The Makeup Insider

Send us Fan Mail The Makeup Insider is a weekly one-on-one podcast exploring the life and career of makeup artists, hosted by freelance mua Vanessa Barney. This week we take a look at a different type of artist, Automation-Queen, Charlotte Isaac . Organised, tick. Talented, tick. Super friendly, tick. Meet Charlotte. An all-round organisational bada$$ who works with creative business owners to str...

Send us Fan Mail The Makeup Insider is a weekly one-on-one podcast exploring the life and career of makeup artists, hosted by freelance mua Vanessa Barney. This week: getting personal with Serena Wyllie , makeup artist, Sydney-sider and ‘Queen of Glow’. Growing up in a small country town, Serena established her business from her bedroom-turned-studio at the age of 16. From watching Chloe Morello o...

Send us Fan Mail This week: getting personal with Claire Bridgett , makeup artist and content creator.  Inspired by beauty YouTube videos, Claire’s confidence in her natural makeup abilities sprouted early in her life. From doing friends' makeup to working at Mecca - she explains how her career unfolded. Whether you’re just starting out or have been in the industry for a long time, tune in no...

Send us Fan Mail This week: getting personal with Kate McCleary , a cruelty free and environmentally conscious, hair and makeup artist. Based in Melbourne, Kate understands the life of a mua is anything but straight and narrow. She starts off by telling us about a photo on her studio wall that is over nine years old and still one of her collection favs, boasting the importance of authentic collabo...

Send us Fan Mail This week: getting personal with Tess Homles , hair and makeup artist, mother and masterclass host. Tess is responsible for the makeup on the cover shoot of ‘Then there was her’, Sophie Cachia ’s biography, which just dropped last month and the many-a celeb glow-ups, including Sophie Monk and Jessica Gomes .  “You know, it never really gets easier taking photos of yourself for vid...

Send us Fan Mail The Makeup Insider is a fortnightly podcast exploring the life and career of makeup artists, hosted by freelance mua Vanessa Barney. This week: getting personal with Nicole Aquilina , Melbourne events-based makeup artist.   Inspired by Australia’s Next Top Model , Nicole was drawn into the creativeness of the makeup, beauty and events world.   With 11 years’ experience across comm...

Send us Fan Mail This week: getting personal with Carla Dyson , commercial and bridal international hair and makeup artist. If you follow Carla , you can see she’s always been a creative person. Her social media profile presents her career highlights, industry secrets, behind the scenes footage and how-to’s. Her top tip: work on speed. It’s important for clients and will generate higher ROI for yo...

Send us Fan Mail The Makeup Insider is a fortnightly podcast exploring the life and career of makeup artists, hosted by freelance mua Vanessa Barney. This week: getting personal with Pinkiiieee (aka Nicole Thompson ), makeup artist, author and mum. With an eclectic career spanning 20 years, Pinky thrives on new challenges and has said yes to working all types of jobs from magazine, editorials and...

Send us Fan Mail This week: getting personal with Nigel Stanislaus , a Singaporean-Chinese hair and makeup artist living in Melbourne whose celebrity client list spans Bella and Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner , John Legend , Jenna Dewan, Tina Arena, Troye Sivan, Olivia Newton John, Peaches Geldoff, Ruby Rose and Michael Bublé. Born and raised by strong, resilient women, Nigel was compelled into the ar...

Send us Fan Mail This week: getting personal with Ashleigh Carpenter , Melbourne makeup artist and hairdresser. Predominantly working on commercial and editorial shoots, Ashleigh always wanted to be a makeup artist. Using a mood board, she curates looks she’s obsessed with, keen to master and to influence her style. She also lets her creative side flair working Melbourne’s Spring Fashion Festivals...

Send us Fan Mail This week: getting personal with Ava Belle , Australian makeup artist of the year.   From face painting at children’s parties in Dubai, to glamour studios in London and nightclub body painting in Soho, Ava is a Byron-born Aussie creative star! With over 15 years’ experience, Ava’s makeup journey started when she was just a little girl watching her mum face paint at School fates.  ...

Send us Fan Mail This week: getting personal with @ Gemma Elaine , one of Brisbane’s top mua’s who has been working in the industry for over 16 years. PUT YOUR HANDS UP IF YOUR MAKEUP KIT CONTAINS… sounds like the start of a drinking game, right? But curating your kit is one of the key ingredients to success as a makeup artist. We got the low-down from Gemma on what she puts in her kit, the questi...

