My hardest client experiences and why I don’t regret a single one.

I have really changed my relationship with the word failure these past two years. With every “fail” - always comes a learn, or a new door or opportunity. When you lose a job, you may gain an even better one. When you have an awful client, you know what you have to look out for next time. When you change this relationship, trust me when I say - you become fearless in business. You do things now based not on fear, but on possibility. It’s a wonderful place to be in. I wanted to share today, 3 makeup artist fails I have had in my career, and why I don’t regret a single one.

The job that almost killed me.

Storytime 1. I was on a Lenovo campaign, one of the first big campaigns of my career. First big fail of the day, our lovely model turned up for a campaign where there are a lot of hand shots, with chipped black nail polish. Of course, our male director sends her to makeup. First of all, its absolutely not our job to do nails. It’s actually the fault of the director, to not ensure the model had a manicure beforehand. Secondly, let’s just say, if I had just had a nude polish and remover with me - I wouldn’t have had to venture out to Boots and buy one, not putting production behind for over an hour. Big learn number 1, carry the darn nail polish. But this wasn't what almost killed me. I had communicated my nut allergy to production, but not wanting to make a fuss I didn’t communicate its actually a life threatening allergy. When lunch rolls around - I dig into a bacon chicken wrap, which had been mixed up and was actually satay. Within seconds - I know I am in danger. Long story short, I had to leave the set and received harsh words from the director via email the next day. I hated this shoot, everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. But I learnt a lot. I learnt to always carry nail polish. But more importantly, I learnt to be aggressive with my dietary requirements. I wanted to be small, I wanted to be non existent, I wanted to do my job and be as little fuss as possible. Doing this endangered my life. We are conditioned as women to always feel this way, to not make a fuss. Lemme tell you, make the damn fuss. Nobody cares I promise you.

The bride I had to break up with.

This was a fairly recent one. A bride came to me, with the dream editorial wedding. At the trial, she wanted a really nice soft glam look, the type I’m an expert at. But when it came to checking in a couple of days later, she gave me the feedback that her mother wasn't a fan of the look, and she sent me a very full glam arabic look she wanted on the day. She then spent 2 weeks, Whatsapping me, emailing me, frantic messages about everything from eyeshadows, to lipsticks to bespoke mood boards. I knew we were no longer a match. When I received a phone call from her, explaining her wedding planner had arranged another makeup artist and giving me a list of demands, I knew I had to do the hardest thing, and break up with her. It wasn’t easy, but she actually turned out to be super nice and agreed, the brief and expectation had changed, and she was no longer my ideal client. And I was no longer her perfect match makeup artist. I learnt from this, to trust my gut. To trust myself to make the right decision. I felt sick to my stomach when I was doing it, but after I felt so calm and at peace. I would have hated every minute of that wedding. And as such, I had an amazing low key bride book in her place.

The student who left my course.

I debated talking about this one, but I decided I have nothing to be ashamed of here and neither does the student in question. It just wasn’t working. During Season 3 of my mentorship programme, one of my students started the course full steam ahead. Absolutely smashing it. She managed to complete most of her goals before the programme was halfway through and I was feeling really good about her progress and positivity. But then, she started missing our one on one calls. Another week went by and another week was missed. By week 3, I checked in and she told me she wanted to leave the course. She promptly left all of our group chats and ghosted me. I won’t lie, I was left a bit knocked in confidence. She was doing so well, and I thought our relationship was super strong and solid. I reached out concerned, but it all fell on deaf ears. I questioned myself, am I good teacher? Is this a good course? What am I even doing here? The truth? I will never know why she left. She may not have been enjoying it, she might have had things going on. I’ll probably never know, but I know in my heart I did all I could to teach and serve to the highest capacity. Sometimes in our work, we can do everything, we can be the best we can be. But it doesn’t work. And that’s OK. I could have declared myself a failure. Or I can go back, look at my course structure, look at myself and strive to improve. I can look at the 90% of students who gave me amazing feed back and focus on them. I can create contingency plans to better support those who may fall behind. Don’t focus on the failure, focus on the future. What can be learnt from every outcome?