I am thinking about going to beauty school.
Those who have known me for years are probably not surprised by this sudden decision. I am forever going to school with a vision of becoming someone great in the field, only to lose my motivation halfway through.
Let me give you a bit of a back story. In 2007, I quit my horrid office job to take up Creative Writing at UP Diliman, determined to learn what I needed to write The Great Filipino Novel (whatever that may be). A semester later, I switched to Comparative Literature because I became fascinated by cultural theory and literary theory after taking a basic course. I read far more and studied harder than I ever did in college but a year later, I realized that I didn’t really know what I was doing in graduate school. Sure, I had this romantic fantasy of eventually obtaining a PhD in a foreign university somewhere, but how exactly was I supposed to do that if I didn’t have a clue as to what my MA thesis would be about? It never occurred to me that obtaining a Masters degree in something would actually require some prior mastery in the field, and silly me had very little experience with literary theory before graduate school. So I took a leave of absence and signed up for a sewing class at Fashion Institute of the Philippines, thinking it might be cool to design my own clothes and maybe make some money off that. I ended up dropping that too – the sewing class didn’t have a fixed schedule and I eventually became too lazy to attend. Honestly, I don’t know how I managed to graduate from college on time and with decent grades.
Becoming a professional makeup artist was never part of the plan, but I started toying with the idea of beauty school after a few people encouraged me to take up makeup classes. Why not? Well okay, I have one very good reason why not – I don’t want to shell out thousands of pesos for makeup classes, only to lose interest, become demotivated, or get disillusioned after a couple of sessions. Only now do I realize that you can’t just sign up for post-graduate training (in whatever field) without doing your homework and thinking of what to do with your degree/diploma after. If I were to go to beauty school now, I’d just be as grossly unprepared as I was when I naively went to graduate school and fashion school. I’d feel intimidated by my classmates, who are probably leagues better than I am at doing makeup. My fragile self-esteem will plummet, I’ll lose interest, and quit during the second class.
On the other hand, I do like the idea of receiving professional training for makeup. I’m a pretty fast learner and would love to know how to do avant-garde makeup, maybe even special effects makeup (zombies!). Besides, shouldn’t I be putting that Glambox airbrush kit into good use? Unlike graduate school and fashion school, where recovering my investment will take far more time and effort, I can make money off my newly acquired skills by doing makeup on the side. Which is not to say that doing makeup professionally is an easy job – I’m pretty sure it can be as stressful as any other job. But I have a feeling that finding clients as a MUA won’t be as difficult as making it big as a fashion designer.
I decided to give myself time to think about beauty school and what I intend to do after. While I mull it over, I figured I’d continue to learn new makeup tricks through YouTube videos so I don’t look completely clueless if I do take classes. And while I’m doing all this thinking and practicing, I may as well document my efforts and create a project out of all this.
This project is called 52 Weeks to Beauty School – a project 52 thing where I create one new makeup look a week and post it on this blog.
The rules are pretty simple:
1) Create one new makeup look a week. It doesn’t have to be on myself; it can me on my mom, my sister, or anyone would trusts her face to me.
2) Since I’m pretty inexperienced, the look doesn’t have to be original. I’ll most likely be copying from my favorite YouTube beauty gurus like Lauren Luke. This way, I get to learn new techniques too!
3) The look should be up on this blog before Sunday.
4) If I miss a week due to laziness, I’m not going to beauty school and that’s the end of it. It’s a bit harsh, but I think I deserve to be strict about this project considering my track record of starting things and losing interest shortly after. If I can’t stay committed to something this simple, then I probably don’t have the dedication it takes to go to school and possibly become a makeup artist after.
5) Acceptable reasons for missing a week: natural disaster of Ondoy-like proportions, the death of someone I love, I get kidnapped and held captive, you get the idea. I am not allowed to be too busy with work to do one makeup look a week.
6) Beauty school is my reward for completing the project successfully – that is, 52 looks after 52 weeks.
52 Weeks to Beauty School starts this week! I just finished taking photos of a new look and will be publishing it tomorrow. This is quite a commitment and I’m pretty antsy about where this project will take me. Will I go to beauty school or won’t I? Dun dun dunnnnn.
You know what? If you can afford it, take the CAS or Makeup Forever classes. Based on my 1+ years of research and dreaming to go to makeup school, these are the ones w/c stand out because of the quality of education.
If you kinda want to save, SoFA is ok naman daw :)
Makeup Forever is expensive though! :( Does the tuition cover makeup? If it does then it might be worth it, MUFE products are pretty pricey. I met a MUA who took classes at CAS. He said the training was good but you have to bring your own models. Do you know anyone who went to Makeup Design Academy? I kind of like how the curriculum looks.
I am looking forward to seeing your make up looks, Ms. Lauren!
I think the plan is, not to have a plan. LOL. I used to plan my life to T (I’m OC like that), but I’m having so much fun and learning at the same time now that I’ve let go a little.
I’m looking forward to your 52 looks :D
Ooooh! I can’t wait to see your 52 looks!
I can relate to you! I always have this fascination for everything which leads me to try them all, only to quit halfway through. I do admire your being real, and living in different environments gives us new perspectives every time. I think it’s great being the Jack of all trades. :)