Send us Fan Mail This week: getting personal with Ebony Kay , film, TV and special effects mua and prosthetics specialist.   From a creative arts background at school to falling in love with special effects artistry and anything involving character-creation, Ebony had over 200 hours of work experience when she finished studying and launched her freelancing career.    Are you interested in special...

Send us Fan Mail This week: getting personal with Sue McLaurin , Brisbane makeup artist and educator with over 20 years’ experience. Ever wanted to change careers, but thought… I’m too old to start over? Not for Sue McLaurin! Sue was working in the travel industry in Europe for most of her twenties, travelling and loving the feel-good freedom that the lifestyle brought. It was only when she return...

Send us Fan Mail This week: getting personal with Kylie O’Toole - mua whose work includes ‘dead’ bodies, intimate boob scenes and more.   Ever wondered the type of artistry that goes into making a body look ‘dead’ in the movies, on TV, etc. First you learn how they died, what that wound would like look, how the skin would look, etc. For Kylie, she found herself painting ‘dead’ bodies at the tender...

Send us Fan Mail The Makeup Insider is a weekly one-on-one podcast exploring the life and career of makeup artists, hosted by freelance mua Vanessa Barney. This week: getting personal with Rob Povey , fashion and advertising makeup artist who seeks inspiration from the arts, environment, and subcultures.   Makeup artists inspire and find inspiration in the world around them. Models are live billbo...

Send us Fan Mail This week: getting personal with Harriet Hadfield , makeup artist, business coach and founder of freelancewithfreedom .   Hands up if you’re an all or nothing kind of person? Harriet admits she sure is! And there’s nothing wrong with giving it your all, in fact – we highly recommend it. “One day stays one day, if you never make it real ~ H.H.” Understanding how to find your place...

Send us Fan Mail This week: getting personal with Rebecca Buchanan , owner of straight up bookkeeping – a virtual bookkeeping service which helps small businesses understand and track their sales, income and expenses to make better business decisions. If your side hustle has grown into a fully fledged business, or you’re just about to launch your business – you need to manage your finances. Bookke...

Send us Fan Mail The Makeup Insider is a weekly one-on-one podcast exploring the life and career of makeup artists, hosted by freelance mua Vanessa Barney. This week: getting personal with Ellie Zuker , makeup artist, hairstylist and life-long learner.   Learning is incredibly important. No matter what industry you’re in. The thing about learning is, while you may not take everything in – you take...

Send us Fan Mail This week: getting personal with Chelsea Nieper , an experienced advertising producer who pushes boundaries to make the impossible, possible. Producers are quintessential in aligning a client’s vision with the agency’s brief. With over 15 years’ experience, generally in the advertising agency realm, Chelsea reveals her top tips to getting a foot in the door with producers, gives i...

Send us Fan Mail The Makeup Insider is a weekly one-on-one podcast exploring the life and career of makeup artists, hosted by freelance mua Vanessa Barney. This week: getting personal with Stella Tu , Taiwan-born mua who launched her own line, Tu+Kit and grew her following from 8,000 to 80,000 through Instagram Reels. ***Language warning*** Ever felt the cold sting of rejection? Yikes! It’s someth...

Send us Fan Mail The Makeup Insider is a weekly one-on-one podcast exploring the life and career of makeup artists, hosted by freelance mua Vanessa Barney. This week: getting personal with Mia Connor , fashion and red carpet-style makeup artist. For freelance makeup artists, content creation days are the new TFP’s (time for print). Mua’s often use this time to build their portfolio with work that...

Send us Fan Mail The Makeup Insider is a weekly one-on-one podcast exploring the life and career of makeup artists, hosted by freelance mua Vanessa Barney.  Integral to the success of any makeup artist is their ability to pivot styles to suit the brief. Makeup often needs to change to complement the client, the lighting, the photographer or the trend. @Julia Green is thankful makeup has come such...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 1 This week: getting personal with Monica Gingold, a highly skilled, go-to makeup artist who transforms current trends into relevant concepts for the makeup industry. For Monica Gingold, everything fell naturally in to place once she built up her little black book of industry connections (and put a hell-of-a-lot of work in along the way!). If you’re just starting out or ha...