How To Work Faster Under Pressure

Over the years, I have learned to work speedy for fast paced environments.
When I first started, I was a not very confident and I was unsure of a few things, so it would take me hours to finish one face. I would get so frustrated, start all over again, and it would slow me down. After working on a few photo shoots and video productions, I learned that time is money and it's not good to waste people's time if there is a way you can do things at a faster pace.

After working for Macy's and The Body Shop for a few years, I learned how to work faster to build more clientele in one day, to increase sales, and to keep my boss and the customer happy at the same time. Attending Make Up First also helped me to increase my speed by learning to use more products that do more than one job for me. Over the years, I learned how to 'cheat' a full face of makeup just by doing a few things differently. I ONLY do this for fashion shows, certain photo shoots or for events that I know the makeup doesn't need to last long.

Want to know how? Let me show you :-)

1.) Prep.


- For starters, prepping the skin is the most important thing to make it ready for makeup. I start with baby wipes. Don't bother to purchase fancy 'makeup remover' wipes, it is the EXACT same thing as a baby wipe. Don't be fooled.



- To make things faster, I mix my moisturizers, primers and my liquid foundations all together so I have a concoction of everything I need in one go. You are basically making a tinted moisturizer within a short amount of time.



2.) Brows

- I use a brown or taupe matte eye shadow as a filler, shape it with an angled brush, set it with a brow gel, and I'm done within 1 minute. Don't bother with pencils, or 'brow' powders, or stencils. Remember you're crunched for time, work with the natural arch and fill in where you see fit.



- If I am working with thick or curly brows, sometimes I use a brown/black mascara to fill them in. Mascara has a waxy formula which is perfect for taming unruly brows. I take an angled brush, swipe a small amount of the mascara formula off the wand, apply on brows and fill in where needed.



3.)Eyes

- You have your foundations laid down, so make sure you use a cream eye shadow or even a colored pencil as your base so you won't have any powder eye shadow fall on your fresh face. Use your cream eye shadow or pencil as your primer! Then lightly apply the powder eye shadow on top to set it.




4.)Cheeks
- Grab your highlighter/blush & your contour color, put them side by side.
Similar to how the NARS blush duo is set up>>


Use a fan brush to go over the colors.


Now you can highlight & contour at the same time! :-D



5.) Lips
- Gloss is usually the easiest way to cover the lips at a fast pace.
If you are required to apply lipstick, there are two ways to apply it faster.

A.) Apply lipstick with a brush, clean it up with concealer.
B.) Apply tape to the corners of the lips, apply the lipstick on top, the tape will clean up your edges for you.



You will be done in 5-10 minutes guaranteed.
Practice, practice, practice!!


Jon Recana Photography & Emily Gualdoni Photography