5 Things to Do after your Make-up Course in Singapore

You’ve done it! You’ve finished a long and extensive professional hair and make-up course in Singapore, paid thousands in school fees and have a kit to be proud of. After you’ve attained your certificate and diploma, what do we do now? Here’s our top tips that you can start to do after you’ve finished your make-up course in Singapore.

#1 Build your Portfolio

The first thing we always recommend is to start by building a portfolio of images that will be necessary to show potential clients and brides your work. You can choose a platform to showcase but the one we suggest the most has to be Instagram especially if you’re a make-up artist in Singapore as most potential clients find artists on IG.

Here’s my portfolio.

#2 Test Shoots and Collaborations

Sometimes your portfolio needs some professional shots to showcase your work and hiring your own models and photographers and creating the shoot is too expensive to do often. What most people in the industry do is they collaborate to do what is called a test shoot. The photographer normally has a concept in mind and will hire the studio and model on his behalf. But, of course they need a make-up artist and that’s where you come in. The catch is that everyone works for free but in the end you will get a killer shot that you can add to your portfolio.

On a personal note, when I was just starting out, I did so many of these test shoots. I did about 2-3 per week as I devoted myself to my make-up career. The more pictures I got, the more my friends and family (the first customers normally) got to see my work and the more experience I got doing more faces. It’s much better than waiting for your customers to come to you. The shots also attracted other clients like blog shop owners and small businesses. When you feel like you’re not doing much at all, it’s go out there and get it done.

The hardest part of this would be to start making connections. Not everyone will work with you especially when you’re just starting out and you don’t have many images to start with. That’s why when I designed my Bloom Pro Artist Course, I made sure to include a professional photoshoot so that my students could have at least one professional image on their portfolio. My top tip to do this – make friends, not connections. Follow your favourite photographers and connect with them through social media, DM them and offer your services for any collaborations or test shoots and that you’ve graduated from our course. It’s exactly what I did.

Many years ago, when I just started out I had nowhere to go and it was insanely hard to find connections. I joined quite a sketchy platform called Model Mayhem (sketchy back then, not sure now) but I’m thankful for that since Instagram wasn’t very big yet. I went through countless photographer profiles and chose my favourite ones and then I messaged them. After introducing myself, I showed them the professional shots I did from my course and that I was willing to collaborate. Some replied, but most didn’t but I’m grateful to the ones who gave me a chance. It gets easier over time because you have more shots to show.

At the end of the day, you’re creating your own business. Knowing how to market yourself and your business is going to be the biggest advantage in your career.

#3 Post More on your Platform

You got to post more! A lot of my students in the course are scared to create their own instagram account for their new make-up artist business but it is extremely essential. Not only do you have to create a great one, you need to family to follow you first and get active on social media. Don’t know what to post, here’s a great list:

1. Shoots from collaborations or test shoots
2. Make-up and hair shots from doing your family member or friend’s make-up
3. Your favourite products or tips
4. Your daily life (this is important too!)

#4 Hone your Skills

You’ll find that make-up and hair is a constant journey of improvement. There’s always room for improvement and one of the biggest things you can do is to build a larger library of skills after your make-up course in Singapore. If you ask any make-up artist, they have never stopped at one course. I’ve personally taken many smaller courses after my first foundational course and I’ve added so much to my existing knowledge. Keep learning.

#5 Let Everyone Know

You have to let as many people know as possible now that you do make-up. Let everyone know – your mum, your mum’s friend, your mum’s friend’s neighbour and everyone on your facebook and instagram. Surely your family and friends are always the first to be your customer.

I hope you found this very useful and a hearty congratulations to you if you’ve just finished your course. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me and I will be happy to answer them at @roseannetangrs @bloomproacademy.

Love, Roseanne
Founder at Bloom Pro Academy and Head Trainer