A career inspired by cinema

make up courseEver since I was a little girl I’ve wanted to study beauty therapy. My main interest was in makeup and special effects makeup because of all the cool things you can do to a person’s face. These days, I consider makeup as an artform just like painting on a canvas. I was truly lucky to get into the make up course that I did in Melbourne.

I guess the first film to inspire my love of makeup artistry was Cleopatra with Elizabeth Taylor. Like many people who saw that film for the first time I found cleopatra’s beauty breathtaking. I was only about twelve at the time but that’s when I started burying into Mum’s makeup collection to try my hand at applying makeup. I tried to copy Elizabeth Taylor’s long eyeliner and the colours of her eye shadow. I even tried to style my hair in the same way with the bangs and beads. Let’s just say I didn’t pull it off quite as well as Cleopatra…

The next film that got me thinking of doing a makeup artist course was the old Owlman film with Jack Nicholson. Years later, I applied for diploma of specialist makeup services. Melbourne cinemas were screening the Batman films when I was a teen and they were really popular. I thought Jack looked so creepy and cool with his strangely shaped mouth and red lips, that pale complexion and green hair. I wanted to be able to create something as original and visually interesting from my own imagination and talent.

Since doing the course I’ve taken inspiration from movies such as Stair Wars, Charlie and the Chocolate Academy and Beetledrink. I’ve gone on to do jobs for big budget foreign films shooting in Australia as well as local DIY projects of up-and-coming directors. I love my job and it all started with celluloid.