Behind the scenes
The Editor
What a make-up artist does on lockdown!
Sonia Schofield is an award winning wedding make-up artist. She also works in tv and film and is the head of hair and make-up for York Fashion Week. Here she tells us what she has been up to during lockdown and shares with us her latest video on how to do make-up as we return to our normal lives.
Being a hair and make-up artist felt like an impossible career to maintain during the Corona virus pandemic. I have a very up close and personal job so my busy life of weddings, photo shoots and make-up lessons came to an abrupt ending when lockdown was announced.
I spent the first few weeks in shock while trying to move dates for all my devastated brides. I set up a group of fellow hair and make-up artists so that if we were unable to do our brides revised dates, we could at least recommend someone who we knew and trusted to replace us. I wore no wear make-up around the house for the first few weeks as I threw myself into baking, tidying and helping my daughter adjust to our new isolated life. Then once I missed putting make-up on, the experimentation began!
With only my face to work on I have gone through every eyeshadow colour and make-up look imaginable! It has been a very valuable time for me to work on looks I may never have had the time to try out, so I feel I have learnt a lot. My 11 year old daughter has been a very good sport by letting me try out numerous hairstyles on her!
I have learnt to adapt to how to do my work online which is something that initially terrified me! I have got to grips with “zoom” where I do network meetings which has kept me connected to all my business contacts and has boosted my motivation.
And You Tube! If you had asked me about having my own channel at the beginning of the year, I would laughed! I believed that it was just for the famous and very young, especially in the make-up world! With much time on my hands I decided to give it a go. I spent a week with 3 different cameras trying to get the right position and lighting. Many things went wrong to start with. I spent over an hour talking to camera one day and I hadn’t even pressed record! After filming every day for one week I still had nothing to show for all my effort. One day it finally all came together with the right camera angle, good lighting and I got my words out correctly! I absolutely love doing them now as it allows me to continue my passion for make-up and skincare whilst also sharing it with the whole world! It really cheers me up to receive messages from people to say how much a video has helped them.
My growing online confidence has even allowed me to start offering my private make-up tutorials via zoom. Being able have an in-depth discussion about a clients’ skin allows me to recommend the best products for them even if it is via the computer screen. I have sat with a client and talked her through step by step how to do a dramatic cut crease eyeshadow look! This time in many ways has been very beneficial to me however I can not wait to get back to work on some real faces!
My most recent You Tube video is how to create a day look that would be perfect for work and job interviews. This is a look that would be great to master as we are gradually returning to work and the outside world in general!
