#46
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[00:00:00] Hey, and welcome back to The Artist to Artist podcast. I'm Angie. I'm a full-time working makeup artist and your go-to resource for honest, practical advice that actually helps you build a career in this industry. Every week I share lessons from my own experience to help you feel more confident, better prepared, and less alone in your work as a makeup artist.
This is episode number 46, and it's all about staying grounded and staying calm when not everybody loves your work.
I know we all wanna feel like our makeup is appreciated. We want the compliments. We want people to thank us for our work. But the truth is not everybody's gonna love what we do, and that's just reality. And this happens to every single one of us. There are no exceptions to this, but what matters more is how you handle it when someone doesn't like the makeup application that you've done,
especially early in your career, it can feel like any negative feedback means you're not good enough. Your career is over. You're not cut out for this. But that is really not the truth. But learning to [00:01:00] navigate criticism and building trust in your own skills is a big part of this job that's gonna give you longevity in this career choice.
You might get a client who says nothing at all, but you can tell they are very thrilled with the makeup application or someone on set may give you a vague comment that kind of leaves you wondering like, did I mess up? Are they happy? Could I have done something different? This stuff happens. It is a bit uncomfortable, but it's not a reason to completely spiral, and it doesn't mean that you're bad at your job, it just means that you're working and you're just like.
Everybody else that is working as a makeup artist, it means that you're doing the thing and really dealing with stuff like this is the only way that you're gonna get better and more confident.
I think I have said this before on this podcast, not every look you create will be your favorite. That's definitely the case for me. I do tons of makeup applications that I'll never post about, that I, I will never talk about that. I just, you know, I'm not a big fan of, some jobs are really rushed. Some skin types are very tricky.
[00:02:00] Some requests that you get from your clients, whether it's a bridal client or. A photographer are just not your taste, and some models are just not the easiest or the best canvases to work on, and this is just part of being a working artist. Your job is to show up and do your best with what you're given and adapt, and that's.
Actually what clients remember, not whether you nailed every single winged eyeliner or your mascara application was flawless. I have had so many times where I felt unsure about a look, and the client was very happy with it. I've also had times when I thought the makeup was great and my clients gave me nothing.
No feedback at all. No thank you. I just went on with my day and that was that. And I've had a few moments where clients are not happy and I had to adjust, and clients being unhappy still happens to this day. This doesn't mean that I have failed. It just means that I listened, I adapted, I fixed whatever I needed to fix, and I kept going.
And especially when you're working with [00:03:00] bridal clients, you're working on sets. You have to keep things moving. That's part of our responsibility as a makeup artist. Things need to be done on time, and that's just what it's like to work as a makeup artist Sometimes
if you are someone who overthinks every little reaction from somebody, and I was like this a lot when I'm, when I started, I'm not like this now. I don't internalize how people react to me or my makeup application. If you are the type of person who is an overthinker, I want you to know you are not alone.
This is a very common trait that a lot of us have. That's what makes us good at our jobs. I would suggest not giving those moments where you're overthinking more power than what they deserve. If somebody is not happy with your work, ask questions, kind of dive into it head first. Stay calm, and don't assume that silence or no compliments means disapproval of your work.
And I guess the question is, how do you actually stay grounded when something like this happens, whether it's no feedback, bad feedback. [00:04:00] First of all, I think. It's important for you to have a solid sense of what your job actually is, and I think this is where social media does everybody dirty. Your job is not to be liked by everybody.
It is just to deliver camera ready makeup or makeup that fits the brief and gets done on time. Or if you're working with personal clients, you're just kind of doing the makeup that is similar to some inspiration photos that they've given to you. And that's it. And if you do that, you do your job.
If someone wants a change, that's cool, that's normal, you adjust. You don't take it personally. You can't expect to do a perfect makeup application on the first try or first pass. There's a lot of tiny details that we're not gonna catch on that are very personal to people. Um, especially with personal clients.
There's details of the makeup that you won't see until your model or talent goes to set, then you can adjust from there. So that's the first thing. Secondly, you really need to be aware of your inner critic. We all have one, and this inner critic can make us very good at our jobs, but sometimes it has the opposite effect and sometimes the feedback from that [00:05:00] inner critic is actually worse than the client feedback and.
You might say to yourself, you know, this client didn't say anything. They must hate it. Or they looked in the mirror a way you didn't think was great, or they looked in the mirror a little too long. You must have messed up. And those thoughts are not facts. I have said this a lot, especially when I do the q and as on Instagram.
Thoughts are not facts. There are stories you're telling yourself, and you have to learn to separate those from reality. And the only way to get better at doing this is by working, painting more faces, getting more feedback, seeing what actually matters to people and what doesn't. That's the only way you're gonna be able to.
