Over the past week, the hashtag #FlattenTheCurve has gone viral. In an effort to contain the novel coronavirus COVID-19, people everywhere are being urged to stay at home and limit contact with others.
For those of you studying makeup artistry with an online school, your first thought might be: If I can’t be around other people, how can I get the most out of my education? Don’t I NEED to demonstrate my skills on models for my video assignments?
We have great news, though: just because you’re socially distancing right now, doesn’t mean you can’t still get the most out of your online makeup training and learn how to do makeup properly!
Tips for Maximizing Your Studies While Stuck at Home
1. Review Your Course Materials
For starters, once you’ve received your online makeup course materials, take the time to go through everything. See what awesome makeup products you’ve been given in your kit. Browse through each Unit and its corresponding materials to see how much information each Unit will be teaching.
We’re not saying you need to devote hours to this. After all, you’ll get way more thorough when the time comes that you’re actually working through the course. The goal with this step is for you to get an idea of how much work you can expect to be involved with each Unit, and the course as a whole.
2. Make a Schedule
Maybe recent events have left you at home with a LOT of free time on your hands. Maybe you’re still able to work remotely, have children to take care of, or are otherwise still pretty busy. Either way, you’ll have the best chance to excel at your coursework if you ensure to schedule specific times where you can give it your full attention.
If you’ve already taken the time to go over your course materials, as suggested in Tip #1, then you should already have a good idea of the amount of time you’ll need to devote to each Unit. You can then build on this by asking yourself the following questions:
- Do you have a goal date for when you’d like to have the entire program completed?
- With your current schedule and daily responsibilities, how much time do you realistically think you can spend on your schoolwork each week?
- From there, are you able to reserve a certain amount of time each day for your schoolwork? If not, how many days per week could you devote to your studies?
Once you’ve figured out the answers to these questions, you can create your school schedule. Determine when and how often you can realistically focus on your course. Give yourself deadlines for quizzes and assignments. Set due dates for when you’d like to have a given Unit finished and submitted.
The nice thing about online makeup school is that you can learn how to do makeup entirely at your OWN pace. You can put together a regular routine that allows you to healthily balance your course with the rest of your life and responsibilities.
Remember! You don’t have to spend tons of time on your course! If you devote only 1-2 hours per week to your studies, you can graduate from most QC courses within 3-6 months. That’s totally doable for most lifestyles!
3. Stick to Your Schedule
One fatal flaw that so many of us are guilty of is having all the right intentions and drive to get something done… only to lose that willpower and start slacking once our game plan has been put into place.
The downside to having so much freedom with online makeup school is that it becomes all too easy to procrastinate and push everything off to the last minute. As a makeup artist, you need to be self-disciplined and organized. This is especially the case if you have dreams of running your own MUA business.
The habits you establish now, as you work on your training and education, will formulate the makeup artist you’ll eventually be in the working world. You don’t want to give yourself any disadvantages by creating bad habits from the get-go!
Let us be clear: we totally understand that life doesn’t always go as planned. Things can get crazy and unpredictable sometimes. There may be instances where you aren’t able to abide by your schedule. Maybe sometimes, you’ll do more schoolwork in a given week. Maybe other times, you’ll do less.
That’s okay! So long as you keep yourself focused and start fresh the next day, we know you’ll be just fine!
4. Practice on Yourself
Yes, it’s normally encouraged that you practice your makeup skills as much as possible on someone else. This is because, as a professional makeup artist, you need to learn how to do makeup on different skin types, tones, ages, etc.
You need to gain experience working with different gender, skin conditions, and the like. If you only ever practice on yourself, you’re only getting good at putting makeup on ONE face.
Here’s the thing: right now, it isn’t exactly safe to be coming into close contact with others. For their safety, as well as your own, you definitely don’t want to be putting your hands all over other peoples’ faces.
But that doesn’t have to be as damning to your makeup education as you may think it is! It’s important to remember that while things are a little upside down in the world right now, we’re going to make it through this.
These hard times are temporary, and the time will eventually come where you’ll be able to practice as much as you want on other people.
In the meantime, you still CAN learn how to do makeup by practising solely on yourself. On top of practicing the looks and techniques being taught in your course, don’t be afraid to get creative! Play around with your products and try out as many looks as you can think of on your face.
Hey, you’re in the comfort of your own home – use it to your advantage!
5. Find Additional Ways to Get Inspired
Don’t forget either: in addition to practicing your application skills on yourself, you’re also learning a lot of other makeup essentials from your tutor. Your textbooks and course videos will educate you in things such as makeup theory and various techniques. Not only will you be reading about them; you’ll also get to also see them in action.
This lays down the fundamental groundwork that ALL makeup artists need to know if they want to not only learn how to do makeup, but do so at a professional level.
On top of this, you can soak up all sorts of wonderful, educational information through social media and other media content! Watch YouTube tutorials, browse Pinterest and Instagram. Curl up on the couch and check out the show, “Glow Up”, on Netflix. The Internet opens up a whole other world of possibilities for you to learn and get inspired!
Something else you can do is take a notebook and a pen, and brainstorm all the things you want to accomplish in your makeup career. Here are just a few questions you can consider:
- Do I want to start my own freelance makeup business, or work in a salon?
- If I want to start my own business, what could I potentially name it?
- What types of makeup artistry do I want to learn (either currently, or down the road)?
- What sort of marketing could I do?
- Do I want to have a unique niche? If so, what could that be?
- Do I gravitate more towards certain areas of makeup artistry (e.g. bridal makeup, editorial makeup, SFX makeup, airbrush makeup, etc.), or do I want to focus equally on as many areas as I can?
- Are there any other services – such as hair styling, skincare consulting, or fashion consulting – that I’d want to add to my business, in addition to makeup?
Trust us: even just ONE of these questions alone could give you hours of ideas!
More than anything, what we want you to take away from this is that just because you’re being advised to socially distance yourself and stay home for the time being, it doesn’t mean that your makeup studies have to suffer in any way! By knowing where and how to focus your energy and thirst for knowledge, you can still learn how to do makeup AND make the most out of your course!
