Wave: Brighton Makeup School

Brighton Makeup School director Lucy Blake tells us how to get all of the tricks of the trade

What is Brighton Makeup School? 
At the Brighton Makeup School we offer a wide range of accredited make up artistry and hair courses, as well as advanced makeup, body/face painting and henna tattoo. We offer courses on weekdays, evenings and Saturdays to try to cater to all groups and people and meet their work/study schedules. You can take courses that are one day long, one week, and for those wishing to study more in-depth and learn a huge varied mix of techniques – 3 & 4 week Master Diplomas.

Each course includes manuals, handouts and the three and four week courses include a starter Kryolan makeup kit. We often get in makeup jobs and work experience such as for photo shoots, work assisting on short films, fashion shows, calender shoots and more. We have been collaborating with Bobbi Brown Brighton, where they lay on a fabulous evening only for our students who get to learn Bobbi Brown techniques, get a get generous discount at the event and apply for a Pro student discount card.

We also offer a BMU Pro discount card to our makeup shop, free for all our students, which gets them discounts off all products, books, equipment and discounts off future courses. This card is also available to those working in the makeup/hair industry to purchase.

This September we are starting transgender makeup classes one evening a week for five weeks, which will be a series of makeup classes teaching how to apply all sorts of makeup and cover ‘stubble’ etc, as well as a social evening for people to get together, swap ideas and feel comfortable in an environment with other transgender people. We also offer workshops which can be 1 on 1 in makeup or hair, or in groups.

Plus, we offer make over parties for all ages, hen parties and brand new workshop parties for either birthdays, hen do’s, work corporate team building events or fun!

To find out more contact the Brighton Makeup Company at
2 George Street, Brighton, BN2 1RH, 07951 954963 info@brightonmakeupschool.co.uk
www.brightonmakeupschool.co.uk

Lucy’s story
I first got interested in makeup whilst at the BRIT School. As well as training in performing arts we learnt about all aspects of the industry which included makeup. I then trained as a Make Up Artist in London, where I’m from – over 16 years ago in Westminster. My year-long course covered TV makeup, photographic, special effects, hair styling, face and body painting and theatrical, and was a fantastic grounding for learning about all aspects of makeup and the makeup industry.

I then started my makeup career working freelance and for an agency in television with jobs for the BBC and Channel 5 and photographic work, whilst also working in front of the camera sometimes doing small acting jobs for TV and adverts, and also working as a casting assistant – both of which were great experiences & allowed me to learn a lot about the industries.

I continued working freelance whilst starting a family and we moved to New Zealand with our then one-year-old son where I worked as a presenter on a cooking show for a channel similar to Latest TV, appeared in a play, and continued working doing makeup jobs – oh! – and had baby no.2! We returned to the UK and moved to Brighton (where baby no.3 arrived!), which we have called home for ten and a half years now.

After continuing freelance makeup work and training as a beauty therapist I started to teach as I felt by then I had many years of experience in makeup, the industry, and wanted to teach other aspiring makeup artists to help fulfil their dreams.

I took over Brighton Makeup School over two years ago as director and have been busy running and expanding the school ever since whilst continuing to fit in freelance work (and baby no.4 arrived last year!). We moved to our venue in Kemp Town last December and added our pro shop stocking Kryolan, makeup books, cases, brushes, glitter, airbrush makeup and lots more that both the pro and amateur makeup artist needs. At the school all of our teachers are freelance and working makeup and hair artists, which keeps all the teaching and techniques up-to-date and relevant. We are so excited that our newest teacher is a celebrity, red carpet and Paris runway makeup artist – which is fantastic!