I trust that you all had fabulous Holidays. Like everyone, I always enter a bit of a reflective mood at the start of the New Year. Generally speaking media work is a bit slower so I have a bit of time to stop and think about what I’ve accomplished and where I want to go next. Generally speaking I split my Career resolutions up from my Personal resolutions. Since we’re all here to talk about beauty and not about how I need to wake up earlier in the morning, here are my Career Resolutions for 2010;

1 ) Get Offline and Get On The Phone! – It may sound strange, but I can become shy when it comes to talking to people on the phone. The reality of the truth, however, is that it’s incredibly important to maintain personal contact with people. At the end of the day, it’s a people business. So if you’re like me, get over your shyness and get on the phone. Plus I’m always always pleasantly surprised that people are happy to hear from me.

2 ) Do Follow Fridays on Twitter. – I’ve met so many great folks through Twitter but as the year went on I became sloppy about acknowledging my cool ‘tweeples’. I promise to be a better Tweet Citizen this year.

3 ) Post to the Blog Daily – my goal when I started this blog was to post daily, and even though it’s difficult with my work schedule, that is still my goal for 2010.

4 ) Schedule My Classes in Advance – likewise, I need to be more organized about my class offerings from this point forward. No one can take the classes if they don’t know when they’re happening…

5 ) Send Newsletters More Regularly – to both my Makeup to Go clientele and my Media clients. I get busy and forget. Regular communication is key!

6 ) Stay Inspired. Attend More Gallery Openings/Exhibits – I got really lazy about this one. I think I only went to 3 exhibits in 2009. Every time I go to one I feel inspired and invigorated so seriously… gotta do it…

7 ) Attend More Industry Functions – this is not a strong suit of mine… I’d much rather go to a party with my friends…. however I cannot ignore the reality that much business happens under the guise of “socializing” so I need to just get out there and do it. I’d probably have fun if I actually went to anything. lol

8 ) Do More Creatives – Jobs pay the bills, but creativity pays the soul. That’s an original quote

9 ) Do More Volunteer/Service – speaks for itself. There are a lot of great charities and organizations that can use the services of the Hair/Makeup/Wardrobe industry.

10) Appreciate What I Already Have – it’s easy to constantly want more, More, MORE in this industry but it’s important to take a step back and appreciate how really fortunate those of us who work in this industry are. We get to do what we love, create, meet great people, travel, learn see and do new things AND get paid pretty well for it. Not a bad gig.

But what about schools? Well, I’m not at all anti-school, I went to one for film makeup. I think for the right student, makeup school can be the next logical step in building a career. The other compelling reason, however, to do individual lessons and workshops for me was that a lot of times students aren’t 100% certain that this is the career for them, but they want to find out more about it. Studying individually with an artist will cost a student a few hundred, and a workshop will be a little bit less for one day of study. Schools are several thousand dollars and a significant time commitment. That could be an expensive experiment and has been for a lot of people. Therefore the purpose of my classes is not to at all supplant a student going to school – a lot of schools offer things that I never could – and I will give suggestions on what I think the better schools are. I consider my class to be a primer of media makeup – from how to do it to how to get working at it.

This post is intended for all the aspiring pro makeup artists in the house. Every industry has it’s trade shows and the beauty biz is no exception. Being a professional in the industry, I’ve always felt a need to attend them as often as schedule permits, if only to shop and walk around and see what’s new in makeup-landia. IBS – the International Beauty Show – services the salon professional. Being a media artist (Print, TV, Film) I never really attend IBS. However there are two shows vying for attention in my spectrum of the business; The Makeup Show (TMUS) and the International Makeup Artists Trade Show (IMATS)

A Brief History: IMATS is over 10 years old and while it started in LA it is now truly International taking place in several cities, The Makeup Show is only a couple of years old, started in NYC and 2009 was the first year it made it’s way out West to Los Angeles. IMATS was founded by a longtime Union film makeup artist and has always had the reputation for being more Film/FX oriented. The Powder Group started their show directly in response to that as a show for the beauty side of the industry. So what did I think?

The Makeup Show

PROS
• Clearly geared towards the beauty segment of media makeup.
• Good education for novice makeup artists/makeup enthusiasts. (i.e. – most of the education was on some form of “how to become a makeup artist” so if you already are a makeup artist that’s a moot point)
• Good exhibit/floor layout.
• Good selection of vendors, many of whom do not normally attend the other trade shows (lines such as Smashbox and Stila)

CONS
• Seemed to be geared far more towards makeup enthusiasts and students than working professional artists.

International Makeup Artist Trade Show

PROS
• I attended the first show when I was an assist-level artist, so I will always have a soft spot for this show.
• I bought my first pro product – Parian Spirit brush cleaner – a product I still swear by to this day
• Always has a clear professional artist attendance both as speakers/presenters and as attendees.
• This was the IMATS 12th year so logistically they’re more on-point.
• BETTER PRICING for entrance into the show, particularly for those who – like myself – just wanted to walk the exhibit floor
• Good education for a wider level of artists on a wide array of topics.

CONS
• Has also had an increasingly large non-professional attendance.
• While they had been improving, this year definitely had less exhibitors to appeal to Beauty makeup artists.
• In past years the beauty was given it’s own section, not mixed in with the FX but this year everything was jumbled back together.
• I’m going to guess the economy was a factor but certain core exhibitors were missing (Embryolisse??? Glad I got some @ TMUS), and the vendors that replaced them ranged from weird (a “clothing shield” to protect clothes from makeup during wardrobe changes that looked like a piece of cheesecloth) to ‘why on earth are they here?’(an exercise machine… yes… at a makeup trade show. ???)

All in all both shows were fine, neither were ground breaking. A friend and fellow la-based makeup artist said that she feels like the shows are generally more for students or artists who live in areas that don’t have easy access to products, etc. I think that’s true. I definitely think the shows offer more to newer artists, but old saws like myself like to get inspired too (senior artist Joanna Schlip spoke at IMATS a few years back and she was truly amazing).

Makeup to Go has undergone a number of significant changes since it’s inception and I’m excited to see where we go from here. Changing over to a Blog format website will – hopefully – allow me to keep the content fresh, lively and topical. So set a spell, won’t you? Thanks again for visiting!

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