2018 wasn’t a massively eventful year for me – I did finally leave a job that was making me really unhappy, but aside from that it’s been pretty quiet! One area that did have a few eventful “milestones” throughout the year though was my relationship with makeup and beauty. I’ve always loved makeup but never really had the confidence to start experimenting or pushing myself a bit further with it.
My teen years were plagued with badly matching foundation, smudged eyeliner and a whole host of beauty mistakes. Going into my 20s things improved a little but I was still massively intimidated and didn’t have a clue where to start. 2018 was the year I finally sat down and started to practice. I watched videos, tried to copy pictures and generally improved my “beat”. So today I’m sharing my “year in beauty”, a couple of key moments across 2018 that got me to where I am now.
Lash Lift Qualification
One of the biggest things I did this year was training in order to be qualified to do “lash lifts” on other people. A lash lift is basically a perm for the eyelashes. By having your lashes lifted they are permanently curled upwards and stay that way for around 6-8 weeks. So perfect if you are going on holiday and don’t want to apply mascara etc.
The reason I did this was because I’ve always been slightly curious about having some kind of career within the beauty industry. My 9-5 job is quite specialised and technical and makeup and beauty allows me to have a creative side. I’ve always wondered how I’d cope in my current job if I had children or different priorities. This qualification was the first step in me broadening my horizons and it didn’t break the bank either. It was accredited by the guild of beauty therapists and means I can now carry out this treatment on others. My dream would be to start building upon these qualifications and start looking into freelance makeup artistry as a career one day.
Getting Better At Eye Makeup and Learning To Apply False Lashes
Oh boy was I bad at eye makeup and applying lashes. Think blocky shadows, wonky eyeliner and glue in my eye. But this year I’ve come a long way and I’m actually proud of what I can create now! I’ve learnt how to soften a blend, how to pair shadows together and how to get those lashes on first time. All through practice. I still have a lot to learn, but that’s what 2019 is for! 🙂
Doing Makeup for Other People
This was something that truly terrified me. I am used to putting makeup on my own face as I know the shapes that I have to work around and the pressure that I have to apply. On other people? Not so much. This year I started asking people If I could do their makeup for them. My mum and sister have really been the true heroes here. But one of my friends at work also let me do her makeup before the Christmas party this year and she got lots of compliments throughout the evening! 🙂 Practising on other people allows me to work with different skin types and face structures and helps develop my skills even more.
Doing Character Makeup
Probably my proudest achievement. The introduction of producing small pieces of character makeup into my ammo! Funnily enough I’ve had a few people compare my little creations to “children’s face painting” – but my answer to that is, “I’d like to see you try!” 😀
Painting characters can be quite difficult as often the makeup can tend to look a bit “flat”, so you need to add shading for dimension. Not only that but it needs to look symmetrical. Basically you need a good eye and a steady hand. These little creations take me hours but I love to look back at them because they are honestly so much fun, and quite cool to look at. (In my opinion anyway!)
Videoing Myself
My final milestone is producing videos. Videos are scary because actually you see someone applying their makeup in all its glory. Pictures show the final product but videos show the road to getting there. I was super worried about videoing myself applying something in the “wrong” way and having people notice. But actually I realised there is no “wrong” way as long as the end result is what you were hoping for.
So those are my beauty milestones for 2018! Who knows where I will be this time next year? Hopefully creating even cooler makeup looks and getting even more practice in. I’d love to hear if you had any beauty milestones this year? Or even any milestones in general!
Happy 2019!
