ARTIST TIP | Maximizing Your Kit - Tips for Aspiring Artists

Here are more artist tips for building your kit. If you're a make-up addict like me, it's so easy to accumulate beauty products as time goes by. In the beginning as you're building your name and your kit, you'll want to give clients the impression that you're well-stocked with all the quality products that suit their needs. But as time goes by, and you lug your stuffed make-up case from job to job, you'll begin to wish there was a better and more efficient way to bring your product around.

I'm a huge fan of bringing only what you need - it's way easier on your arms and helps to lessen the chance of one of your beloved items going missing! Consider these tips for maximizing the most out of your kit space (and your valuable energy!):

Buy palettes.

a). Lipsticks
Use a thoroughly cleaned and disinfected make-up spatula to dig your lipsticks out of the tube. You can purchase an empty palette from a beauty supply company such as Japonesque (pictured at right). With the Japonesque palette, you have the option of adding your own lipstick colours (also great for use with cream concealers). Other cosmetic lines, such as Make-up Forever, offer their own refillable lip palettes that are customized to fit insert versions of their popular lipsticks.

I picked up my lip palette for $12 from a local Toronto company called Jordane Cosmetics . The palette pictured at right is from the Jordane website (I can't say that I have a blue lipstick in my kit!); the one that I bought came without any product, just the refillable container. The palette itself is made of a hard plastic that is durable, but doesn't crack when dropped.

What I love about this: You can easily mix back and forth between lipsticks to make up any colour your heart desires. Just make sure to do the mixing in a secondary container (or on the back of your hand) to keep the colours in the palette fresh and separated.

b). Eyeshadows
Many cosmetic companies offer easily customizable palettes. I stocked up on five eyeshadow palettes (addict much?) from my time working at Inglot (see picture at right), and now I'll have to go to Montreal (or Dubai, Australia or Poland!) whenever I need to restock on these.
At the lower end, Mary Kay and Avon offer refillable palettes while at the higher end, MAC, Make-up Forever and Bobbi Brown each do their version of a customizable palette.

What I love about this: Not only is this space saving within the kit, it's also environmentally friendly! No need for the excess product packaging that usually gets thrown away once the product is all used. Just drop in the refillable eyeshadow insert into the palette and go!

c). Blushes
Similar to the eyeshadow palettes, many cosmetic companies also offer blush palettes. My blush palette is from Inglot as well, but blush palettes are also available through MAC and Make-up Forever. Sometimes the palettes come mixed with a selection of eyeshadows, blushes and lip products, like NARS Bridal Palette featured at right. The mixed palette is a great kit addition for make-up artists who specialize in neutral and bridal looks.

What I love about this: Usually I use a combination of two blushes - one darker shade for contouring just slightly below the cheekbone, and one slightly lighter shade for highlighting atop the cheekbone (and blending out any harsh edges of the deeper blush tone). Having the blushes all under one roof means less fumbling around in the make-up kit looking for product and more time to spend on the fun stuff - actual application!

d). Concealers
Concealers come in all different colours and sizes: aside from the regular skin tone matching concealers, there are also colour correcting concealers. Rather than lug every colour of the colour correcting rainbow around, opt for an artist palette. I love the Lise Watier palette discussed in a previous post, and I also love the Make-up Forever colour corrector palettes that come in a range of tones to cover every ethnicity.

What I love about this: Just like lipsticks, when concealers are all in one container, you have the freedom of mixing. The Japonesque empty palette described above is also great for managing cream concealers in one place. Now you can mix with ease...like a true artiste!

Bring only what you need.
If you've already had a trial with a client and have gone through the items that you'll need, just bring those items. Be warned that sometimes your client may want to make adjustments to the look, so bring extra eyeshadows, blushes and lipsticks to have accessibility to different options. The foundation, concealer and powder will likely stay the same colour so you can ditch the ones you don't need and travel lighter!