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This is episode 56 of the Artist to Artist podcast. This is the podcast for self-taught and under-trained makeup artists who are ready to stop second guessing themselves and start showing up like pros. My name is Angie, I'm a full-time freelance makeup artist.
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And if you are tired of feeling like you're faking it until you make it, you are in the right place.
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Today we are talking about speed. And specifically, I think it's a concern that a lot of new MUA's have that if you work fast, quality goes completely out the window.
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But the hard part about this job is that it really cannot. And that is one of the most difficult lessons that you have to learn if you are wanting to work professionally as a makeup artist.
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I do wanna be very clear about something right from the start of this episode. We can never cut corners when it comes to hygiene ever. The health and safety of our clients is our primary concern or it should be anyways.
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They are putting their health in our hands. And that's really not something that we can compromise on.
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But what I also want you to understand is that speed is a non-negotiable in this industry, no matter what you hear on social or what you see in content.
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It's one of those things that
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to happen. You have to learn how to work quickly. You have to learn how to work
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pressure. It's really one of those things that only experience and a good mentor will teach you. And I'll explain a little bit more about this as we talk through this episode.
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Now, yes, in certain situations, speed does mean the quality of the work is going to suffer. I'm not oblivious to this.
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You can't give the same effort in 10 minutes that you can give in an hour, obviously.
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But the goal as a pro MUA is to find a happy medium,
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to get to a place where you can turn out a really beautiful camera-ready makeup application in a very short amount of time when you need to.
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And that's what we're gonna talk about today.
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Let me tell you when this all clicked for me.
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Early in my career, I did not assist for very long.
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I kind of came into this industry sideways. I was already fairly experienced by the time I started working professionally full-time.
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And I'd learned a lot of things, well, almost everything the hard way, mostly by myself with no mentors.
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But when I did get the chance to watch more senior artists work, whether I was just assisting or observing on set, it was very eye-opening.
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I remember watching these seasoned pros work fast, like really fast.
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And I was bracing myself,
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actually, I should say I was looking forward to
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looking at these makeup applications and seeing them look sloppy or just not great.
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But of course it did not. It looked just as good as when I had seen these artists work with double the time.
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Sometimes it looked better because they weren't overworking the makeup, because that can happen as well.
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And that was the moment I realized that speed is not my enemy. Speed is a skill that I need to very quickly acquire.
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But it's also intimidating, right? Because when you're new, you're thinking how the hell are they doing that? What am I missing?
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And that is truly one of the reasons why I started the Artist to Artist membership,
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because I didn't have proper mentors. I didn't have someone breaking down how to work fast without sacrificing quality.
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had to figure it out on my own and I know how hard it is.
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And it would have just helped if I was able to see artists that I was looking up to or that who were regularly employed work. That's it, just watch them do their thing.
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And I know a lot of you listening do not have access to mentors, whether it's because of cost or proximity or you just don't know where to find them.
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So if that's you, I want this episode to be that kind of moment for you. The moment you realize that
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fast doesn't mean working badly. You're probably not as slow as you think. And you probably just need to see someone who works as a pro full-time
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with more experience
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to show you
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these makeup applications look and to show you how they work.
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The other thing we have to talk about when it comes to working quickly as an artist, the pressure,
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I am by nature a people pleaser. I think a lot of us are, I always have been.
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I always wanted to make sure I was delivering the best I could do in the time that I had for my clients. And here's what happened as I got more experience.
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The timelines did not get longer. In fact, they got shorter because the expectation was
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that I was a seasoned makeup artist. I could do things faster and I would just know what to do. And that is the reality of this job.
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The better you get, the faster you're expected to be.
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Is it right? No, but is that just the way it is? Yes.
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So you have a choice.
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You can either resist that and feel stressed and overwhelmed every single time you're on a tight timeline, which is gonna happen a lot. Or you can learn how to work fast without compromising your standards.
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We should talk about, I think, the myths around working quickly.
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I see these online a lot. It's a
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big pet peeve of mine.
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The first myth is that speed is not necessary. I see content online that almost
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looking down on artists who work quickly. Like it's somehow less artistic, less thoughtful,
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less of a service.
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But here's the thing, speed is just part of the job, whether you like it or not.
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Even the best planned jobs go off the rails. Timelines change, clients run late, things happen.
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Clients and talent go to the wrong address. Their alarm doesn't go off.
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The second myth is that working fast means cutting corners. And you're probably hearing this being like, Angie, of course you're cutting corners when you're working fast.
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But I want you to kind of think about what I'm saying here.
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So people think that if
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working fast,
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you are gonna do a terrible job.
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But that's not what working fast for us is about. Working quickly is about efficiency and reducing friction in the process of your application.
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It's only about
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what really needs to be done on the job and having the experience to know what that is and also having the experience to know
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how what you've done is gonna look on camera
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and making sure that what you're doing is going to translate and
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a positive outcome for your client based on what they're asking you to do.
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You may need to play that back to hear that again.
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but speed is not only about
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out steps
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that will eventually result in the makeup looking terrible. It's
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about skipping hygiene. It's just about having systems in place.
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So I'll repeat it again. Speed is really about reducing friction in your process and it's about only doing what really needs to be done for the job and knowing what that is.
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Myth number three, you need a million products and a hundred step routine to do good makeup. This one also drives me crazy. You don't need a massive kit. You don't need to follow every single trend. You need products that work for you that fit your workflow and that allow you to work both quickly and hygienically.
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And that's a big part of what we're talking about today.
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And speaking of hygiene, I will be honest with you, there is a massive gap in hygiene education in our industry.
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And I think part of the problem is that we see so much content online where hygiene
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isn't prioritized.
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You are taking the word of people that you look up to and follow as being truth when it comes to hygiene.
