Freelance 101 - Presentation.

Hi loves! This post is going to be all about presentation. How you present yourself and your work is very important, especially in a presentation based industry.

Appearence: 
When doing someone's make-up you have to think of a few things when choosing your outfit regarding practicality. You need to make sure that you can freely move in your outfit, that the neck-line isn't too low (I mean, i'm sure you don't want your boobs swinging around in your clients face) and colour! Especially if you're doing a bridal, you might be in the background of 'behind the scenes' shots and you don't want to take the attention away from your gorgeous bride by wearing a neon pink top. I tend to stick to black personally, this could be because of my admiration for the MAC counter or down to the fact that my wardrobe is 98% black garments.

When going to do someone's make-up you don't have to have a full face of make-up on though, I mean, they've booked you for a reason you don't have to prove yourself. Personally I at-least always wear a little bit (brows, concealer, foundation, bronzer and mascara) just to look put together but no one will shoot you if you show up with no make-up, it's what you can do to their face that matters. My blogpost, Make a Statement In a Rush, is the perfect example of the quick, simple but put together look I aim for.

Yourself:

This goes without saying but you need to be polite and kind. You are representing your business when you are on your freelance duties so your manners are important. Even if you do amazing make-up, if you're rude and up yourself you will not be booked again. The relationships you build and maintain with your clients are the most important remember that!

Sorry for the delay on this post lovelies, I've had a jam-packed week full of work, enrolment at college and freelances! Hope you enjoy your bank holiday Monday.
- Charleigh xo

How to: Clean your falsies.

Have you ever took your false lashes off at the end of the day and thought 're-usable? You have got to be joking?'. Wearing falsies isn't a cheap habit to have, even the least expensive ones can mount up in price if you wear them often. Putting junk and gunk back on to your eye will send a shiver down your back but with this easy, pretty quick method you can get your falises back to brand new!

For this you will need:
Your dirty lashes,
Q-tips,
Disposable mascara wands (if necessary)
Tweezers,
Kitchen roll,
Rubbing alcohol.

First, take your tweezers and carefully pull off any glue left on the lash band. If you use a lot of glue it will come off in strips, if you're like me and don't like to use much then you will have to keep picking. Be careful on this part, you don't want to dismember your lash and pluck out lashes. Below you can see the glue being removed from the lash:

The next step is to saturate a Q-tip in rubbing alcohol and rub it along the lash band. This disinfects the lash band and also cleans off any excess dirt/make-up. Shown below is the aftermath of this step. I apologise for the fact that the photos not that clear but you can see the lovely clean lash and dirt on the Q-tip.
If you've only just found this and you've warn your lashes more than once or twice you might have a build up of mascara over the lashes themselves, to get rid of this spray rubbing alcohol on your disposable mascara wand and run it through the lashes with the lash on the kitchen roll.

Shown above is the transformation. The photo's arn't the best (sorry guys!) but you can see a thick layer of glue and dirt along the lash-band in the first photo and a nice, clean lash-band on the bottom photo.

Let me know if you try this and how it works for you!
Charleigh xo.

Freelance 101 - The Kit.

Hiya loves, last time we covered the basics elements to starting up your freelance make-up artistry, ranging from photos to basic advertisement. This post is going to be all about your kit, so brace yourselves for a long one (probably best to put the kettle on and grab some biscuits).

Brushes:

The one thing that I think you can absolutely not cut corners with is brushes. You can start with lower budget palettes and concealers ect but with the right brushes still achieve a desirable effect. However, having high-brand make-up means nothing when you have sloppy, cheap tools that won't do that job. Do your research, read reviews like your life depends on it! You wont regret it. Personally I used a mix of mainly Zoeva (holy grail, cheap and their sets are life. The website IS in German but my laptop translates that for me. Also sold on BeautyBay) and MAC (more expensive but the quality is there and they will last you for years) with a few random brands chucked in (Real Techniques, Eco Tools and Urban Decay). I am hoping to reach out and buy some Sigma brushes too. 

