Misha Bandaletov/Nik Voronin at Kamera Addikt

The Making of a Professional Makeup Artist

How to Make it as a Professional Makeup Artist

Today it seems like everyone either is a professional makeup artist (aka MUA), or at least aspires to be. As is the case with any artist who “pops up” on the scene, it can seem like things happened for them overnight. But, while some lucky people experience instant success, most have to work many years before their big break. That is the case for Gabriella Bruun, our first featured artist.

While Gabriella is humble about her artistic talent, we’re impressed by her work and think her creativity deserves to be highlighted! From an Elle magazine cover, to campaigns with L’Oreal and Nike, Gabriella is making waves with editorial makeup looks that rival anything you could find on Pinterest or your Instagram explore feed. So, we went straight to the source for an inside look at what it takes to make it in makeup.

Get to know Gabriella in this short interview below.

Q: How long have you been doing makeup professionally?

A: I guess around 6 to 7 years.

Q: What or who inspired you to start doing makeup?

A: I always loved the editorial makeup you’d see in magazines. I’d play with my mom’s makeup here and there too. 

Q: If you could use one word to describe your signature makeup style, what would it be?

A: One word? That’s difficult. I asked my friends for help and they said, “effortless, striking, and sophisticated,” so I’d go with those three words.

Q: What do you do to stay current with your craft?

A: If there’s downtime…I set up photo shoots and practice on my friends. I’ll go online and look for inspiration too. There’s a lot of cool artists on Instagram.

Q: Your work has been featured in some pretty fun magazines, how did you come across those opportunities? 

A: It’s the photographers half the time… and me the rest of the time.

Q: What is one piece of advice you would give to MUAs who want their work to be featured in print or editorial publications?

A: Just send it to magazines that match your style. I sent my work to print and digital publications. Print is much more exclusive.

Q: What’s one piece of advice you’d give to a girl or guy who just loves to wear makeup? 

A: Keep it simple and leave the skin looking natural. That always works.

Q: Anything else you’d like to share?

A: Have confidence, but be humble. It’s a very tough business and you’ll fail sometimes but you got to move on. Believe in yourself and invest in people. If the chemistry isn’t there…don’t force it! 

This is all great advice if we’ve never heard any ourselves. To see more of Gabriella’s work with publications, commercials, runway shows, and more, visit her site. In the meantime, check out one of our fave magazine campaigns Gabriella did with Jute Magazine below!

With festival season upon us, we can’t help but to be inspired to take the California desert by a fashion storm!

This interview has been slightly modified for clarification purposes.