CHENNAI: Last week, I had a dream that Elton John released his own make-up line. I went on to be his make-up artist in this dream, though I didn’t have any products from his line. In fact, when I started to do his face, I realised that my entire toolkit had turned into crayons. Regardless, as a consummate professional (certified in my dreams), I decided to power through. Unfortunately, Elton John’s face started to morph as I was doing his make-up, and by the end of it, I had scribbled with red and gold metallic crayons all over my poor boyfriend’s face.
Is this my subconscious being upset about the over-saturation of celebrity make-up collaborations? The other assumption is that my silly loved-up brain needs to strategically place said boyfriend in any and all conceivable situations. Can any dream interpreters in my audience confirm or deny this hypothesis, please? The most likely outcome, however, is this: dream version of me had no idea what she was doing to Elton’s face because much like the awake me — she is not a make-up artist. She is a make-up enthusiast. Read that once again.
Let me explain this to you: professional make-up artists get paid to apply make-up. Social media personalities are professional YouTubers/vloggers/Instagrammers whose subject matter happens to be make-up or beauty. It’s just a different job and that’s okay. Both have their place in the industry and have varying information to offer. The Instagram age makes it so easy to forget that being a makeup artist is so much more than just liking make-up. It goes into colour theory, sanitation (did you know that there should be a set percentage of alcohol for it to disinfect?) and endless amounts of research. It’s more than just being able to do one look on yourself, it’s being able to manipulate products to work with every skin tone/texture possible.
Maybe I’m just being salty but I’m tired of seeing ‘beauty gurus’ and ‘make-up artists’ do the same thing on their faces over and over again, only for people to praise the lords saying “Slay queen this make-up is goals for real on fleek” of course it looks great. They’ve been doing the same exact thing every day for goodness knows how long. These aren’t skills, it is essentially muscle memory at this point. My ability to cook well and talk about food forever does not make me a chef automatically. The two terms are not mutually exclusive, and just because you are one, it does not mean that you are the other. Someone who talks about everything they bought at Sephora is not an artist, even though they have extensive knowledge about products. If anyone needs me, I’ll be in bed listening to Elton John’s power ballads while consulting the World Wide Web about my strange yet fascinating dreams. Apologies if I offend, but no, this does not qualify me to be a makeup artist either. Ciao!
SAUMYA R CHAWLA @pixie.secrets