Making it as a makeup artist

By Olivia Falletta

When I was younger, I hated makeup. I was the only little girl at my dance recitals who wasn’t excited for the one day a year her mom let her wear red lipstick. Nobody really knew where my aversion stemmed from, not even me. I just knew I wanted nothing to do with makeup.

In 2020, my high school soccer team was shut down due to COVID, and I found myself with an excessive amount of free time. I decided to dust off an old eyeshadow palette I had purchased years back simply because my favorite YouTuber had endorsed it. Since it was nearing Halloween, I thought it would be cool to start creating Halloween makeup looks. Turns out, I was pretty good.

My sudden interest in makeup shocked my family, since I had always been so adamantly against it. However, I realized that makeup was an expression of art and I was able to embrace my creativity transforming myself into Halloween creatures, fire-breathing dragons and even a butterfly. I eventually also fell in love with the beauty side of makeup and I adored transforming myself with some sparkly gold eyeshadow.

Fast forward to summer 2022, I was so in love with makeup that I decided to pursue an education in it and I attended Artist Makeup Academy (AMA) to take legitimate makeup-classes. During these classes, I learned how to apply makeup to other people instead of myself. I learned skills such as shade matching, how to make a client feel comfortable and how to market myself as a makeup artist.

After graduating from AMA, I was invited by the owner of the school to join the AMA team at New York Fashion Week (NYFW) in September. On September 10, I worked for 13 hours on over 60 models who walked the runway. I quickly learned how to build connections with each model, and I still keep in touch with many of them. Everyone was shocked to learn I was only 17-years-old working at NYFW, because it was such a high intensity environment. It was the craziest day of my life, and I am so grateful I had that opportunity.

My journey as a makeup artist has been quite untraditional, but I am so proud of myself for the progress I have made over such a short period of time at a young age and I am excited to see where my career takes me.