For our student portfolio, we had seven beauty concepts during our first take, four art concepts during our second take and body painting on a separate, third take.

I cried at the end of each take.

Sure, we had experience in taking time-pressured exams, and I thought I was chill enough and in a good mental state to perform well on the day. What I didn't account for was all the planning. Our photographer was really good (as I saw in past student portfolios) so I wanted to make the most of my shoots. For the first take, I started prepping about three weeks before shoot date. It sounds fine for two or three concepts, but I had seven, and I wasn't even using full days to prep as I had classes in the afternoon.

It was totally not fine.

This first take was definitely the worst. I'm the kind of artist who likes to marinade in my ideas. I like sitting down for hours, walking around, looking dumbly into space and starting up on a draft after a couple of hours of inactivity. I like to have three, ten, twenty-five revisions before I get comfy with my concept. It could be a sign of incompetence (maybe I'm not a real artisté) but that's my comfort zone.

The poor preparation overwhelmed me, and I additionally had to worry about hiring models, preparing props, costumes, backgrounds and lighting concept.

Basically, I needed to come prepared with an exact photo already in my mind. I couldn't just say sexy or glam or classy. I couldn't just say, I want to do period makeup. I needed to be like.... give me warm- no, warmer- lighting, 45 degree shadow, light beige background with a dark outer gradient, her robe needs to be down at all shots because I want a peek of the negligee.

I couldn't do that when I didn't feel fixed with my makeup concepts yet.

What's worse, we had a skincare concept. Being that I studied in Korea, I put undue pressure on myself to find the perfect Korean model for the Korean skincare concept so I could say my time there was worthwhile. I even pressed myself to find Korean models for the rest of the shoots in case I had a hard time booking one, even though most of the other concepts are foreign-suited i.e. mascara and foundation. 

Long story short, it ended up majorly FUCKED when my model suddenly cancelled two hours before shoot. Thankfully, one of the other models subbed with me and those last-minute adjustments + my paranoia in bringing all my props early actually produced great photos. Partida, this model admits to having difficult lips that most makeup artists complain about. The bows and curves of her lips are quite exaggerated, so it's quite difficult to paint in that template lip shape. They were also a bit uneven, so had to up my concentration level over 9000 to make sure I was drawing a straight line without following her actual lips but still making it look balanced on her. Thankfully, a nice photo came through.

But that's not even my favorite shot. My favorite concept is my New Product Ad concept for the MUFE Starlit line. A long time ago, I saw the teachers passing around some kind of leaflet about the starlit powders, and they looked soft and angelic to me.

Naturally, the concept I wanted was something quiet, elegant, and simple. My heart fell with insecurity at the sight of my classmates bringing luggages of props and rainbow spectra of feathers, nails, foils and silks, but I had so much love for my concept that all these insecurities just became background noise.

Model: Aoliya

Photographer: 김다운

Assisted by: 이준영

Hair: 이춘영

Academy Mentors: 배민주, 김정윤

Concept, Styling, Makeup, Wardrobe: Kristel Yap Makeup Artist

You may email kristelyapmua @ gmail . com for inquiries.