Meet the beauticians

1. Culture

Lucy Eustance-Smith
@lucy.makeupartist

How long have you been a makeup artist?
I have been doing makeup artistry for five years now.

How did you get into makeup artistry?
I started it as a side hustle and I decided to make it my career.

Where do you do most of your work?
I have a home studio and I have put together a team. So I have two other makeup artists, which is really good because when I am out doing a wedding, they can take bookings at my studio and I have someone to help me out at weddings. It’s very fun doing the whole business side of being a makeup artist. I work really hard to try and set my business apart from the rest in that sort of way. The studio that I have is in the front of my house, so you don’t know that you’re in somebody’s home. I eventually want to get a big enough team for a big, collaborative space where I can have fun and be a leader, but also share my vision with other people.

What’s the best part of your job?
Making people feel really confident and making them feel and look amazing. The whole transformation process is very satisfying.

What’s the worst part of your job?
I would say all the maintenance. So, brush washing, cleaning, all the gross stuff that people don’t really like. Then of course admin, replying to emails and invoicing and things like that.

What is it like doing makeup for a wedding?
It’s amazing. It is really amazing to be a part of somebody’s special day and to feel valued in that way, that somebody wants to make you such a big part of their day and their lives. One thing I get sad about though is when I have spent the whole day with the bride and the bridal party and then I have to leave. You become best friends, you spend the whole day getting them ready and making them all look absolutely amazing, and then you have to leave.

What is the most exciting job you have done?
I have done a few special effects things for a movie. I remember I went to do work experience on a small film that was a zombie apocalypse movie, and I had actually had some experience in acting so they made me become a zombie and I acted in the movie instead.

What film was it?
It’s called Zoe. You’ll see me eating a clown’s leg.

Who is the most interesting client you have worked on?
There are too many to choose from. I really favour good skin, as anyone would because it’s always the best canvas to work on. So anybody with amazing skin and big beautiful eyes is always the most fun.

What is the one tool you can’t work without?
It’s a fluffy brush. It’s pretty standard but it is a detailed fluffy brush that you can use all over the face. I love it for putting on highlighter, for blending out eyeshadow, blending out literally anything, applying face powder – it’s just such a good multitool to use on your face, and it keeps everything so refined and detailed.

Natalie Papalia
@nataliejadebeauty

How long have you been a makeup artist?
I am coming up soon to seven years.

How did you get into makeup artistry?
I was always creative, and I knew that a 9-to-5 wasn’t for me. When I was in year 11 in school, I discovered all the creative makeup and all the character makeup and I thought that was very cool. So when I got into the beauty makeup I was like, ‘Oh, this isn’t stage makeup, this is pretty and nice’. Then I thought maybe that was something that I wanted to do, so I have known makeup was my passion and something I wanted to do as a career since I was about seventeen.

What does an average workday look like for you?
When it is peak wedding and event season, I am usually starting at around six in the morning, which means waking up at around four thirty in the morning, depending on how far I have to travel. When it is a really busy wedding season, I usually fit in two weddings in a day, which means starting around 6am and working until 11 o’clock, then I will drive to the next one and do that until about four o’clock. Eating in the car is the number one thing you have to do. Having your lunch breaks is exactly what you have to do, there is no such thing as a lunch break.

What is the best driving and eating food?
Anything that is small and comes in packaging, or a good sandwich cut into little squares.

What’s the best part of your job?
Meeting all sorts of people. One of my favourite things is being around so many different personalities and getting to know my clients and their love stories, or what gets them up in the morning. I am all about meeting different people and doing makeup on them and bringing out their confidence. I am more of a person who uses makeup to enhance peoples naturally beautiful features; if I had a slogan it would be that, but I think it might be taken already.

What’s the worst part of your job?
It’s when people ask if you’re available on a certain date and you have to say no because you’re already busy, or if someone has postponed their wedding and then you’re not available on the new date.

What is it like doing makeup for a wedding?
It’s just such a nice experience, because everybody is happy, everybody wants to be there and it’s a fun day. It’s all about love and it’s all so exciting. They have done so much planning for the day and it’s all just coming together, and I am that part in the morning where they just get to relax. They can’t do anything; they just have to sit in that chair and get pampered, and I think it is a special moment where you get to see them just relax and enjoy the morning before all of the madness.

What was your favourite client experience?
Doing makeup for my brother’s wedding. I got to do makeup on my sister-in-law and her family. It was a really nice day.