Better deal with clients who don't like your work or better deal with that voice inside of you that is like, oh my God, they didn't say thank you. They don't like it. I'm terrible. I'm gonna, you know, be the worst makeup artist ever. I'm not cut out for this. So the only way to kind of harness those things in control speaking to yourself in that way, or think always thinking negatively is to actually just.
Do it more so that you get accustomed to it. That's a big thing about our job, right? A [00:06:00] lot of it is learning on the job and a lot of getting through. The more difficult emotions and feelings that we have about the work that we do is just continuing to show up and facing those feelings head on until you get more.
Adjusted to maybe people not giving you the parade that you think you deserve when you do a really beautiful makeup application or people not being happy with something that you've done.
The other thing that I wanted to point out in this episode is if you're, if you're consistently getting vague feedback or confusing feedback, and this happens to me a lot with my personal clients, it might not be you. Some people just don't know how to communicate clearly, and that's why I always recommend using mood boards and references and it, it's really one of those tools that is so easy to put together and it helps align client expectations upfront so you're not guessing later. And the reason I, I personally have a lot of clients who are very unsure is because I do quote unquote natural makeup looks, especially with my brides. I get a lot of bridal clients who do not wear makeup and are not comfortable wearing [00:07:00] makeup so they don't understand the language of makeup, and they have.
A confusion about what a natural makeup application looks like in person. So a lot of the times with these clients, it can be difficult and challenging to figure out what they want and to make them understand that sometimes what they want is more makeup than they think.
Always show up to jobs with some sort of mood boards or references that you can just pull up on your phone. This is one of the things that is gonna help you the most. Now before we wrap up, I did wanna answer some common questions that come up around this topic. These are questions that I've received during the Instagram q and as in comments on YouTube, what if I mess up the makeup? If you mess up makeup on the job, you redo it and you just say, I just need a few more minutes to tweak this. Most clients will appreciate the honesty and attention to detail. What you don't do is pretend it's perfect and just soldier on and push your talent or client out, or finish with your bridal client and say they look great.
Don't pretend it's perfect if it's not. I [00:08:00] had a bridal client, I can't remember how many weeks ago, but I was doing the makeup application and I went and did the undereye. It's usually one of the last steps that I do in the makeup application, and right away I knew that her texture on the under eyes was way drier than I had anticipated, and way more textured than I could see, even though I had prepped it and I put on.
I think it was the Nars soft mat, and that was my mistake, and it just immediately shriveled up her under eyes, so I had to take a little bit of makeup remover. I just said I wasn't happy with the undertone and I wanted her eyes to look brighter removed it. Reapplied and I knew on the spot that it was not right, and I knew that if I kept going, her under eyes were just gonna work look worse and worse.
So if you notice this, address it on the spot. Don't just push on and soldier through 'cause that stuff is really gonna come back and get you. And clients can see themselves in the mirror if things are looking really gross, they're gonna notice it. So if you mess up, fix it on the spot and don't be afraid to just remove and kind of redo.
Obviously [00:09:00] removing an entire makeup application is not something that's anybody's gonna be happy with, but little things here and there. Don't just continue on in the makeup application if you think something is wrong.
The next question I get is, what happens when you forget a product or you forget something from your kit at home? And I have done this. More times than I would like to admit, because I have sometimes separate bags that I pack as add-ons for jobs. And a lot of the times, all the bags look the same. And I maybe leave one in the car or leave one at home and I don't have time to get it.
And you know, there's products in there that would've made my life so much easier. But the reality is you are going to adapt and you're gonna carry on. And I think a lot of us don't give ourselves credit for how resourceful we can be. You will find another way. And the more you work, the better you will be at problem solving and working under pressure and working with fewer products.
So just have faith in your ability to make it work. Then the question that this entire episode is based on. What if the client doesn't like it? You just ask. Deal with it head on. What would you like to change? Is there something about the look that's not [00:10:00] working for you?
Then you listen. Remember that this is a conversation and not a personal attack. You look in the mirror and if you can tell that the client is very unsure or asking a lot of questions, give them the mirror. And don't try to just carry on with the makeup application. If they're asking a lot of questions about it, they may just need to see what you're doing to feel more calm, and as they learn to trust you, they won't have that mirror up there every two seconds.
This is, again, something you're gonna learn over time, but again, just remember, it is a discussion in terms of the changes that you wanna make. It's not an attack. It's not saying that you're a terrible makeup artist and you should never work again. It just means you guys need to work together to clarify what they're actually looking for.
