A make-up artist, also called a makeup artist, and often shortened to MUA, is an artist whose medium is the human body, applying
makeup
The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , ''asteriskos'', "little star", is a typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a heraldic star.
Computer scientists and mathematicians often voc ...
and
prosthetics
In medicine, a prosthesis (plural: prostheses; from grc, πρόσθεσις, prósthesis, addition, application, attachment), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trau ...
on others for
theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
,
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
,
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
, fashion, magazines and other similar productions including all aspects of the modeling industry. Awards given for this profession in the
entertainment industry
Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and Interest (emotion), interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have dev ...
include the
Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling
The Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling is the Academy Award given to the best achievement in makeup and hairstyling for film. Traditionally, three films have been nominated each year with exceptions in the early 1980s and 2002 when the ...
, and entertainment industry awards such as the
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
s, and the
Golden Globes
The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...
. In some countries professional licenses are required by agencies in order for them to hire the MUA. Bigger production companies have in-house makeup artists on their payroll although most MUA's generally are freelance and their times remain flexible depending on the project.
Makeup techniques
Fashion
Fashion makeup is used in magazine photography as well as on the fashion runway.
Avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
makeup is also an applicable technique used for projects that require experimental themes. Fashion makeup is also commonly used in
television
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...
and
film
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
ranging for the natural ''prime look'' to more sophisticated applications such as ''color balance''.
Theatrical makeup
Stage makeup is used as a method in conjunction with stage lighting to highlight the actors' faces in order to make expressions visible to the audience from moderate distances. This often includes defining the eyes and lips as well as the highlights and lowlights of the facial bones.
Special make-up effects (FX makeup)
upSpecial effects makeup techniques
The use of special effects techniques enhancing physical features to exhibit as well as fantasy makeup. The use of prosthetics and plaster casting are also required for projects that entails non-human appearances. Accents such as
theatrical blood
Theatrical blood, stage blood or fake blood is anything used as a substitute for blood in a theatrical or cinematic performance. For example, in the special effects industry, when a director needs to simulate an actor being shot or cut, a wide ...
and ooze are also techniques applicable to this type of makeup.
Airbrushing
An
airbrush
An airbrush is a small, air-operated tool that atomizes and sprays various media, most often paint but also ink and dye, and foundation. Spray painting developed from the airbrush and is considered to employ a type of airbrush.
History
U ...
is a small air-operated device that sprays water-based makeup by a process of nebulization. Airbrushed makeup was used in
Hollywood movies
The cinema of the United States, consisting mainly of major film studios (also known as Hollywood) along with some independent film, has had a large effect on the global film industry since the early 20th century. The dominant style of Amer ...
at least as early as the 1930s.
Monte Westmore
Montague "Monte" Westmore (22 July 1902 – 30 March 1940) was a Hollywood make-up artist, the eldest of six sons of George Westmore. He worked for both the Famous Players-Lasky studio and Selznick International Pictures. He was the head of the ...
is sometimes credited with developing the technique for ''
Gone With the Wind
Gone with the Wind most often refers to:
* Gone with the Wind (novel), ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell
* Gone with the Wind (film), ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel
Gone with the Win ...
'', but his brother
Wally
Wally may refer to:
Music
* Wally (band), British prog rock band
** ''Wally'' (album), a 1974 album by Wally
* '' La Wally'', an opera by Alfredo Catalani
Other uses
*Wally (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
*WALLY, a propos ...
was using it at least five years earlier in
Pre-Code
Pre-Code Hollywood was the brief era in the Cinema of the United States, American film industry between the widespread adoption of sound in film in 1929LaSalle (2002), p. 1. and the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code censorshi ...
films such as ''
Murder at the Vanities
''Murder at the Vanities'' is a 1934 American Pre-Code musical film based on the 1933 Broadway show with music by Victor Young. It was released by Paramount Pictures. It was directed by Mitchell Leisen, stars Victor McLaglen, Carl Brisson, Jack ...
''. It has recently been re-popularized by the advent of
HDTV
High-definition television (HD or HDTV) describes a television system which provides a substantially higher image resolution than the previous generation of technologies. The term has been used since 1936; in more recent times, it refers to the g ...
and digital photography, where the camera focuses on higher depths of detail. Liquid foundations that are high in coverage but thin in consistency are applied with the airbrush for full coverage without a heavy build-up of product.
Bridal makeup
From ethnic, glamorous, to contemporary, makeup artists are an important part of
wedding planning
A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marriage vo ...
in Asia, Europe, Africa, North and Latin America.
High definition
This is an art which involves the use of light reflectors and ingredients such as minerals to give the skin a flawless finish. This was developed due to the further development of
high definition mediums and the cost implications of airbrush makeup.
In Bollywood
In 1955 the
Bollywood
Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...
group Cine Costume Make-Up Artist & Hair Dressers' Association (CCMAA) created a rule that did not allow women to obtain memberships as makeup artists.
However, in 2014 the
Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court of India ( IAST: ) is the supreme judicial authority of India and is the highest court of the Republic of India under the constitution. It is the most senior constitutional court, has the final decision in all legal matters ...
ruled that this rule was in violation of the Indian constitutional guarantees granted under Article 14 (right to equality), 19(1)(g) (freedom to carry out any profession) and Article 21 (right to liberty).
The judges of the Supreme Court of India stated that the ban on women makeup artist members had no "rationale nexus" to the cause sought to be achieved and was "unacceptable, impermissible and inconsistent" with the constitutional rights guaranteed to the citizens.
The Court also found illegal the rule which mandated that for any artist, female or male, to work in the industry, they must have domicile status of five years in the state where they intend to work.
In 2015 it was announced that Charu Khurana had become the first woman to be registered by the Cine Costume Make-Up Artist & Hair Dressers' Association.