What is the most interesting makeup experience you have had?
I won an award back in 2015 for the Hair and Beauty SA competition. It was an animal-inspired look competition and I did a blue-crested lizard, and they asked me to recreate that look on stage at their next live event. So I was doing the makeup while people were just walking around, and then I got to walk the runway with my model and show off my look, which was very fun.

What is the one tool you can’t work without?
It’s funny because this is a product that some people think you don’t need at all, but it is lipstick for me. Lipstick changes the look drastically. Foundation and all that is great too, but I think having something on the lips is always a key feature. You’ll never see me without a lipstick or lip gloss. I brought in a lipstick by Shanghai Suzy. They’re cruelty-free and vegan lipsticks and they’re made in Melbourne, so they’re locally sourced and all of that. The owner, Jo [French], is the nicest lady ever and we spend at least 20 minutes on the phone every time I order, just chatting. It’s great to have a product that you know works and you love, but I think it’s the company and the people behind it that is super important too.

Kyra Zoina
@kyramakeupartistry

How long have you been a makeup artist?
I have had my business open for almost two years now.

How did you get into makeup artistry?
I have been doing makeup forever. It started with me doing my own makeup and friends’ makeup when we would be going to parties and school, and I remember always being the person who was three hours late to the party because I was busy doing everybody’s makeup. Slowly from there I started doing makeup for people going to events, and I did some makeup for Fringe shows as well. Then I thought “What am I waiting for?” so I started my own business and opened a home studio, and I have been doing it ever since.

What does an average workday look like for you?
A typical workday would start with making sure the studio is ready and organised. I always make sure everything is wiped down and everything is nice and clean. I fill up any disposables and get everything prepped. Then I have clients booked in throughout the day based on how many clients are booked in and what my schedule is like for the day. Usually, it is clients for events, so they’re all back-to-back, and then it is time for my lunch break. And the end of a day is just me cleaning everything. The cleaning makes the job a lot less glamorous than it sounds, but it is definitely necessary.

What’s the best part of your job?
That feeling when you finish doing someone’s makeup, they jump up and have a look in the mirror, and that smile. The fact that they’re so happy and so excited, and then seeing all the photographs they post from their events and receiving messages thanking me and saying how happy and confident they were. Being able to give that confidence to people is really rewarding.

What’s the worst part of your job?
The brush cleaning. It’s super necessary and I always get it done, but it takes upwards of two hours to do.

What is it like doing makeup for a wedding?
Weddings are a new thing that I am getting in to. It’s so exciting to be a part of someone’s special day, and the fact that they’ve chosen you to pull that all together is such a special thing to be a part of.

What is the most interesting job you’ve done?
I recently did a wedding makeup shoot, which was very fun. It was a collaboration with a few other Adelaide small businesses, and we did it up at Maryvale Farm. It was really interesting having my makeup photographed in a really formal setting and seeing it all come to life.

Who is the most interesting client you’ve worked with?
I can’t pick a favourite. It’s so nice having the same people come back again, and forming relationships with them and really making a connection.

What is the one tool you can’t work without?
This was a really hard thing to pick. As a makeup artist, you’re always trying to be really versatile and use things in different ways, so to pick one thing is really difficult. For me, it was a toss-up between a brush that does everything, so a foundation brush in my case, but it is super important to sanitise and clean your brushes, so my favourite product has to be the Saint Jack Makeup Cleaning Mist. It is a fairly new product from a small business in Australia, and you use it to spray all of your products so when you’re dipping your brush into your product, you’re not getting everybody else’s bacteria on the brush. You can also use it to clean your brushes, so I have a literal stack of them on my desk because I use it throughout every client’s appointment and then cleaning up afterwards as well.

Samantha Hardlitschke
@samantharuby_mua

How long have you been a makeup artist?
I have been doing makeup artistry for nine years, including my study.

How did you get into makeup artistry?
It was something I always had a passion for. I always loved the idea of making people feel amazing. Basically, somebody came around to my school about VET courses and it really tickled my fancy. When I started doing my course it was kind of game over from there, because I just loved it so much.

What’s the best part of your job?
Everything. The best part of it is definitely when people sit there and have a little double, whether it be self-confidence issues or past makeup artist experiences, and then seeing them hold up that mirror and you see their eyes sparkle. As cliché as it sounds, it’s making people feel amazing and seeing that look in their face, knowing that you’ve helped them feel and look that amazing.

