29 Make-up
BEAUTY under lockdown Well-known professional make-up artist, RYNO MULDER, gives his perspective of how this sector of the beauty industry has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
T
he unprecedented coronavirus pandemic forced many make-up artists to take a hard look at their careers and the place luxury and non-essential services have in this uncertain global environment. I, for one, had serious regrets about my life choices and in all honesty, still do. A worldwide catastrophe was something none of us ever expected to encounter anywhere, other than in a blockbuster film plot. People will always have their hair cut but a professional make-up application is a special occasion occurrence, unless the artist works in the film, television or advertising industries, all of which took a knock during lockdown. Print media, long predicted to disappear amidst the digital revolution, swiftly succumbed locally, as most consumer magazines closed and as a result, the already competitive local beauty editorial market virtually disappeared overnight.
live make-up lessons and make-up workshops online. There certainly was an upswing in interest in makeup classes, as many career women now have to conduct business via Zoom meetings and navigate how to appear professional whilst working from home. The compulsory wearing of masks in public also changed the fashion and beauty industry as now only one’s eyes are visible. Eye make-up requires the most complex application skills, so women who used to rely on a lick of mascara and a bright lip colour now consider improving their eye make-up game. That said, economic uncertainty saw consumers hold onto their purse strings tightly and pull back from expenses that seemed frivolous. Make-up became an obvious choice for cutting back expenses. As with hair stylists, some make-up artists performed the odd service on the sly despite tight regulations prohibiting house calls. I did not.
Forbidden to work
Postponement of weddings
Make-up artists were left prohibited from working. Many of those with an active social media presence used this period for content creation and increased follower engagement in the hopes of upping their bookings once the restrictions were lifted. I opted to adjust my service offering, which has always had a decidedly educational slant, to do
An unfortunate consequence of the pandemic for make-up artists who work mostly in events, especially weddings, was the postponement of the vast majority of weddings until 2021. In some cases, weddings were cancelled, leaving the client and artist to negotiate refund policies. The postponement of weddings meant a loss of income across two years, as most make-up
artists receive a deposit (I require full payment) upfront. So brides booked for 2020 may have paid their artists in 2019. The service being delivered in 2021 means the make-up artist cannot take on the new clients they would have had in 2021, resulting in a knock-on effect. Single income earning make-up artists like myself (in other words persons who do not have the benefit of the salary or the income of a husband, wife or partner), find themselves in an unenviable position where they have to stretch their budgets on these prepaid funds, have negligible new income, and the obligation to perform future services long since paid for. It is an undeniably bleak reality.
Master classes My well-known Make-up Master Classes, which accommodated between 50 to 180 persons prelockdown, have had to be seriously scaled back to the 50-person limit in line with hygiene protocols and social distancing regulations. The amount of effort to organise these events and expenses are mostly the same regardless of the size of the audience which means it is not truly financially viable to host in person events. I’m currently surviving on new types of income streams like working in the film industry, as well as relying on skills other than make-up artistry, to make ends meet. PB online @ probeauty.co.za
