My Story - The Beginning

Welcome to my page and here I promise to tell the truth and nothing but the truth about my experiences in the make up industry. Behind the scenes and anything that will give you an insight to my everyday work life. I have chosen to share my knowledge in hope that it will inspire others to go for what they want and anyone interested in make up. There is so much to tell and its hard to know where to start so this is the beginning of my story.

Growing up in a small town called Waterford in Ireland I knew that I wanted to be an artist. Hoping to be the next Picasso or Rembrandt my favourite artists I always painted and took part in art competitions. However with a Vietnamese background I was always urged to follow an academic path instead but no matter how hard I tried art was always my best subject. Probably because I gave it my all on every project I had, maybe if I had given as much detail to my other subjects who knows. So at the age of 12 our family moved to London and here is where my eyes opened to a lot more opportunities I never knew existed.

London is an amazing multicultural city with so much going on that anything is possible as long as you put the hours in. After studying GCSE and A'Level in art I knew it was time to take it seriously. I was encouraged by my art teachers to pursue a career in Fashion which lead me to Central Saint Martins at the age of 17 being the only one in my class to secure a place. I felt very lucky and after 3 years of studying something strange happened which was the sign in my eyes that make up was the key and what I had been searching for all along.

My last day of my project deadline was coming and as I was preparing my final sketch after working on it for 3 weeks days and nights I had taken a tea break when I heard a bang! The ceiling had come down! my work was destroyed and I had no energy left to start again so I gave up! It had given my confidence a knock and so when an opportunity came to work in PR for the summer I took the chance to try something new.

It was a chance meeting that lead me to work at a photographic studio. Here I was given a set of brushes and told to help out as they were short staff for make up and hair. Not even qualified I gave it my best shot. My best advice for myself was to just put myself in their shoes and to do what I would do if I had their face! Simple as that. Women or men just want to look good without having to try too hard. So I kept the looks simple but just enhancing their best features. I got to work on all skin types, men and women, young and old. There wasn't anything that I didn't deal with and this was the basis of my training. So here I started to get to know photographers, stylists, and other make up artists but my best experience was yet to come. In a lift a funny man who happen to be a photographer approached me and asked if I would help him on a shoot for a client. I was so excited and remember had a very small make up kit. Being a girl and follower of fashion and beauty I took everything I owned with me just in case. It was a success and after my shoot he asked me to go to Paris Couture Fashion Week to assist him backstage. Here I mingled in with the likes of Naomi Campbell, Paris Hilton, P Diddy, Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Helena Christian, Kylie, Tom Ford, and saw the likes of supermodel Natalia Vodianova, Alec Wek, Maria Carla, Gisele, Eva Herzigova careers take off. I remember my first meeting with make up artist Pat McGrath as she was smiling away backstage at Dior working her magic with the girls. My inspirations come from that show with all the diamonds and sequences on the skin and lips. It was so sparkly and beautiful I knew from that moment that this was my answer to an artistic career. It wasn't all that glamorous as I was working all day and night to hit deadlines for the papers. My job was to interview models, edit the images from backstage and catwalk, process and send them to all to the picture syndications around the world hoping to get a hit for the press the next morning. Choosing only about 10 images out of 1000 pictures is hard work. Being in the photographers pit at a show like Louis Vuitton along with sweaty and aggressive photographers was not my idea of fun and was actually scary at times. The silence of the clicks of the cameras during the catwalk show to the chaos straight after was so different I wish I had videoed it for my own amusement! There was a bond I had especially with the Italians who looked after me well and always made a point of giving me a helping hand. All the teams seem to gel like a family outside the shows and that was nice to see. But after 6 seasons of NY, Milan, London and Paris and I was getting a few grey hairs from the lack of sleep and meals I decided to give it up to concentrate on my portfolio and take the plunge to work in make up. Besides I had a head start in knowing what I was getting myself into regarding the pressures of the fashion shows. Understanding the roles in the industry is so important and to me was my training. From the designer, model, celebrity, an editor, stylist, photographer, make up artist, hair stylist,casting director, pr, agents, everyone is connected and have an important role to play and can all have an effect to each other.