In June 2014, the Cine Costume Make-Up Artist & Hair Dressers' Association (CCMAA) authorised an official protest on the movie set of ''
Bang Bang!
''Bang Bang!'' is a 2014 Indian Hindi-language action comedy film directed by Siddharth Anand and written by Abbas Tyrewala, Sujoy Ghosh and Suresh Nair. Produced by Fox Star Studios, it is an official remake of the 2010 American satirical acti ...
'' in protest of a foreign makeup artist,
Daniel Bauer, working on the movie for its lead actress,
Katrina Kaif
Katrina Kaif (; born Katrina Turquotte; 16 July 1983) is a British actress who works in Hindi-language films. One of the highest-paid actresses in India, she has received accolades, including four Screen Awards and four Zee Cine Awards, in a ...
. The CCMAA and 15 of its members protested on the movie set as Daniel Bauer was not registered with the Union, despite the Union banning foreign artists working in Bollywood. The issue was resolved with the CCMAA granting Daniel Bauer full membership.
Notable make-up artists
*
Kevyn Aucoin
Kevyn James Aucoin (; February 14, 1962 – May 7, 2002) was an American make-up artist, photographer and author. In the 1990s, Aucoin was wholly responsible for the "sculpted" look of many celebrities and top models, including Whitney Houston, ...
*
Rick Baker
Richard A. Baker (born December 8, 1950), known professionally as Rick Baker, is an American retired special make-up effects creator and actor. He is mostly known for his creature designs and effects. Baker won the Academy Award for Best Makeu ...
*
Way Bandy
Way Bandy (August 9, 1941 – August 13, 1986) was an American make-up artist. During the 1970s, Bandy became one of the most well known and highest paid make-up artists in the fashion industry. Photographer and frequent collaborator France ...
*
Sir John Barnett
*
Bobbi Brown
Bobbi Brown (born in April 14, 1957) is an American professional make-up artist, author, and the founder of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics. She created ten natural-shade lipsticks which according to ''Entrepreneur'' "revolutionized the beauty industry". ...
*
Linda Cantello Linda Cantello is a British makeup artist.
Life and career
Cantello was born in Britain. She did not have any formal training in makeup artistry before she began working as a makeup artist.
She created the modern smoky eye makeup look in the early ...
*
Marco Castro
Marco Castro (born November 30, 1980) is an American, film director, screenwriter, and make-up artist.
Biography
Castro was born in Lima, Peru, of Native Peruvian and Spanish descent. He is a Filmmaker, and Creative Director. Castro’s fi ...
*
John Chambers
*
Lon Chaney
Leonidas Frank "Lon" Chaney (April 1, 1883 – August 26, 1930) was an American actor. He is regarded as one of the most versatile and powerful actors of cinema, renowned for his characterizations of tortured, often grotesque and affli ...
*
Lisa Eldridge
Lisa Eldridge (born June 1966 in Auckland, New Zealand) is an English-New Zealand make-up artist, businesswoman, author, and YouTuber. She was raised in New Zealand and then moved to Liverpool, where she settled with her family. Her professio ...
*
Nina Flowers
Jorge Luis Flores Sánchez (born February 22, 1974), better known as Nina Flowers, is a Puerto Rican drag queen, DJ, activist, professional make-up artist, and reality television personality who has been performing since 1993. He is best known ...
*
Joanne Gair
Joanne Gair (born c. 1958), nicknamed Kiwi Jo (alternatively Kiwi Joe), is a New Zealand-born and -raised make-up artist and body painter whose body paintings have been featured in the ''Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue'' from 1999 to 2017. S ...
*
Kelly Hanna Kelly Hanna (born Kelly Thackeray on January 2, 1978) is an American makeup artist and hairstylist. She is most known for her unconventional use of color and false-lash application. She is easily recognized by her outlandish hair colors and pencha ...
*
Nikkie de Jager
Nikkie de Jager-Drossaers (; born 2 March 1994), better known by her YouTube channel name NikkieTutorials, is a Dutch makeup artist and beauty vlogger. She gained online popularity in 2015 after her YouTube video "The Power of Makeup" became p ...
*
Huda Kattan
Huda Kattan (born October 2, 1983) is an American makeup artist, beauty blogger, and entrepreneur. She is the founder of the cosmetics line Huda Beauty.
Early life
Huda Kattan was born on October 2, 1983, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, as one o ...
*
Michael Maron
Michael Maron is an American makeup artist, author, beauty industry entrepreneur, photographer, and media personality known for pioneering before-and-after celebrity makeovers on live television, print and video.
Early life
Maron was born in Ne ...
*
Pat McGrath
*
Jack Pierce
*
Ve Neill
Ve Neill (born Mary Flores; 1951) is an American makeup artist. She has won three Academy Awards, for the films ''Beetlejuice'', ''Mrs. Doubtfire'' and ''Ed Wood''. She has been nominated for eight Oscars in total.
Early life
Neill recounts th ...
*
Dick Smith
*
Charlotte Tilbury
Charlotte Tilbury MBE is a British beauty entrepreneur and makeup artist. She is the founder, chairperson, president, and chief creative officer of the makeup and skincare brand Charlotte Tilbury Beauty Ltd. Tilbury is a contributing beauty edi ...
*
Gucci Westman
Gucci Westman is an American makeup artist, cosmetic designer, and founder of cosmetics line Westman Atelier. She is known for her chic and minimalistic looks, natural and dewy makeup, and clean-based lifestyle.
She is one of the BoF's 500, a ...
References
External links
Best bridal makeup artist in India
BBC Blast - Becoming a makeup artist
{{DEFAULTSORT:Make-Up Artist
Cosmetics people
Filmmaking occupations
Theatrical occupations
Stagecraft
Fashion occupations