QC Student Ambassador, Whitney Ellis, is a student of the Master Makeup Artistry course. Today, she shares her experience finding new clients as a makeup artist, and the challenges she’s faced.
Do you remember your first makeup client? Most of us do – and we remember how nerve-racking it was. We’ve taken the skills we acquired from our makeup courses and put them into action.
Landing your first client could have come from months of marketing or by word of mouth. However they found you, you are prepared for your first paying customer and could not be more excited!
My first client came to me via family. It was prom season and my niece was in need of a makeup artist. Who did she call? Well me, of course!
She had been there from the beginning of my schooling with QC Makeup Academy and had watched my skills grow for many months. I was told that she would not want anyone else to do her makeup and that made this experience extremely special. Her first prom!
Application Challenges
With every new makeup client, there will be challenges you have to face. Whether it be with their skin condition, concealing blemishes and imperfections, or skin allergies. Each client and application will be completely different from the next.
I still remember when I started my studies with QC Makeup Academy and I realized how much information that I did not know. Some of the challenges I faced in this prom application were color correction and cat eyes. At the very beginning of my makeup training, there was so much information about color theory and how this applies to color correction. Knowing which colors go with others to neutral out skin tones is so important. I covered the dark circles with my orange cream concealer and did not want to put too much color correction (or too little). I normally pull up a color wheel on my phone or have a photocopy with me, just in case I question which color cancels out another.
Doing a cat eye on someone other than myself is quite difficult. I know that some people use tape and cards as a guide, but I prefer to do it freehand because I like a certain shape and angle of the line. We ended up doing the wing of the cat-eye twice. The first application of the wing was uneven and I was not going to have that. The second application was even, but too thick on one side. I worked with it and fixed my error with a Q-tip.
Even with all of these challenges, I felt like I knew what I was doing!
Finding New Clients
I have had much success these days with word-of-mouth referrals, but I know there is SO much more that I need to do to gain new clients. I have been using social media and specific hashtags to gain attention in my area. I also started following and interacting with local makeup artists to grow my network. My future ideas for finding new clients are going to local theatres, high schools, photography studios, dance studios, etc., and talking to them about what I can do for them. Doing an on-site application would help them see the kind of makeup artistry I am capable of.
So put yourself out there and show people what you can do! The more people that know who you are and what you can do, the more clients you will get. Build your network in the beauty industry and start talking to people. Word of mouth is a great (and successful) tool!
