Outside Work - Winchester Fashion Week

One of my main ambitions within my makeup degree is to develop myself to the ability to work as a makeup artist both within the art world but also that of high fashion and catwalk. Due to this I was fortunate enough to be chosen to participate in a local catwalk show in Winchester on the 23rd April, unfortunately this did mean missing a day of university however I felt that the experience would be valuable to me as I have never before experienced working in a high pressure environment, getting models ready for a show. 

The experience was definitely eye opening as it was very chaotic with a lot of things to be done all at once, I did however find the experience so very enjoyable and I really learnt a lot about myself too. There were four makeup artists including myself that were chosen as part of the team for the show and between us we had 10 models to get ready, 8 who needed their full makeup done and 2 for touch ups. I found that I am able to work very quickly under pressure and still to a good standard as both my models were ready within the first hour of the two hour time slot that we were given for makeup. This meant that I had time to clean my kit a little and organise myself ready for any touch ups. During the next hour things got a little manic as I was asked to touch up some of the other models makeup looks, nothing major just adjusting eyeshadow and brows so that all the models were fairly uniform. The look for the show was really simple consisting of a flawless skin and gold/brown smokey eye, because the look was so simple I think this is what aided me in being able to complete the looks so quickly. 

Once the models makeup was complete I stayed on as part of the team to help dress the models and deal with any last minute touch ups before they went on the catwalk. I must admit that trying to organise a room of 10 models all rushing around with their own agendas was a real challenge but I think that I coped well as they were rarely late to the runway were all dressed in their appropriate clothes. Overall I found the experience really enjoyable and discovered that I certainly work well under pressure, but also well in a stressful environment as despite the moods of others I remained upbeat and thoroughly enjoyed the experience of being there. Furthermore the designers were really pleased with how I worked and completed the makeup look for them and that made my job there even more worthwhile as I was doing something worthwhile for someone else's company. 

MODEL FROM THE CATWALK - GOLD SMOKEY EYE