Makeup is art. You study it like art, you critique it like art, you learn it like art. So let's start with the basics of learning this form of expression. I credit my success thus far with my talent and skill, plus hard work, determination and luck, but those you can't learn. I learned makeup from a few different sources, and I'll definitely go over all of them. It's a combination of books, youtube tutorials and blog posts, and of course trial and error.
I'll start with my all time favorite makeup book by Kevyn Aucoin. He was a world-renowned makeup artist, with hundreds of celebrities in his resume. After going through years of hardship and bullying, he got through it all by devoting himself to his career as a makeup artist. Although he is no longer with us, his art and lessons are something that will live on through the test of time, I'm sure.
His career highlights have been influential on every major makeup brand and makeup artist. The first book of his I bought and read cover to cover immediately was Making Faces. The second was Face Forward. They both cover a range of topics, such as foundation techniques, contouring and highlighting, eyebrows, and different end results. These are a great way to learn the basics of makeup! You can find his books in generally any larger book store, or off of Amazon!
Next, I'm going to cover youtube tutorials. These were instrumental in my learning the skill of makeup, because they covered in depth different makeup looks. Watching multiple different gurus gave me a range of techniques I could try out, and later pick and choose which worked for me best. No two people do makeup exactly the same. I started out by watching Petrilude aka Josh. I fell in love with his Halloween series, his day to day looks and his overall personality and camera presence. He has a lot of amazing full face masks and fantasy makeup. I still watch his tutorials all the time, continuously learning new things from him.
The next guru I started watching was xsparkage aka Leesha. She has tons of videos from tutorials, to favorite things, to themed looks, and reviews on products. She's incredible informative and covers just about everything you'd need to know. She also has a great personality, she's very easy to watch, and she seems like she could be your neighbor down the street.
The next favorite of mine is MakeupByTiffanyD aka Tiffany. She's wonderful, pretty much straight to the point, and has great skills when it comes to makeup! She has a lot of celebrity-inspired looks which are really fun to try out. She's a sweetheart too! I'm sure there's hundreds of more men and women doing makeup tutorials but these are my favorites and the ones that inspired me to get into makeup in the first place!
Here's a list of other youtuber's I watch too!
Another great place to learn about makeup are blogs. Most of these youtube gurus have blogs as well, however there are some blogs that I follow with or without their youtube videos. My all-time, favorite makeup artist to follow is Kandee Johnson. She is an incredible spirit and overall human being. She's wonderful at what she does, and stays down to earth even though she's quite popular and famous! She's incredible with makeup and I have learned and still learn so much from her!
Another blog I follow is Zoffe. She's in Denmark, but I started seeing her work on a livejournal community for MAC-obsessed guys and gals! I used to love her FOTD's (face of the day) and now I follow her blog as well! She masters color like no other! Plus she has these rockin' cupid's bow shaped lips that I would die for!
This is me doing my best friend's makeup on her wedding day. What an honor that was. :) Photography by Ryan Jay.
All in all, I learned what I did by practicing, learning from others, and paying attention to where makeup is in the real world! I would break down all of my friends' makeup at school in my head, thinking about how I would recreate their look if I did it myself. I would try different looks, either inspired from the makeup tutorials, or using new products. I loved watching or reading about makeup because I felt like I was learning something new every few minutes! That's a great feeling. I hope you enjoyed this and found it helpful!
xo, jm
No comments:
Post a Comment