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We see things like artists washing and reusing sponges, gross,
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we see products and practices that you just can't do hygienically, but they look good on camera so people think it's fine.
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And I get it. And we don't know entire situations when we see 30 seconds of an application online.
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people are gifting the product. So let's just make that clear. But if you're building a career, you need to take this seriously, not just because it is the right thing to do, but also because it protects you and your clients.
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And the good news, dun dun dun dun, you can work fast and stay hygienic, but it requires being intentional about the products that you use and the systems that you build around your makeup application.
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So let's talk about what actually helps you work fast and also keep those hygiene standards up.
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the first thing you wanna do, easiest thing, choose multipurpose products that can be applied hygienically.
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Scrape, pump, spray. For me, this was a game changer. I started looking for products that could do multiple things, but that I could also use cleanly. Things like Danessa Myrick's Color Fix,
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You can work hygienically because you're not dipping back into the product.
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It's fast because you can just squeeze it onto a palette, apply and move on.
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you can eliminate lip liners, eyeliners and a bunch of other stuff by finding versatile options that actually work for your workflow.
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said this just a few minutes ago, using systems in your application that reduce friction and this can mean a lot of different things.
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an example for me, I use the cotton pad method for eyeshadow and all of my powders. So instead of working directly from a palette, I swatch all the shadows I need onto a cotton pad. Then I just hold up the pad to the client's face and work from there. I kind of use it as a palette. It's faster, it's cleaner and it keeps my rhythm going. Another example using disposables.
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If you're still trying to reuse sponges or clean brushes mid job, you are wasting time and energy and it's not hygienic. So you wanna build a system and a station setup where you have enough
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and the right disposables to help you work cleanly without really stopping.
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This is the biggest one for me, buy products that work to your standards. Do not let social media dictate what is in your kit. Please stop doing this.
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Don't buy products just because they're trending or because an influencer is using them. Buy products that fit into your workflow and meet your hygiene standards.
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Go in person, look at products, test them. Really get to know the products that you're investing in. Products are expensive now and you don't have money to waste. You also don't have time to waste.
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So for me, that means products I can de-pot, products that are
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to work with in a hygienic way. So a lot of scraping onto pallets, squeeze tubes, things like that. And products that allow me to work quickly without cross-contaminating. So I'm looking for pigment. I'm looking for ease of application. I'm not just blindly picking up things that are going viral online or picking up things that are a new release or that a celebrity swears by. That you need to stop doing.
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You
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have permission to work the way that works for you. You do not have to follow a 20 step routine. You don't have to use every product you see online. You don't have to sacrifice hygiene to be fast and you don't have to sacrifice speed to be clean.
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Inside the membership, I show you everything I do. You can watch me work on real clients, on real jobs, and see exactly how my applications look when they're done. Quickly,
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have things go wrong, when I'm working under tight timelines. I do not retouch any of the images or videos in the membership at all.
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I want to show you that you can be profitable without a 100 step routine. You can be professional without a kid full of a million products. You can work fast and still prioritize your client's health and safety and produce makeup applications that are gonna be up to your client's standards.
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But all of this requires being intentional. It requires choosing the right products.
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It requires giving yourself permission to do things differently than what you see online.
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Before we finish up this episode today, I always like to leave you with something that you can take away. So I'm gonna go ahead and do a quick review and take away. So once you're done listening to this episode, or maybe while you're listening to this episode, look at your kit, think about your process, and ask yourself what is slowing me down?
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Now this might not be obvious, but I'm just looking for you to have some self-awareness.
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I am someone that gets frustrated very easily and I'm very impatient. So when
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working on my clients or talent or I'm on set, if I feel like something is taking me too long, I can feel it internally, it makes me uncomfortable. If I feel like I'm searching too long for something or I'm moving in a way that isn't comfortable, I am so aware of these things because of the type of person that I am. That's usually a sign
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me to look at that portion of the application a little bit closer. Is it a product? Is it my setup? What is it that's annoying me? And that's how I develop systems and routine and application workflow that allows me to work efficiently.
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when you're out there working, do the same thing. Is it products that are just not working hygienically or not working well for you? Is it a routine for application that's just too complicated but you don't know what to skip or leave out?
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Is it trying to follow something you see online instead of just actually what's working for you in that moment with the person you have in your chair?
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Just be aware of these things and try to make your life easier where you can. And maybe that means swapping out a product for something more versatile. Maybe it means switching to disposables instead of trying to keep cleaning off the same spatula
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a hundred times in your application. Maybe it means giving yourself permission to just skip a step that doesn't actually matter for the job you're doing. Do you need three serums and a moisturizer? Probably not. Start there and then build from that.
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And if you wanna see what I'm doing, how I work fast, if you wanna learn a little bit more about hygiene, if you wanna learn about the systems for me that actually make working fast possible on the jobs that I'm hired for, that's what we're doing inside the Artist to Artist membership this month. October is all about speed and on the job workflow. We're talking about the mindset shifts that let you move faster without feeling rushed, how to choose products that support your workflow, how to troubleshoot on the fly, and of course how to deal with clients when you are working under pressure.
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Also every month in the membership there is a monthly challenge. This month it's the three by 30 speed drill where I'm asking you to do three-timed makeup applications and reflect on what's actually slowing you down.
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And of course when you share these applications, it's not mandatory, but if you do, you can bounce some things off me and I'll try to help you through your process. This challenge is not to stress you out, but it's here to help you see where opportunities are in your process to get you working a little faster.
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of feeling slow or if you're tired of second guessing yourself on jobs, come and try the membership free for seven days, come and hang out with me.
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And you can see if it's a good fit.
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If you feel like this episode was helpful for you, please share it with another artist. Thank you so much for listening and I will see you on the next one.
