to coordinate a team of makeup artists, work from the same face chart for a uniformed look, and designed our own high-fashion face chart to carry out in 45 minutes.

Creative fashion catwalk makeup based on Dior's makeup on Toni

I found it was difficult to work from a face chart to apply the same look as everyone else. There's a lot that's open to interpretation. Because of the large variation in model features, bold brows on one may be arched, while on another is straight. Porcelain skin could look absolutely natural on Sami, but completely clown-like on Toni, etc. Without a prior demo, detailed instructions, and a dominant makeup artist (this was a different activity from the production line with Head MUA), there was an interesting variation on looks despite everyone using the same products in the same colours.

Bird of Paradise (rushed) look on Sami. Not my greatest attempt. Would like to recreate later.

On the creative side, we each had to design a makeup look based on a theme from a choice between Birds of Paradise, Futuristic, Dark Angel, and Dolls. I picked Birds of Paradise and chose to base my makeup on the colours of the Greater Bird of Paradise, with brown, yellow and whites. To be honest, I whipped up the look within the hour morning before class because I've just had no time to do it otherwise. I incorporated feathers into the look but only just realised that it's way too late to find feather eyelashes, so I sliced up some craft feathers to use as lashes. Let's just say it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped and the end result looked like she's had a run-in with a chicken. Recreating this look better in a future attempt is now on my to-do list.

While AOM trainers are highly supportive and utterly professional, my one gripe was the lack of detailed criticisms during class-work. I felt like my application was glanced at and declared 'fabulous!' while even I wasn't completely happy with it! Surely no makeup is so perfect there can't be improvements? These are the times when I really really would appreciate some sort of nit-picking suggestions.

On the other hand, I hope trainers arn't going to be anal when it comes to our makeup practical assessments!

xxEva