Illamasqua Seminar - 23/09/2015
Sharon (Spob) O'Brien and Helen Roche from Illamasqua came into the University to talk to us about their careers, their experiences in the makeup industry and then also answered any questions that we had. The talk that both Spob and Helen gave was so inspiring and very eye opening. It made me extremely excited to start learning new skills and researching more in depth about the industry and future projects. Spob said during the talk that 'Personality is everything' and it made me really think about myself as a person and how i can improve. Spob has been in the industry now for 29 years, she has worked on Leonardo DiCaprio, worked in theatre but mainly works in Tv and Film.  Her most recent being the brand new Bond film. Spob has been with Illamasqua since the very beginning and is now the head of Professional development. Helen has worked on Xfactor since 2011 and is now one of the Pro makeup artists at Illamasqua. Both Helen and Spob also highlighted the fact that even though they have both been in the industry for a very long time and have a massive amount of experience they are always learning new skills, there is never a point where you know everything about the industry, makeup, hair, you are always learning.

Illamasqua Demonstration - 23/09/2015
Following on from the talk that Spob and Helen gave they showed us a demonstration of the runway look that their team did for the designer Sorapol in London fashion week. They talked through all the different products that they used and the reasons behind why they used these products. Spob explained her inspiration for the look, and she chose to get inspiration from the colour run where there were explosions of powder paint. Sorapol told Spob that he wanted colour and thats what Spob took into account when she was researching and working on different looks. She explained to us how important research is, how everyone can look on the internet to get inspiration for a look. Chances are if they have looked at it online thousands of other artists have too because it is so easily accessible, therefore she explained that you should get inspiration from elsewhere, books, exhibitions, different places around the world. Inspiration can come from anywhere and that spark of creativity can hit at any time. Their knowledge of products really stood out to me, you can tell they have done so much research into what will and wont work. There are a lot of factors in putting together a makeup look, you have to think about what the type of light, location, heat, weather that the model will experience and work out what products would be best from there.

Charles Fox / Kryolan Demonstration - 24/09/2015
Gemma Horner came to speak to us and give us a demonstration of a 'beauty' look. Gemma is an Essex based makeup artist who works for the Kryolan international team. She has worked her way up in the industry through starting out at college doing Media Makeup and Hair to then going on to Kryolan in the Covent Garden store in London to do work experience. After doing her work experience there she was then offered a part time job and now works full time and has worked there for 10 years. Gemma made clear that trying to find work experience was extremely hard, the Kryolan waiting list for work experience is 1 year, and getting your name out there to different artists to try and assist is very difficult. She demoed a 'beauty' look where she explained all the products she was using and why, this was extremely helpful to learn more in depth about products that were in our kit. She also mentioned how jobs don't come instantly once you leave education, you will not become successful and experienced straight away. It is extremely hard to get your name out there. Gemma is the only person still in the industry from her college course, this shows how much determination and dedication to the job she has, i admire that about her and would love to have that determination myself.