What’s the worst part of your job?
The most difficult part of the job is keeping on top of the correspondence. You want everybody to feel like they’re your number one priority, so I think it is making sure that you’re ensuring everybody feels like a top priority and making sure everything is exactly to plan.

What is it like doing makeup for a wedding?
Honestly, it is the most amazing experience. It is a lot of running around. There are a lot of people there and you need lots of organisation. I think at almost every wedding there is something that doesn’t go to plan, so to speak, but at the same time I see it as part of my job to try and fix issues or make sure things don’t go wrong. Because I have been around it before, so I sit there thinking it’s the first time they’ve gotten married, but I have been around a bunch of weddings before, so I can at least take that on and go above and beyond what I am already there to do.

What is the most interesting job you’ve done?
In 2019, I was lucky enough to do an international wedding. It was quite literally a day before my birthday as well, so I got to celebrate over there. It was the most surreal experience waking up in not only in a different state but a different country all together, knowing that I am here for that reason, because someone has trusted me to do that for them.

Who is the most interesting client you’ve worked with?
I actually did makeup for my grandma. She is very particular, like a lot of older people. We get set in our ways, we know what looks good on us and what doesn’t. One of the most challenging and interesting people I have done makeup on is my grandma. You will find out if she hates it or if she loves it. Luckily, she always loves it.

What is the one tool you can’t work without?
It’s my Kryolan Fixing Spray. It is smudge-proof, it is sweat-resistant, it helps the longevity of your makeup. It just makes your makeup look flawless the entire night.

Sally Axford
@sally_axford

How long have you been a makeup artist?
I have been doing makeup artistry for thirteen years.

How did you get into makeup artistry?
I started early; I was eighteen. I did visual arts for a year and dropped out and then got a job at Mecca, and I was there for eleven years. At Mecca, we didn’t have a lot of training back then, but we did do lots of events with artists from our brands. So I learned from them. And I also loved doing portraits in art back when I was a kid and this was a way of doing portraits and getting paid for it.

What does an average workday look like for you?
So, I am also working for a brand called RMS and they’re based in the US and they’re stocked at Mecca. They’re an organic brand. I get up, I will have emails from them, do that lying in bed. I might have a job, so I will be doing either a lesson or a trial or a shoot, so I will always rush to that. Then I try and go to the gym, because if I don’t my back is screwed, as many makeup artists would know. Then if it’s a Tuesday or Wednesday, I have a call as well with the US at about 10:30 or 11 at night with the social media team or with my manager, and that’s my night so I go to bed really late as a result.

What’s the best part of your job?
It is making people look, and then as a result, feel their best. I think makeup is a form of self-care in a way, and it’s a way of expressing yourself, and I love being part of that process.

What’s the worst part of your job?
Back in my Fashion Week days it was the really early mornings, and I struggle with a bit of anxiety so that would flare up when I was doing some big shows. It was very competitive as well.

What is it like doing makeup for a wedding?
It’s really intimate and you get this bond with them, which I think is really fascinating. You’re there on the most important day of their life, and I love the fantasy of a wedding. It’s probably the closest thing you’ll get to doing a red carpet as a makeup artist, because it’s all romantic, it’s all about how she wants to look and feel and there are flowers and whatnot. It is also a practice of making them feel as comfortable as possible because you know they’re freaking out. I am often giving them a tool, like open your hands because it tells your body that you’re relaxed, or I will take them through breathing exercises if they’re having a meltdown. So it’s interesting.

So you’re kind of like a makeup therapist?
A little bit, yeah.

What is the most interesting job you’ve done?
I worked on Pat McGrath’s team in Europe. I did two seasons with them, doing Burberry, Miu Miu and Valentino. That was the most interesting thing I have ever done and probably ever will do.

Who’s the most interesting client you’ve worked with?
Emma Michell. She got married earlier this year and I did a dash for the border because I was in Melbourne at the time, and I just missed out on getting locked down so I got here for the wedding. She wore Paolo Sebastian and she looked like a princess. She was just beautiful.

What is the one tool you can’t work without?
The Rae Morris Jishaku #18.1: Mascara Applicator, which is a little metal comb. You get to a point in your career where you can’t get away with using a spoolie to apply mascara, and I do a lot of video and up-close macro shots – and also fashion week you have to apply mascara perfectly, they’re really pedantic about it. This tool is the only thing that lets me do that. I am totally obsessed with it. I only have one. I should get more because I missed it in my kit once and I totally panicked.