The dark side of make up industry or school

I found this interesting posting by a member from Cozycot Forum.
I was so upset and do not know if i should proceed to register
in a make-up school in Singapore.

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I can write a book when I come to this topic! It's a very good thing to transform you hobby into a career. A lot of us decided to be a makeup artist so that we can share our passion to other people. Unfortunatley, this industry is not as simple as a passion. It needs a lot of hard work, and luck and it's very competitive. A lot of schools would not tell you the dark side of the industry. Also, a lot of schools make use of our ignorance - they ask us to buy a lot of so-called professional products from their company to make money. We, being the non-professional, would always spend extra money because of this.

I can tell you I have been one of them. I earned very little knowledge in makeup school while I spent a fortune on it. I also found that a lot of makeup artists haven't receive *formal* training before that get famous. One way of getting into the field is by assisting makeup artists. Some also gain experience from a counter SA. Going to a makeup school is NOT a pre-requisite to a makeup artist!

However, if you really decide to go to makeup school for various reasons, choose a good one! At least, do not go to the bad ones. There are a few points for reference to distinguish the bad ones from good ones.

1. The Syllabus

There are a lot areas in makeup, e.g, straight beauty, editorial, TV/Film, Character makeup, etc etc. Each fields require *DIFFERENT* skills. A short course cannot cover all the skills. You need to learn them thoroughly in 3-4 lessons. Unfortunately, some schools see the human weakness of greed. They include everything in a short course. You can literally learn NOTHING from such a course!

2. Materials and tools

Some schools require you to buy makeup and tools from them. They tell you those outrageouly priced stuff are professional and you cannot get them else where. A lot of schools don't even tell you what you need before the course starts. That makes you have to buy from them in the lesson when you are told to have those things. Please ask the school what you will need. I remembered last time the school refused to tell me and they said that the instructor will tell me what to buy in the lesson. It ended up asking me to buy from them. The classroom would turned into a cosmetics mall everytime the lesson started!

3. The instructor

Some schools hired their fresh graduates to teach (to provide job opportunity?!). They have NO to little experience in makeup artistry at all. Moreover, a renowned makeup artists may not know how to teach as well. Celebrities makeup artist may NOT have the very good skills either. I have read from a magazine that celebrities like artists who flatter them instead of very good skills. Therefore, celebrity makeup artists maybe an advertisement only. It has not much to do with good classes.

Things you must ask when you are deciding

1. Ask them about the syllabus thoroughly. Do not choose courses that included so many things. If you are only a beginner, start with beauty and corrective makeup first. Later then you can move to media makeup and lastly, avant garde makeup.

2. Ask them what you will need for the whole course. Insist that you need to know and you know how to decide. There is so many resources online that you can refer to. If they refuse to tell you, go away and do not turn you head.

3. Also ask them who will be teaching in the class. Try and ask them if you can observe the class and ask the students as well.

Investing in a makeup course maybe a good step to your career. You want to learn and make the money worth. But please equip yourselves with knowledge of this industry. A lot of businessmen made use of our ignorance and squeeze money from our pocket.
I will talk about what you should prepare before the course commence later. Laa_cat