Make up courses in England

[x_ladydanger]

Hey, I'm new here! I've always loved make up and have wanted to be a make up artist since I was 15. I'm now 22. When I left school I couldn't find any courses that did make up on it's own, so I did beauty therapy. I hated it and quit after a few months. I've found quite a few now but I tried to get on one that started today [a part time 1 week course at my local college] but it was full. The next part time one starts in September

Do you guys think an NVQ qualification is going to be any good or do I really need to do a proper professional course? I'm good at my own make up but have only done my mums make up before. I would so love to be an MUA. I've wanted to get into it for 7 years but gave up due to lack of courses or lack on money to pay for a course!

Another thing, this may be a really stupid question, but do you think an MUA needs to be arty...by that I mean, be able to draw etc? I'm arty in a fashion way like with customising etc, but I can't really draw very well at all which puts me off doing a course incase I'm no good at it!

Where did you MUA's from England train?

Sorry for the looong post. Hope someone can help!

 

[uh_oh_disco]

An NVQ course builds confidence, product knowledge, experience, the flow of ideas, communication skills, design skills, drawing skills (in some you will get drawing classes) and general know-how. I know this because I'm doing one haha. I'd recommend you try a two year national diploma. It may sound excessive but you get to do many different types of makeup and find which you love doing best.

I think whether you "need" to do one or not depends on you personally - do you feel you need to learn more? Do you think it would benefit you? Do you feel like you could do a professional job of somebodys makeup and fully justify charging them for your services?

You don't need to be a good drawer, so long as you can get your ideas across clearly you should be fine. You can use other media to design makeup too, oils, pastels, paints, etc.

 

[caffn8me]

The courses run at the Jemma Kidd Makeup School are superb. They are headed up by David Horne who was M·A·C's head of artist training in Europe and also the manager of the Pro Store.

He originally set up a series of makeup courses for M·A·C for customers and I was lucky enough to attend the first of these. David is a truly brilliant teacher. He left when M·A·C didn't roll out the higher level courses he'd developed.

The School of Make-Up (formerly Revelations) seems to be very good too.

 

[x_ladydanger]

Thanks both of you for the advice!

I would love to go to the school of make up in Manchester, I'm looking into career development loans at the moment. But I think an NVQ would be more realistic for me at the moment. I was gonna do a one week one just to see if I liked it or if I was any good at it before spending a lot of money on a full course. I found one at New College Nottingham for Media Make up which looks fab!

 

[uh_oh_disco]

The makeup school is local to me, my friends went for work experience in secondary school and loved it. Apparently the teachers are all really lovely, PLUS there are about for pubs along the same road, a costume shop (with some stage makeup for sale), a hair dressers, a record store, tattoo parlour...And you can just hop on the train for a 10 minute ride into Manchester city centre.

 

[madame_morbid]

I trained at School of Make Up in 2005. It is a good school and the courses are very comprehensive. Be warned though that the product hygiene is or at least was horrible!