Caoimhe Gaynor is a recent 1 Year Make-Up Specialist Course graduate and talks about her experience at LA Make-Up and how her career is progressing.

Growing up, like every other little girl my age, I was completely fascinated by make-up. I could spend hours destroying my face with my mothers lipstick and eye shadow. As I grew older, this fascination is something that never went away. No matter what I did or tried to study, I knew make-up was the only career for me. Finally, one day I made the decision to enroll in LA Make-up Academy’s “One year Make-Up Specialist Course”. I have never looked back since.

I chose LA simply because of the amazing feed back I had heard from pass students. I knew they were the best, and I wanted to be the best.

I will never forget my first day at LA. I approached the college nervous and apprehensive but as soon as I entered the building, worry was the furthest thing from my mind. LA has an aura about it, a certain atmosphere that has the ability to make anyone feel at ease. I fell in love with the place and the people straight away.

What I loved most about the one year course was the wide range of topics we covered. If it was something to do with make-up, believe me we studied it. It was so exciting learning how to do everything from high fashion make-up to airbrushing, even special effects. Amongst others, we did a two week hair course with a top stylist and that has proved to be hugely beneficial. It is  definitely a great addition to what you can offer as a working make-up artist and has come in very handy over the last few months. It’s great to be able to offer hair as well as make-up on a shoot or for a bridal party. It means less hassle for the client and that gives you an advantage against the other make-up artists out there.

What I miss most about my course is not seeing the girls in my class every day. Over the year we grew very close. Spending so much time with the same group of people, it would have been hard not to. This is my favourite photo of all of us together with our head tutor, the amazing Amanda Sharkey. I love this because I feel as though it captures the essence of what LA is all about. It was taken on the day of our final photo shoot, which was rather emotional to say the least.

Over the course of the year, we had a photo shoot every other week. In fact, it’s only since I’ve left LA I’ve realised how important these shoots were. Speaking to other girls at my level who may have trained at other colleges, I have so much more experience because of it. Working with top photographers every week is something that you take for granted in college. It’s only when you hit the real world you realise how good you really had it.

This is my all time favourite photo from my portfolio. It was shot by the very talented Alex Hutchinson. I love this so much because for something so simple, it turned out to be a truly striking photograph. To the naked eye it seems as though I have done very little to this model, but in fact, her entire body was highlighted and shaded and I think that this is captured beautifully here. My idea of the perfect make-up is something that enhances a womans natural beauty, not covers it up. As a make-up artist, you often have ideas about what you want from a photo, and often you don’t quite get what you hoped for. This is exactly what I had seen in my head and I was so happy with the end result.

Since I’ve left LA I’m delighted to say that I have had a very hectic schedule. I work with Inglot Cosmetics part time and try to do as much free-lance as is possible in my spare time. LA have been brilliant for sending me on work experience and I can’t begin to tell you how much this has benefited me. Representing LA, I’ve worked at fashion shows, music videos, and photo calls but to name a few. Just last week I was sent to a cover shoot for ‘TV NOW’ where I was given the opportunity to work on some of the stars of ‘Faircity’.  LA Make-up have given me the opportunity to work on projects and to meet people that I would have never had the chance to at such an early stage in my career. Their work experience programme is second to none, and it has really helped build my confidence a huge amount .Leaving my course, I had no inhibitions or worries  about how I would cope in the ‘real world’ of make-up. LA completely prepared me for everything that was in store and continue to do so now.

Going to LA and becoming a professional make-up artist really has made all of my dreams come true. I’m finally doing what I adore and nothing ever feels like ‘work’. I wake up in the morning and look forward to the day ahead of me.  I would highly recommend the Academy to anyone who has ever dreamed of  taking make-up as a career. As I said to begin with, it really is an experience that will change your life for the better. Even though my course if finished, with the experience that LA have given me, I only have the future to look forward to, and I hope it’s a bright one.