Bad Marketing 101 – How You Devalue Your Work

You might have read a lot of articles telling you how one should value their business, what should be done for clients and peers to take you seriously.

How you should navigate so the clients do not try and take and advantage of your services.

Well today I want to point out things you might be doing that devalue your work and put prospect collaborators/clients/students off.

-   You are not up to date with the platform you are marketing your business on.

-   You do not have a brand identity and you fail to incorporate simpler things in your marketing strategy such as creating impactful content.

-   You have not taken a good look at your competitors’ work and how they price their services.

-   You jump straight into putting a tag on your work that does not even justify your experience, knowledge and location.

-   You do not think highly of your work.

-   In your opinion what you do can be learnt in a matter of few days and it’s no rocket-science that people would consider spending money on (then why would anyone pay you for teaching them what you do, no?)

-   You lack curiosity.

-   You have not spent time researching and learning more about your work. You are content with what you did 15 years back.

I can go on and on about what more you (might be) doing that just should not be done because you are a Professional at what you do, but my head hurts from absorbing too much today.

Saving the rest for some other day.

Goodnight!

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Let's Collaborate!

Another day and another clothing brand approaches me with the offer to 'collaborate'.

I don't even bother asking now if they are looking forward to a paid collaboration.

They promise "proper" credits to be given to the Makeup Artist for coming on-board.

In their head, we are the most non-prioritized creatives in any project and we are worth nothing but a "proper" mention in the credits.

My reply? A professional flat-out No.

Dear Clothing/Jewelry/Shoes/Whatever Brands,

When you get in touch with a Makeup Artist for one of your commercial projects, kindly approach them with a good budget, not penniless and never ask for free work. Trust me, you neither come off professional nor respectful.

Yours Truly,

A Makeup Artist of 5 solid years of work experience.

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Choose Your Foundation The Fool-Proof Professional Way

Hey Guys, it's been a long hour since I last posted here. It's been ages actually. But I am back with the promise to keep writing.

Fingers crossed, wish me luck!

Picking up from where we left off, the complexion, something I always talk about and create passionately.

There are no shortcuts to doing a great complexion work, you cannot simply pick one foundation formula, swipe it all over the face, a little dab here a little dab there and voila! You get a flat complexion.

Let's look at it from a Professional's point of view.

When you are choosing a foundation shade, either for yourself or a client, start by analyzing the skintone and undertone. I can bet my entire kit on it that you cannot narrow it down to one single colour.

What should be done then?

Use three different shades. But how to pick those 3 shades?

Here are some important pointers (they are important so read carefully).

Sticking to the same undertone, make sure one colour (out of three) matches your client's cheek area, the second one matches their jawline and neck area, and the third one matches the bridge of their nose and the center part of their forehead.

Confused? I too was in the beginning, trust me.

Let's make it simpler.

Pick one shade that matches your client's majorly. Pick a second shade darker than the first one and another shade lighter than the first one.

Apply these shades in the said places, that is cheek area, jawline and neck and forehead and nose bridge, blend the demarcation lines ensuring one colour does not bleed into the other.

The result? You will get a beautiful three-dimensional professionally done complexion.

Try it and if you like it let me know here!

Much Love,

Fizzah

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Complexion - There Are No Short Cuts

Image Source: Internet

The way to do a complexion, neat and clean though is pretty simple but it requires some logical thinking on our part.

You have a few (or all of these) concerns you tackle while doing a complexion:

1. Part of your skin that is of your normal skin tone colour.

2. Part of your skin that has gone darker (blue/purple) than your normal skin tone colour.

3. Part of your skin that has gone darker than your skin tone but isn't blue/purple-y rather just dark brown.

4. Part of your skin that may be red-ish.

These are pretty much the general skin concerns. And to effectively build a complexion you need to bring any part of your skin that is other than your normal tone (point 1) back to its normal tone THEN do something else on top (highlight or colour).

To tackle concern number 2, you use a warmer foundation product (concealer, high coverage, with more red in it) to bring that darkened, cooler (purple/blue) skin tone back to the normal tone.

To tackle concern number 3, you may use a foundation product (concealer, high coverage) that may be of the same colour as your normal skin tone.

To tackle concern number 4, you may only need to apply another thing layer of your foundation product that you apply on parts of your skin with normal skin tone.

Only when you have a one tone skin tone that you go ahead and apply a foundation product (concealer or highlighter) under your eyes or anywhere on your face to take that normal skin tone a bit lighter to highlight and add a darker colour to take the normal skin tone a bit darker to contour.

There is no other way around.

There are no short cuts.

Love,

Fizzah

Disclaimer: This is a personal blog edited by its owners. We do not hold the copyrights to the information shared in this post. For questions and queries please email at thepoutpainter@gmail.com

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Two Basic Ways To Shape Your Eye With Eye Shadows

As much as I know about eye makeup until now, there are two basic ways you can shape your eyes with eye shadows regardless of your eye shape. One method of eye shadow application makes your eyes more almond-like, more elongated while the other method of application makes them appear more rounded.

While it's good practice to follow your natural eye shape for makeup application and enhance their shape but that may not be the desired result at times. You may have round eyes and wish for more elongation or you may have elongated eyes and want more rounded effect. There is a way of doing that with eye shadows.

Use three matte shades for this purpose, although you may use shimmers as well but just for the sake of explanation we will stick to three basic matte shades. A creamy beige shadow, a medium warm brown and a darker slightly ashier brown.

Eye Shadow Application For Elongated Effect:

Start with the medium warm brown shadow applied all over your lids blended up to your socket. Add more and blend if you want more intensity. Now with the darker ashier brown shadow apply it all along your lash line (do not go too far up on the lids) and in a triangular shape in the outer corners, again not going our of your natural lid space. Blend the shadow applied along the lash line slightly upwards and that applied in the outer corners slightly inwards and into the socket. Repeat this process to get desired intensity and depth. Use the medium warmer brown shadow on your lower lash line and blend. Apply the darker ashier brown only on the outside 1/3 section of your lower lash line and blend inwards into the medium brown shadow. Use the creamy beige shadow on the higher points of your brow bone for a highlighted effect.

Eye Shadow Application For Rounded Effect:

Again start with the medium warm brown shadow and apply it all over your lids blended up to the socket. Add more and blend in the same way for more intensity. With the darker ashier brown apply it all along your lash line and up on to the lids without going out of your natural lid space, stopping slightly below the socket bone and blend it to remove any harsh lines. Doing so will impart depth to the lids while letting the medium brown shadow still showing through in your socket bone. Apply the medium warmer brown shadow all along your lower lash line and blend. Apply the darker ashier brown closer to your lower lash liner and blend slightly downwards into the warmer medium brown for a seamless gradient. Apply the creamy beige highlight on the higher points of your brow bone for a highlighted effect.

This method of application can be adapted with any type of shadows you want to use. Though both methods of application give you a smokey eye, you may notice that the eye shadow application that results in a rounded shape may look slightly smokier than the other but that just depends on perspective and certainly does not mean you cannot achieve a fierce smokey eye with the elongated effect, you most definitely can. Note, however, I have explained both methods of application while staying within the natural space of your eye lids and socket bones. Blending the shadows up and out for a more cat eye or extended eye shape is something you would do after this basic application.

If you have any more questions regarding this post feel free to type them in the comments under and I will answer to the best of my knowledge.

Love,

Fizzah

Disclaimer: This is a personal blog edited by its owners and the opinions expressed here belong solely to its owner's. For questions and queries please email at thepoutpainter@gmail.com

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