I'm really not sure this
should be in
Shameless Promotions any more than other posts about training courses and makeup schools but here goes anyway.
Here in London, one of M·A·C's senior trainers came to the conclusion that there weren't really
any makeup courses that he could recommend to anyone wanting to start a career as a professional makeup artist. He felt they were all lacking something. He approached the powers-that-be in head office suggesting that M·A·C should have its
own makeup school to teach people about professional makeup artistry. When they turned round and said they didn't have anyone who was qualified to teach members of the public, he simply went away and did a teaching degree for a year.
When he came back he designed a series of three courses each a week long. The first course ever to run was the Basic level course and that took place in the training room below London's High Street Kensington store a few weeks ago.
Ten students (including me) enrolled for the course which ran for five days starting at 9:45am every morning. Two of the students were from overseas and the others from the UK. The students covered a wide age range - 18-50+.
It was clear from the start that the emphasis was on technical excellence and we were given exercises to improve our observational and artistic skills before we even touched any makeup. The whole of the first day and a half was spent learning how to get foundation right. As well as working on each other we had models brought in specially who the tutors used for demonstrations. After demonstrations we were also able to work on the models ourselves. We were taught how to use mixing mediums and did custom foundation blending. We had access to the full M·A·C product range so if we wanted to achieve a particular effect and felt the products we had in front of us didn't do the job we could ask the tutor who would fetch something more appropriate. This included things like Chroma Cake and false lashes.
Lunch was typically a break of 45 minutes and we then worked through until about 6:30pm. There was homework to do every night as well.
Exercises tended to be quite technical and were designed to improve skills such as blending, colour matching and lining. They weren't supposed to be easy and they weren't!
On the last day we had a leading celebrity makeup artist coming in to tell us about the way the industry works and there was quite an emphasis on making a career out of being a makeup artist.
The course really was excellent. It certainly didn't qualify us to be professional makeup artists but it was the first step towards that. I now feel that I am qualified to go and learn more about make-up. There is an intermediate course running in October but the advice to all of us was to wait until the next intermediate course in February so that we could go away and practise our skills and come back with more experience. I think we all felt this was a good idea. The course really
was intensive and quite hard work but it was very rewarding to see our skill progression over the week. We were given handouts but I also took 23 pages of notes on narrow ruled A4 paper at about 350 words to a page.
The standard of teaching was exceptional and the course was well put together. Obviously, one or two things didn't quite work out as planned because it was the first time the course had been run but it was great to be one of the guinea pigs
The second level course covers more advanced techniques and includes things like airbrushing and body painting. It is intended for people who have already had some training and professional experience.
The level three course covers a lot more on the aesthetic side and advanced techniques. Most students will probably stop at level two.
The level one course costs £950 (which includes a set of brushes and tools) and the levels two and three cost £750.
There are plans to set up a permanent home for the M·A·C Makeup School in London near to the Pro Store in Foubert's Place.
The course I attended was first anywhere in the world but it is likely that this format of course will be spread to other centres not just in the UK but overseas in places such as New York and Los Angeles. It's going to take a while before the courses are available very widely though as more tutors need to be trained and premises sought.
All in all a thoroughly recommended expreience and I am looking forward to the intermediate course.
I've attached the course flyer to this post so you can see a bit of what the course covered in subject terms.
Anybody wanting details of the next courses (there is another basic course running from Monday) should contact the Pro Store at Foubert's Place;
M·A·C
West Soho
28 Fouberts Place
London W1F 7PR
020 7534 9222
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