What do you need in your kit when you are a Makeup FX Artist?
To a large extent it depends on the kind of work you usually do. Is it factual recreation or fantasy creations? Do you have time to build FX in your workspace beforehand, or are you regularly called upon to put together an Out-of-kit Effect at the last minute? Of course, you won’t necessarily need your entire kit on every job, but you will want a comprehensive set of tools and products to get you through any situation you are likely to face in your working life.
If you trained at a formal school you will have purchased a very basic kit to use during your education. If you are self taught you may have acquired everything piecemeal as you needed it, but that can leave gaping holes in your kitlist when it comes to things you just haven’t done yet…
Either way, shopping for Product and Equipment can be a minefield of torturous decision making and insecurity… And making the wrong purchase can be worse than not buying anything!
When faced with a multitude of alternative brands and glossy marketing material making grandiose promises, it is always difficult to know where to start.
Most of us get swept up in the excitement of new and exciting products from time to time, only to find them languishing at the bottom of our kit months later while we rely on our familiar and predictable old favorites…
A case in point is Makeup Brushes: how many do you own? Twenty? Forty?
Now, being honest with yourself: how many do you actually USE??? I’d wager that you rely on the same half dozen for everything you do!!
With this in mind, I advise you to read the following list carefully and pick out only items that seem to you to be immediately necessary, or perhaps things that you have seen in other peoples kits and think would be useful to you in your current line of work.
Accumulating a comprehensive and versatile kit is a major investment in your career, so try to only buy things you know you will use or are willing to learn to use!! And always buy the best quality you can afford, that is justified by the work you do.
naomidlynch 