While many self taught makeup artists will assure they are the same as qualified makeup artists, it’s important to be an informed consumer and know why makeup artists like myself have gone to the effort to become qualified.
Did you know I have 2 qualifications in makeup? I first studied in 2013 and upgraded my education in 2020. Feel free to ask me more about my study.
1. There are minimum standards and lots of tests:
The qualification ensures you are getting a certain quality of makeup artist since there are minimum standards we have to adhere to to get our qualification. Like completing a makeup look in a certain amount of time and being able to reproduce looks. We get tested lots and timed as a part of every assessment and yes some students fail.
2. We learn the most up to date ways to sanitise and clean:
Qualified makeup artists learn the most up to date way to sanitise products, including cleaning brushes and general hygiene to reduce spread of disease and infections. There are certain levels of hygiene we have to follow to get our qualification. Sanitisation and cleaning standards change over the years. What you might see a Youtuber doing might be an out of date cleaning or sanitisation technique. For example, the techniques I learned in my first course in 2013 were very different to the ones I learned in 2020 during a pandemic.
3. With variety comes skill and technique:
Qualified makeup artists learn to create a varied range of makeup looks from glam, to natural and no makeup makeup looks and many more. With learning many different styles of makeup we are able to truly know how to work with makeup and develop a deep understanding of technique. This means, we are more versatile and often can overcome unforeseen obstacles easily. For example, I have learned bridal makeup, airbrush makeup, male makeup, special effects makeup including bald caps, creating beards and facial hair, to creating wounds like burns and cuts, makeup for tv and film versus theatre and all makeup looks through the decades (think of 1980s electric blue eyeshadow style,..). Many self taught makeup artists only focus on one particular style and often can't work outside of that style.