QC Makeup Academy Student Ambassador, Whitney Ellis, provides insights on how to price your makeup services as an emerging artist. With more experience under her belt, Whitney has been able to build her makeup career and change her pricing structure accordingly!
If you are like me, you are an emerging makeup artist working on getting your freelance business up and running. Luckily for those of us already enrolled with QC Makeup Academy, we already have the information to get the ball rolling!
Recently, I have seen a lot of questions about pricing makeup artistry services and I would like to share with you how I came up with my prices.
Researching local & outer city makeup artists
Living in a big city means there are so many makeup artists trying to achieve the same dream you are. I took months of researching local and outer city makeup artists to see what kind of services they advertise and their pricing structures. This allowed me to come up with a price window to stay between. When I had my first client, I priced $10 lower than other local artists because I was still working on my skills and confidence. Now that I am more secure in my skills, I price within a few dollars of other local artists.
Give yourself a raise
As with any business, you will have to account for many factors that you should use to raise your makeup prices. With every application, you are using products that will eventually need to be replaced. You will need to account for the price to replace those products yearly due to expiration dates or just plain running out.
Cost of living is a big factor, as well. Every area is different, but the cost of living normally goes up each year. The exact price is to be determined and should be researched often. As your skills grow so should your prices. You worked hard for this makeup certification and deserve your prices to reflect the quality of work you provide.
Stand your ground with clients
You should always value your time and the makeup skills you obtained. That does not mean that others will do the same. I have seen and heard many of stories of clients trying to get more for less, but you must stand your ground. The best advice I can give is to let clients know in advance the full amount and what services you are providing for this price so there are no surprises.
You are still going to run into people that will to try to negotiate the prices of your makeup services. But, letting them know that your prices are non-negotiable or even listing them on pricing documents should help. You can explain to those clients that you are a certified makeup artist and you have trained many hours to make sure they are getting the very best service!
My prices for makeup services
At this current moment, I have makeup prices for bridal, bridal parties, corporate and special events. I have also left the door open for clients to contact me for any other services they need. I have priced my bridal application to $100 – this includes the makeup consultation ahead of time and application on the wedding day. I then have a $25 price per hour after the initial bridal application.
Some brides will want you to be available for the entire wedding day for touch ups in photos or for a makeup change for the reception. And for the bridal party, I have priced this service at $75 per person. This includes a consultation and application on the day of the wedding.
For corporate and special events, I have also priced this at $75 per person. This includes the consultation/application on the day of their event. As for miscellaneous applications, I ask that clients contact me. I am open for any kind of makeup application, even though they might not have been listed!
With this ever-growing and changing market, you should be continually researching to keep up with proper pricing for your makeup services. I know that as my knowledge and skills grow, so will the services that I offer to my clients. Take pride in yourself and your trade. You have worked so hard to get where you are today and deserve to be treated as such.
Keep shooting for the star and keep following your dreams beauties!
