How to prep skin for a makeup artist coming to your home
A checklist for the day before and the hour before your makeup artist arrives: what to cleanse, what to moisturise, what to leave alone, and what to have ready.
Makeup
The short answer to how to prep skin for a makeup artist: cleanse, moisturise lightly about an hour before she arrives, and do nothing new. The best canvas is skin your artist can read, not skin that is still reacting to a peel, a mask or a product you tried last night. Everything else on this page is detail.
The week before: change nothing
If you have a skincare routine that works, keep it. If you do not, this is not the week to start one. New actives, new masks and new sunscreens are the usual reason a face is red or flaky on the day, and no foundation hides a reaction well.
Book any waxing or threading for the face at least three or four days before makeup, so the redness has settled and the skin is no longer tender. Threading the brows the morning of an event is a common mistake: the skin around them is often pink for hours.
The day before
Exfoliate gently, once, with something you have used before. Flaky patches around the nose and chin are what foundation clings to, and a light exfoliation the night before is the simplest fix. Do not scrub hard and do not exfoliate on the day itself.
Use a hydrating mask if it is one you know. Then a normal night moisturiser. Drink water through the day, and try to sleep: puffiness under the eyes is real, and concealer can only do so much.
If your booking includes hair, wash it the night before or in the morning and let it dry fully. Our stylists ask for hair that is washed before we arrive, with no oil, serum or leave-in product, because product changes how hair holds a curl or a pin.
The hour before she arrives
This is the part that matters most.
- Cleanse. Wash your face with your usual cleanser and pat it dry. No makeup left on, including yesterday's mascara.
- Moisturise, lightly. A thin layer of your usual day moisturiser, applied about an hour before, so it has time to sink in. Skin that is still greasy when the artist arrives makes foundation move; skin that is tight and dry makes it patchy.
- Lip balm. Put it on now and wipe the excess off just before she starts lips. Dry lips are the hardest thing to fix in the chair.
- Nothing else. No primer, no sunscreen, no tinted moisturiser, no eye cream unless your artist has asked. She carries what she needs and will choose what suits the finish you have agreed. If you have a sunscreen you must wear because you will be outdoors, tell her before she starts.
- Brows and lashes bare. No brow gel, no mascara, no lash serum on the day.
If you wear contact lenses, put them in before makeup, not after. If you have a skin condition, an allergy or a product you know you react to, say so when you book and again when she arrives. That is not fussy. It is the single most useful thing you can tell her.
What to have ready in the room
A makeup artist works with light, so the chair matters more than anything else on this list.
- A chair near a window, facing the daylight, with room for her to stand on both sides. A dining chair is better than a sofa.
- A small table or a clear surface for her kit.
- A power socket nearby if hair is included.
- A top that does not go over your head. A shirt that buttons, a robe or a wide-necked top. Pulling a dress over a completed face is how eyeshadow ends up on a collar.
- Your outfit, or a photograph of it, and the jewellery you will wear. Colour and neckline change what suits.
- Two or three reference pictures of looks you like, and one of a look you do not. Our guide to choosing an evening makeup look explains how to describe what you want in words an artist can act on.
Eat before she arrives. Nobody enjoys lipstick applied on an empty stomach, and you will not want to eat once your lips are done.
What happens when she arrives
Your therapist washes her hands before she touches your face, and the sponges, mascara wands and lip applicators she uses on you are opened new for your booking and thrown away afterwards. Brushes are cleaned between clients. You can read how the kit is handled on our hygiene page, and you are welcome to ask her to show you.
She will look at your skin in the daylight before she opens anything, and that is when to mention the areas you care about: a scar you would like covered, redness you would like calmed, or a feature you would rather she left alone.
Afterwards
If you want the look to last through an evening, ask her to set it. A setting spray is a fine mist applied at the end that helps makeup hold in heat and humidity; in Dubai it earns its place from May to October. Avoid touching your face, blot rather than powder if you get shiny, and keep your lipstick in your bag for after dinner.
What you can book
Hamd Beauty offers day makeup and evening makeup at home, with a woman artist who brings her own kit and works in your daylight. Evening makeup includes lashes. If hair is part of the evening, The Evening Out package pairs evening makeup with an event hairstyle. Book evening makeup and tell us in the notes what you have in mind.
