andrew joseph manion, creative hair director moving into make up

I have been a hair stylist for over 13 years and worked on some incredible shows. I am now training as a makeup artist after seeing how hair and make up marry together.As part of my career as a hair stylist I have worked on many photo shoots and fashion shows and I have been fortunate enough to be head stylist at Manchester and Liverpool Fashion week 2015 and 2016. Working on these jobs I realised over the years that for me to stay ahead of the game I needed to be able to do makeup, as this will increase my opportunities. So I enrolled on a course in Liverpool and will keep you up to date with my progress:
Week 1:
Well where do I start???? To begin with I didn’t think that we would be learning about blood splatters and bullet wounds on our first lesson on a Monday morning that’s for sure. Here we all were (myself and 16 women, yes I am the only guy, again! Haha) all eager and keen sat in anatomy and physiology and boom…We were told about what to expect in class, crime and ballistic, blood splatter, death and decomposition etc etc, to say there was a few ashen faces was an understatement haha, next we were shown a 10 min video of scenes of heads being blown off, legs and arms flying everywhere. Sarah, our lecturer says ever so casual “You have to get used to seeing the real thing, because you will have to recreate it one day. If anyone feels a bit faint just don’t worry get up and get some air”…..   
Welcome to SFX makeup 101…

Next session to throw us in at the deep end was practical application with Diane, Lip Art…….  We all had to pick a word out of a basket, mine was blood!!! Great, what is it with all this blood I thought haha.  Easy you would think, ohhhhhh no, not at all, especially when the last time I really picked up a makeup brush I referred to myself as Miss Sapphire and was in my teens not 30’s. 
So away I go, a week to research and experiment before I had my first practical assessment… Who to use as a model? Well to start I used myself as I was at least used to that. Then I used my friend Rachel, then my sister Jo…
So that was my first week as an MUA on my degree, I have really enjoyed it and I am excited and slightly scared of what is to come. 
The next pic is of me doing my first assessment, but we will leave that for next week’s blog.  
Until then, have a great week, 
Andy Manion.

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