Q&A (YOU ASK, I ANSWER) MAKEUP ARTIST CAREER

Welcome to my Q&A corner. This column is dedicated solemnly to you. Here I will answer all of your questions and requests.
Let's begin!

Q: I'm glad I found your blog!
I saw your makeup work on your website. For how long have you been a makeup artist? I'd like to get into the makeup artistry industry, any advice?

A: I'm glad you glad!
Thanks for visiting my website. Everybody out there who hasn't, visit sophie-ono.com

I have been doing makeup professionally since 2006. But my passion really started when I was 13. When I moved from Italy to Japan I discovered and soon fell in love with Japanese fashion magazines. They featured the latest trends, my favorite pages were the one dedicated to makeup tutorials. I would literally lock myself in my room trying to recreate the look I enjoyed the most. When I was 15 I left home to attend a boarding school in the States. There I started applying makeup on my dorm mates before big school dance events. I had a lot of fun but had no idea one could make a living out of it.

I was studying graphic design in college, when it suddenly hit me – I wanted to extend my artistry from screen monitors to real faces! So I did. I threw myself out there, and started testing right away. I had no idea what I was doing. It was a bit scary at first. But I learned from my mistakes. I also took a makeup classes. Today I’m still learning, it’s an ongoing process, there’s always room to learn.

I’ve been lucky to have worked on sets of TV shows, fashion photoshoots and to have collaborated with many talented people. My journey has just began and I’m looking forward to the future.

My advice for aspiring makeup artists would be if you genuinely love what you do not to get discourage, this is a very competitive field. It requires lots of talent, determination, professionalism, hard work and networking. Test, test, test cannot stress that enough. Work toward building your portfolio. It’s very important that you train your eyes. Go to Barns and Nobles invest time going through various fashion magazine or fashion photography books. Go online research makeup artists you look up to, read their bio, follow their work and assist them. You can learn a lot from them. Make sure to be a good assistant. You are there to assist NOT to do your own networking and handing business cards around. Be clean, make sure your work place, work tools and hands are sanitized, I tend to stay away from gossips, be professional at all times.

Hope these little tips will help!