Freelance Makeup Artist

Freelance Makeup Artists can make so much money. Who doesn't need an artist? Look around you people, artists are needed every single day for t.v. shows, magazines, photo shoots, videos, women going to interviews, holiday parties, first dates, weddings, birthdays, graduations, and the list goes on and on.

First thing is first- you must build that loyal clientele. The word of mouth can make you the most money and it is free advertisement. There are a million people who claim they know makeup-why you? what sets you apart?

You are a walking advertisement for your work every day. Show off what you got! Someone asked me at work today-Do you know how to put on lashes? That told me right off the bat that I have not advertised myself as a lash person. Advertise yourself for whatever artistry skill set you have, maybe tomorrow I will apply some falsies. If you work in makeup already, gain the respect of your peers and help them fine tune their skills. Just another way to get noticed.

Discover what type of artist you are. Do you do special effects? Drag shows? natural looks? just men? Find your niche.

If you do free shoots, make sure you are getting retouched images! I don't feel you should do any free makeup work, unless it's a career changer. For instance, I did makeup for Fashion Week 2011 for free, but it is a great thing to add to the resume. Know your worth, if you keep doing makeup for free, you are devaluing your work.

I suggest having a contract set for those of you who are hired for a specific day. This may be the most important thing. Let me share some examples:

1. My makeup artists for my bridesmaids cancelled two days before the wedding over a text. She mentioned she booked something with more money. She left me high and dry on the most important day of my life. If we had a contract, things may been different! She now claims to be a "celebrity" artists and brags about cancelling on them as well. Remember your reputation can make you or break you!

2. Two of my cousins had weddings and cancelled on me days before the wedding. One as a matter of fact, had me on stand by the day of her wedding. This contract rule has to be implemented more than ever for family members. The first cousin who cancelled had me do several days and hours of makeup trials for her wedding. I did research on pictures and videos. All my free time with no cash or tip ever handed. All this work for the next person to use all my ideas. The second cousin, actually wanted to buy my products for someone else to apply it on her (she told me this the day of the wedding).

Doing makeup is exciting because there is always something you can learn. Man, I can sit on youtube and see videos all day. Talking about Youtube, if you make videos of yourself, that actually may work against you if you want to charge your clients for tutorials. Why pay you, when did can look at your work on the internet. Be smart about how you market yourself.

Does anyone have any interesting freelance stories?