Pro Makeup Artist Kit Building Part 1

Here's the post you have been waiting for!! I have been working hard going through my kit researching and remembering how I was able to build my 1st pro kit, while sorting out what worked and didn't work for me starting out. Thinking back I remembered that it took company gratis (because I started out behind department store makeup counters & they gift employees company products) and a lot of money invested in pro quality products.

If you're planning on becoming a pro makeup artist you might as well get ready to spend your money. But with quality pro products in your kit your rates can reflect your skill level and your kit quality. I'm hoping that with my help you won't have to buy top dollar brands to build and have pro quality it. The saying goes "you got to spend money to make money" but you don't have to spend a ton of money. Just remember that having a well equipped kit will allow you to be a successful makeup artist.

If you're a student it's likely your school will provide a starter kit for your early beginnings. And if you're an artistic self starter you are going to have to start from the very bottom of the kit building process and flat out buy your own products. Either way we all have to start from somewhere, right?  To help you get started and sort of get you on the right path to pro artistry, I'll be listing and dishing all of the items needed to build a starter kit. This isn't the text book kit building list but it's universally the list of things you'll need a products that are worth saving & splurging on.

Starting out I suggest getting as many pro quality products in palette form as possible or buying "refills/single pans" and building your own palettes. Palettes save you money and kit space as far as storage goes. As your kit grows you'll see that getting palettes or downsizing/ depotting into pallets is going to be your best bet if you want to be organized and have kit space for other items to come. On top of the fact that "refills/single pans" products are less expensive to purchase.


 Makeup Brushes

Important tools to have to be a makeup artist. Don't cheat yourself out of quality trying to buy quantity. If you're in this profession for the true long haul, then your brushes should be prepared to be with you for some years. So INVEST in PRO brushes and not on  those random brush sets with a zillion brushes for all of $30. Even though my kit has brushes from great companies, I seem to prefer buying Sigma Brushes. Sigma has the same quality and standard range of brushes as the popular MAC, but they carry a more affordable price tag. I snagged this Sigma Face and Eye set for $98 from Amazon. That's about the cost of 3 MAC brushes, however, I was able to get a full set of all of the basic brushes needed to complete a makeover. Hope you can see where I'm going with this??

Eye Shadows

I suggest you shop until you have what you need, I haven't met an artist who has said "I don't need any more shadows". However, the clear and easy way to do this is to start out with a "neutrals" palette and a "colors" palette. The "neutrals" palette should be equipped to get you through a wedding or professional headshots. And well, the "colors" palette is just that a palette full of color for everything else like prom or party makeup. Once your collection starts to grow you'll then be able to organize by "shades" where you then have a palette for purples and one for browns and so on. But starting out these two palettes should do you just fine. I would suggest Coastal Scents for the"28 neutral palette" (left) and the  "smokey eye" palette (seen here on the right)

Concealers

gKeep in mind you'll need shades to match & color correct a wide range of skin tones. There are so many concealer formulas to choose from it's best to get something universal like creams to start. My advise is to get a concealer palette that has a good range of shades and mix those to create the shades you don't have in the mean time. The Coastal Scents Eclipse palette and the Cameo Quads in dark & medium are both a small staples in my kit today. Once you're ready to start building up I then suggest adding liquid concealers to give yourself a selections of textures for your clients.

Foundations

There's no way around it, you're going to need foundations. Just like with concealers you'll need a wide range of shades and formulas. The easiest way to save money and do this is to buy oil free foundations. Oil free formulas work for all skin types, however, when you get a dry skin client be sure to prep their skin with a fitting moisturizer for their dryness. Buying bottle after bottle of foundation can cost a lot and take forever to build a complete collection. Unless you have the free will to drop a few hundreds on foundations alone, you'll want to get started with the most affordable route. To help you cut corners and make it easy, I'm going to suggest what a large majority of makeup artist are currently using Graftobain HD palettes! Graftobain has made foundations easy for makeup artist with these palettes. At an average of $65 per palette it's super affordable compared to buying each shade individually in any other brand I've searched. I personally love these palettes, they contain 18 mixable shades of HD foundations that mix, apply, and read beautifully on camera and on film. A huge bonus because HD makeup is very popular in the industry now. It's my advice to start with the Warm Palette, if you can only take one for the moment, as it has the "middle" shades that covers a wide range from light to dark and can again be custom mixed to create a "missing" shade you may need. I would only start with the Neutral or Cool palettes if the majority of your clientele are of really lighter complexions.You can control the coverage by sheering them out with a mixing medium or moisturizer. If you plan on adding airbrushing to your kit they also have a airbrush foundation line as well. You can even purchase smaller sets that contain 5 HD foundations and 5 airbrush foundations together for about $36 each.

Powders

Before you go out a buy a powder in every shade, hear me out. I thought I needed a matching powder for every foundation I owned and ended up buying, collecting, and NOT using a ton of products. When it really came down to it all I really needed was my life saving HD powder. I found that I didn't really need a color powder once I got my hands on a HD powder. HD powders not only set the foundation but gives the skin a beautiful HD Camera ready finish. I love Makeup Forever's HD Powder but found my gem with ELF's HD powder. Let me just say the ELF Cosmetics is a cosmetics brand worth looking into for some great high end beauty dupes. Once you're ready to grow your kit with other selections. I suggest getting Light, Medium dark, Dark, & Deep dark from MAC's Mineralize Skinfinish Natural product line. These are great powders to have and work wonders with creating a natural finish.

 

With all of this being said, I hope this first part of this post is going to help you get on the proper pro kit building path. Remember Rome wasn't built in a day and neither was a full pro makeup kit. :) Please feel free to comment and ask questions. Be sure to check out part 2  for everything else you'll need!