This is a question that may sound simple to some of you that have already been working for a bit, but a lot of you have asked me, how do you know what the look is supposed to be when you show up to a job and. Communication before the job is gonna be important. There are gonna be some people that you will work with where you try to communicate and they give you nothing until the day of, and this is what I mean when the [00:11:00] skill to adapt and be versatile is a very important skill as a makeup artist.
This is where you really have to come prepared with those mood boards. And anytime you have downtime or you have some time off, just put mood boards together, whatever you can think of. Full glam, you know, Instagram glam, uh, natural makeup looks, makeup on, deeper skin, bold makeup. Like you, you can make a bunch of different mood boards.
You can do it by eye shape, skin tone, whatever you need to do. Just spend some time doing this so you have it on your phone. And what you wanna do is ask your client, , the questions that you need to understand what the look is supposed to be. And this could be with a producer, a photographer, a director.
It could be with a bride, a bridesmaid, mother, the bride, whatever it is. You just ask, is this what you had in mind? Is this the look we're going for? Are you looking for something like this? Asking these questions doesn't make you look unprepared because how are you supposed to know what the look is if no one has communicated it to you beforehand?
We're not psychic. We need some sort of reference to go on and photo references to help that communication. This is the only way you're gonna get on the same [00:12:00] page. We're not expected to read minds here.
We're expected to execute the vision, and sometimes the vision is not fully formed when we get to a job and we need to flush it out with the person in our chair, right? So have those mood boards prepared and don't be afraid to ask questions. It doesn't make you look like you are less prepared. Just makes you look like you are really trying to do the right thing and act like a professional.
I did mention in this episode it's all about. I guess collecting experiences that are gonna help build your confidence and make you more grounded and calm when you're on jobs where people are not really liking what you're doing or they're not communicating properly, and building this kind of mindset can be very tricky, especially if you are.
Dealing with some imposter syndrome and that imposter syndrome can sneak in on the job. It can sneak in when you're posting on social. I just wanted to call out a couple of examples of that because sometimes you need that confidence in yourself to handle criticism, and I think imposter syndrome really takes that away from us when we're out there working.
[00:13:00] Some real life examples of imposter syndrome, let's say you post a reel and it flops, no one likes it, and you delete it, and then you don't post again for months. You avoid going after better jobs because you don't think you're ready, even though your skills are pretty solid.
You start questioning your entire career choice after you are comparing your work to someone else's. Or you do have a job where someone doesn't like your work. These are all common instances of imposter syndrome, but you're not alone. Letting those thoughts run the show are gonna hold you back and they're gonna make some of the more challenging parts of our job, like handling criticism a thousand times worse than they are.
If you want to build confidence, and I think we all need to build confidence, especially in those first few years of your career. Let's get specific with it. I think practicing with intention.
Really helps to build confidence across all of the different areas of this job and across the different responsibilities that we're gonna have as a makeup artist. Practicing with intention is gonna help build that confidence up, and this could look like [00:14:00] timing yourself when you do makeup on a friend, so that you're prepared for jobs where you get to the set and they take 15, 20 minutes off your prep time.
Giving yourself mini challenges when you can like finishing a look with a certain number of products or fewer products than you normally work on. Maybe you can pick one area of focus per week, like liquid eyeliner, lash application, bold lips, and just work on that over and over. Another really good idea to help you build your confidence is to actually film yourself while doing makeup. One, you're gonna have a little bit of content there for social, but two. Watching it back, you can really see where you need to improve your makeup, and you'll get used to critiquing yourself.
Then you will expect certain critiques or understand critiques better. When you're out there working with other people. This is the stuff that is gonna help make a difference, not buying more product, not endlessly scrolling through social to look for some kind of tip that's gonna help you become a better makeup artist.
Practicing with intention is gonna help build that confidence [00:15:00] that will help you. Deal with some of the criticism that you are inevitably gonna run into on set. Now, before I wrap up this episode, I wanted to talk quickly about what's coming up in the Artist to Artist membership for June.
June is all about helping you identify those thoughts that make you feel not good enough, and replace them with habits that actually support your growth and build your confidence.
You are gonna get practical lessons. Um, I always have some sort of practical on model application lessons for you every month. Mindset tips, small shifts that are gonna help you feel more confident in your work because confidence isn't something that you can just switch on and off. It comes with time, it comes with learning, intentional practice, and of course consistency.
And if this is the kind of support that you feel you've been needing. As you know, membership, $20 Canadian a month, seven day free trial. If you wanna check it out, I will include the link to sign up in the show notes. And I think that's everything for this week. If you like this episode, make sure to subscribe to the podcast, follow me on Instagram, of course, and share this with another artist who might need to hear it.
[00:16:00] And if you want me to cover a specific topic in the future, please leave a comment on the podcast YouTube page. I check all of them all the time, and that is it. I will talk to you next week. Bye.
