How I got started (part 1)
I was fortunate to grow up in the 60’s, an era so complex it’s hard to comprehend all the various styles that coexisted. Ladylike, mod, beatnik, rockabilly, flower power… are just a few that come to mind.
I was surrounded by wonderfully “vain” women. My mother spent a good hour every morning putting herself together. My cousins in France were obsessed with makeup and I watched them carefully in their beauty rituals. My babysitters’ idea of cognitive teaching was to demonstrate the art of eyeliner and how to mist hair with beer to give it more body. I was endlessly fascinated by these ladies and the different looks they created with the help of makeup , hair and clothes. I loved weddings, hair salons, fashion boutiques, everything that involved clusters of women preening. It’s a lucky thing that I actually found a profession that involves precisely this.
Twenty years later, after college and a few stints in different jobs, I made the leap to becoming a full time makeup artist. This happened in Stockholm, Sweden, where I grew up. At the time, makeup artists were found only in theaters and Film and TV studios. Wanting to learn the profession, I applied to the Swedish TV makeup school. For the test, we had to do hair (finger curls!), drawing, sculpture (a head) and not a sweep of makeup. Well, I failed miserably and didn’t get in. At the time I was quite devastated, but now, looking back, it was one of the best things that ever happened to me.