A brush belt makes you look professional and is SO much easier to use, don't bother splurging on this as a cheapy one from Amazon will do. Mines cheap, sturdy and has served my well! 

Hygiene: 

This is so important and many people who are just starting out, especially as self-taught, may not know and/or understand about the importance of hygiene, I know I had to go to the depths of youtube to find out about the more technical hygiene based around products and not just simple brush cleaning. This is the best video I have found so far on how to clean the products in your kit, honestly watch it, fave it and refer back to it often! As far as brushes are concerned, you have to clean them between clients. This means that you will need a fast drying brush cleaner, Cinema Secrets has a good one and you can buy it in a massive bottle so you wont have to worry about buying again for a while but you do have to order that online. More readily available is the one I use, the MAC brush cleanser. This cleans your brushes, leaves them bacteria free and dries almost instantly (a minute at most for a big brush) AND it counts for Back 2 MAC - holla at ya girl! Every night before a freelance you need to deep clean your babies, you can either buy special stuff online or use my home-made, already have the ingredients at home cleaner. Anti-bacterial washing up liquid deep cleans the brush, getting rid of any dirt and bacteria whilst the oil conditions and leaves your brushes soft.

~ home-made wash recipe ~
1 part washing up liquid (anti-bacterial)
2 parts sunflower oil.
(1 part = one tablespoon) 

Make-up:

Obviously, make-up will be a staple in your kit. You need to make sure that you have: Foundation/concealer for all skin colours (light, medium and dark to mix or a palette), Eyeshadow (of all colours), Eyeliner, Mascara, Falsies, Powder (Translucent or coloured), Blush, Bronzer, Contour powder, Highlighter, Lipstick, Lip liner, Lip gloss (clear will go with everything), Eyebrow products (powder, gel, pencil ect), Setting spray.

Palettes-a-plenty:

Forget diamonds, palettes are a girls best friend. Single shadows? heavy. 10 pots of foundation? breaking your back (and bank!), what's the solution? PALETTES. When you're just starting out if you're on a budget Coastal Scents or BHCosmetics do fantasic colours and neautral palettes (I still use my 120 BH one for if some fun client asks for blue). Morphe is a little more expensive but the quality is much better than the others (nothing wrong with the others though, that's not what i'm saying). They all offer brushes, brush sets (do your research, though. Morphe are the only brushes i'd trust for my kit out of these), eye palettes and blush palettes. The shipping to the UK is a little pricey but if you buy a few things it makes it all worth it and still less expensive than MAC ect. I'd say that the basics would be:
A foundation palette,
A colour eyeshadow palette,
A neautral eyeshadow palette,
A blush palette,
A contour palette.

This shrinks your kit size, weight and money spent if you're starting from scratch. You can incorperate some personal faves like Urban Decay Naked, custom MAC palettes (for founation, blushes, lip colours or eyeshadows ect) or Too faced ect. This isnt to say you can't pop some of your favourite singles in, i always do! It's just a great starting place.

Extras:
There's a few things that are always handy to have in your kit that arn't make-up. It's a few extra bob spent but it will save your ass at one time or another!

Hand Sanitizer: Saves the risk of provention, puts the client at ease about germs and makes you look like a professional
Q-Tips: Great for getting rid of a mistake due to the pesky liner or mascara.
Disposable Mascara Wands: If you don't want to sit and sanitize your mascara wand before and after every dip into the mascara (the product wastage of this makes my heart cry) then invest in some disposable mascara wants (new one per dip!)
Prep: Skin prep such as moisturizer, oil-creme (for oily people), colour correctors and primers will make your application apply smoother and last longer.
Mini Scissors: For customising the lash length to fit your clients eyes, it's so much less fuss than using clunky kitchen scissors.
Pencil Sharpener: self explanatory.
Spatula and Mixing Palette: The easiest, least messy and more precise way to mix and warm up cream and liquid products.

