Airbrushing, another way to apply makeup !

We are a little late with this blog so please forgive us we have been so busy here at Olive Training but we thought we would share one of our courses with you.

It was great to be able to get the airbrushes out again and show students how versatile this piece of equipment really is. Makeup students start sweating a bit when you take away their traditional brushes and put an airbrush in their hand, suddenly they become a little apprehensive.

Our last airbrushing course ran in December and following the awarding body's criteria we were able to demonstrate and teach the students to apply different body paints with lots of varied techniques. Once the students had got to grips with varying the flow of paint there is no stopping them.

Our students were able to showcase their skills throughout the three day course and were soon adept at applying washes, pulsing and the art of back bubbling, which always causes a bit of a stir and if thestudent isn't careful explodes the paint on to them, causing a giggle or two.

After turning one of our regular models and friend a perfect purple (lucky that purple was her favourite colour!) camouflage techniques were then acquired. This is perfect if tattoos, scars or brithmarks need to be hidden for any reason. Also traditional looks such as day, bridal or evening makeup application can be successfully achieved very quickly through an airbrush giving a better finish. One product applied is a silicone base and is ideal for long lasting applications such as wedding makeup.

We loved showing how a alcohol based paint could be used for tattoos and didn't come off not matter how much we washed and slept on it over the three days. It was still going strong after the course.

For assessment purposes the assignment was themed "Secret Garden Avante Garde" and the planning stage was given lots of thought with a mood board being produced. A shoutout on Facebook achieved a lucky break as Actress Elaine Caulfield said she would give her time to come and be a model. We warned her that she would be sitting for a long time and would be painted within an inch of her life but this didn't phase her at all. Once seated she told us of early mornings and times in makeup so we were thankful that she understood.

The student makeup artist used waterbased paints to achieve a lovely pick and silver wash over her upper body and used stencils to apply a ivy leaf over her with a bird motif on her back. Some finishing touches were applied freehand and our lovely model Elaine was dressed. Her hair was pulled and teased into a wild birds nest with a halo of roses. We even had a professional photographer Barbara Leatham come take some photographs as we sneaked a few of our own.

As it was Christmas a lot of quality streets were consumed through this course not normally allowed in the salon but it was Christmas. In fact we knew it was Christmas because we found our model Elaine was actually on our television screens passing the decoration on the Christmas Tree in the link between programmes. We thank her very much for giving up her valuable time to help our students pass their course, and of course all the other models that help too.

We love how our courses turn out and we love seeing our students enjoying themselves learning new skills.

If you want to know more about this course please contact us.