London Muse - 2 week foundation/advanced course

For the last 2 weeks I have been on an intensive make up course at London Muse make up school at Russell Square, London. I had previously done a short course at another school, worked in the beauty industry and done the odd make up job here and there including family and friends. However I decided last year that I wanted to pursue a career in make up artistry and wanted to take the right steps in starting that journey. After researching many schools online I came across London Muse and when I received excellent information and friendly emails from Antonia who deals with booking and student care, I knew that this was the school for me. I live just outside London so this 13 day course would include a lot of travelling and early mornings but my passion and drive was there to succeed in becoming a make up artist.

On the first day I finally met Antonia who I had exchanged many emails with and she introduced us to the course. Then I met Nicci Jackson, a professional make up artist who has been in the industry over 20 years. I had researched Nicci before the course and her work is truly inspirational. I assumed that Nicci would be coming and going whilst other tutors would teach the course however Nicci was our full time tutor and only on odd days did we have a guest tutor. This was a great surprise to me because many professional make up artists put their names to a school, but rarely teach themselves. Nicci's lovely assistants Diana and Josie were always on hand too. The class was small with 8 students for the first week and 6 continuing onto the second advanced week. This small sized class meant that we often had one on one training and quickly became a close knit group of friends :)

I learnt so many skills during this course including studying facial geometry, skin types, skin tones, smokey eyes, glamour make up, precision work including lips and eyeliners, ageing the skin using makeup and much much more. The class was perfect for beginners and those with a little more experience because despite being a beauty addict and doing creative looks on myself, I found that I knew little about the basics of make up and found that applying to others is a challenge in itself! 

Nicci's contour and highlight demo on Masha

Finished look!

Nicci's smokey eye demo on Lauren

We love Teddy liner by MAC!

There were many emotional times during the course because we all found that we had weaknesses in certain areas and Nicci was a very honest tutor who didn't shy away from pointing out our mistakes. However it was this honesty which gave us the inspiration to become better and any improvements were praised and therefore our confidence grew day by day. We were supported and inspired by other working artists such as Yannick and Franco who demonstrated their work for us and past students Lauren, Thom, Alex and Vicky who showed us their creative talents and have all had great success since leaving the course working for various companies or freelance within the industry. 

Franco creating a glamour look on Josie

Yannick demonstrating a smokey eye technique with glitter

Nicci's creative catwalk look on Josie

Included in the course was a website start up so that we can begin to upload images of work we do and network with other artists and clients. The last day of the 2 week course included a professional photoshoot with photographer Joel Anderson and professional models and stylists which was the perfect end to a rollercoaster ride of a course! I am now waiting to receive to retouched images and a selection of untouched images for my portfolio and cannot wait to see them and share them with you!

Here are some of the looks I created over the two weeks:

 I would highly recommend this course to anyone who is considering a career in make up artistry as I have learnt so much about myself as an individual and an artist and have made some wonderful friendships along the way :)

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