PHEW! That's a lot of contents, I hope you havn't fallen asleep on me! Next post will be up on Presentation, look out for that next week. If you have any questions about this or any suggestions for what you want me to write about within this series (or in general) just comment and let me know!
Would you guys be interested in reading my personal favourites for my kit? Let me know :)
Charleigh xo.

Freelance 101 - Starting up.

Hiya guys, i'm going to touch upon a subject that is apart of my daily routine - freelance make-up artistry. Trying to start up in this industry can be daunting and with so many things to take into consideration it can be rather overwhelming. Stress no more as I am going to be giving you some tips and pointers on how to start up your freelance artistry and how to improve/maintain your reputation!

Ofcourse i'm not going to sit here and tell you i'm the best, that I know everything and that where I am is what you're aiming for because that would all be a lie. However, I am at a point where i'm taking regular bookings and have returning, loyal, customers and a growing clientele base. I'm sharing with you the tips and tricks i've picked up along the way, i'm not at the end of my journey, I am at a stepping stone and i'm mighty proud of myself for all ive achieved so far.

1. Exposure - One of the most important parts of starting up is getting the exposure you need to build up a clientele! I suggest starting up a facebook page with the term 'make-up artist' or 'MUA'. This optimises your advertising audience as if for instance somebody searches for your services 'Sally Make-up and beauty' will appear higher than just 'Sally Beauty'. Instagram is another crucial social media platform and I highly suggest making a separate account again, with the key words of your services in your name or description. A separate account appears more professional and will appeal to everyone where as you will encounter people who don't care about what you had for dinner and only care about how 'fleek' your eyebrows are.

2. Your work - Once you have your social media platforms you're going to need something to share. Anything around the subject of your passion/interest is perfect whether that be make-up on yourself, photos of your make-up collection and most importantly photo's of your work on others. It's important to make sure that your images are clear and of a good quality (i'm not talking about expensive camera good, your phone will do but a good image is key). On Instagram using #hashtags will really maximize your audience - so go crazy!


3. Seriously though, photo's of your work - It's so important to showcase what you can do, there's no point in saying 'I'm a make-up artist, book me for your wedding' if you have no way to prove how good you are and what you can do. Good shots should be clear, of a good camera quality so it's not blurry or grainy. If you need to you CAN edit your photos BUT not airbrush them. A quick tweak on sharpness, contract ect can help show the true colours but blurring skin on clients is sort of un-true of your skills.

That's it for the first instalment of my 'Freelance 101' series. Over the next few weeks I will be hitting you with tips that i've learnt over my course of time to help you little diamonds make it in the make-up industry. I will be covering everything from your presentation, make-up techniques and how to build up a portfolio. Any questions, suggestions or any topic you'd like me to touch upon please let me know!

Hope you enjoyed it dolls,
Charleigh xo

Make a statement in a rush!

Late night? Maybe a few too many cocktails? We've all been there. If you're running short of time and hit your snooze button far too many times and want that 'in a rush glam' look then look no further. Lets take a peek...

Simple yet elegant this look screams 'i'm completely put together' even if you're totally not on the inside! The dark lips add personality and combined with the bold brow adds an 'I know how to apply make-up' edge which creates the illusion of time being spent on the look.

 My favourite dark lip combo has got to be Currant lip liner from MAC cosmetics paired with Hang Up lipstick also by MAC. This is a gorgeous dark, but sheer, purple that looks gorgeous over darker lip liners. The colour they create can only be described as Rebel lipsticks older, fun cousin. The lipstick has this gorgeous cremesheen finish that looks glossy and super succulent on the lips.

Other details:
Foundation - MAC Studio Fix Fluid
Concealer - Urban Decay Naked Skin Concealer
Brows - Anastasia B.H Dipbrow in Dark Brown (who would of thought)
Contour/Bronze - Anastasia B.H Contour Kit in Light

Highlight - MAC Soft & Gentle
Then just bathe in FIX +!

Charleigh xo