Interview Questions to Ask a Makeup Artist
Written for whoever is doing the hiring: a salon or spa owner, a counter manager, a bridal agency building a roster, or a production crewing up. The 51 questions follow the interview as it tends to go: training and portfolio, how the kit is kept clean, range across skin tones and ages, working to a brief and a deadline, the person in the chair and what they buy, then pay, availability and a trade test. All of it is the employer's side of the table, so a bride choosing an artist for her own wedding needs a different list.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Background
What made you become a makeup artist, and which part of the job wears you out?
Why ask it
Most candidates relax on the why, and it tends to show whether faces, fashion or people pulled them in. Write down the part that wears them out: early calls, standing all day, selling and nervous clients each rule out a different kind of job. If it is the center of your role, say so now.
What training have you had in makeup, and what did you have to teach yourself afterward?
Why ask it
Makeup courses can be a weekend certificate or many months of full-time study, so ask how many of the hours were spent on real faces. Speed, shade matching and bridal work are often picked up on the job, and whatever the candidate names as self-taught shows where the skill came from.
Do you hold a license or certificate for makeup work, and may I see it?
Why ask it
Whether someone needs a license to apply makeup for pay depends on the state or country, and sometimes on the setting, such as a salon versus a film set. Look up the rule for your own business before the interview. Then ask to see the document itself and confirm it with whoever issued it.
Where has most of your paid work come from in the past year: bridal, a counter, a salon, photo shoots or stage?
Why ask it
A resume gives every kind of job one line, and this gets the proportions. An artist with forty weddings and two shoots behind them is a bridal artist, whatever the portfolio opens with. Set the mix against the work you are hiring for.
Choose three pictures from your portfolio and tell me the brief, how long you had and what you would change now.
Why ask it
Anyone can show a good picture. Explaining it proves the work is theirs and shows how they think about a face. The 'change now' part tests their eye: an artist who can fault their own best work will be able to take direction from you.
Which of these images have been retouched, and do you have any taken on a phone in ordinary light?
Why ask it
Editing and filters hide the two things you most need to see: the skin finish and the foundation match at the jaw. A candidate who offers unedited shots without fuss is showing confidence in the work. If every image is studio-lit and smoothed, let the trade test settle it.
Have you assisted a more senior artist, and what did you copy from the way they worked?
Why ask it
Assisting is where a lot of set and bridal habits are learned: how to pack a kit, when to stay quiet, how to hand over a finished face. A specific habit, with the name of the person it came from, also gives you someone to call for a reference.
Do you carry your own insurance, and has a client ever made a complaint or a claim?
Why ask it
For a freelancer joining an agency roster or a production, ask to see the certificate and its dates. For an employee the cover may sit with you instead, so ask your insurer how it works for staff and for anyone using their own kit. A past complaint is no reason to say no, though the way they tell the story might be.
Kit and hygiene
Do you work from your own kit, and what is in it at the moment?
Why ask it
A working artist can list the kit from memory, including what is running low. Ask how many foundation shades they carry and how they cover the ones they do not. If you supply the products, the question becomes how quickly they could learn yours.
Which brands do you reach for most, and is there one you would not put on a client?
Why ask it
Favorites are a quick test of product knowledge: ask why that foundation, on which skin, under which light. A reason such as 'it photographs without shine' or 'it sits well on dry skin' shows thought, where 'everyone uses it' shows habit. On a brand counter, follow with what they know of your range and what they would have to learn.
Take me through what happens to your brushes and tools between one face and the next.
Why ask it
Ask for the steps in order and how long they take, because that time has to fit inside your booking slots. You should hear about a fast-drying brush cleaner or enough brushes to swap sets, plus disposables for lips and lashes. 'I wash them every night' leaves all the faces in between unexplained.
How do you take product out of a lipstick, a cream pot or a mascara so the container stays clean?
Why ask it
The usual professional habit is to scrape or decant onto a palette with a spatula, and to use a fresh disposable wand for every dip into a mascara. An artist who does it daily says so without a pause. If they hesitate, watch exactly this during the trade test.
Someone sits down with what looks like a cold sore, or with a red, watery eye. What do you do?
Why ask it
You are not asking for a diagnosis, and a makeup artist should not offer one. The answer to hope for is that they pause, say something kind and private, and then follow the house policy, whether that is working around the area with disposables or rebooking. If they ask what your policy is, count it in their favor.
What do you ask about allergies and sensitive skin before you start, and what do you do with the answer?
Why ask it
Most artists ask. Fewer know their own products well enough to act on 'I react to fragrance' or 'latex', or write the answer down for the next visit, so push on both. For lash adhesive, ask if they test beforehand, then check what the adhesive's instructions and your insurer expect.
How do you decide when a product in your kit has to be thrown out?
Why ask it
The careful ones describe a system: opening dates written on the packaging, liquids and mascaras replaced soonest, anything that has changed smell or texture gone. Ask what they last threw out and why. Doing this properly costs the artist money, which is why it gets skipped.
On a counter with open testers, how do you keep product safe for the next customer?
Why ask it
Counter work has a problem a private kit does not, because the public has already had fingers in everything. Wiping or sharpening before use, scraping from below the surface and never going straight from a tester to a face are the habits to hear. Leave this one out if you are hiring for bridal or set work.
Range
How do you match foundation on very deep skin and on very fair skin, and which do you find harder?
Why ask it
Everyone has a harder end, and it tends to reflect who sat in their chair at the last job. A strong answer talks about undertone, where on the face or neck they test, and checking the match in daylight. Ask to see portfolio images of both, and make one of them the model in your trade test.
Nothing in the shade range in front of you fits the client. How do you get to a match?
Why ask it
This is the mixing question. Artists who can do it talk about blending two shades, adjusting with a corrector or a mixer, and testing along the jaw before committing. On a counter it also shows whether they would be honest with a customer or sell her the nearest wrong bottle.
What changes in your approach for a client in their sixties or seventies?
Why ask it
Skin prep, less powder, cream textures and a lighter hand around the eyes should come up, along with asking what the client usually wears. The manner counts as much as the technique. Words like 'fix' or 'hide' about an older face would land badly with your clients.
How do you work on skin with active breakouts, texture or scarring, and what do you tell the client it will look like?
Why ask it
Makeup can even out color and cannot flatten texture, and the honest artists tell the client so before they start. Thin layers, spot concealing and clean tools are the technique to hear about. Note any promise of a 'flawless' result, since that word sets up the disappointment in the mirror.
Which looks are you strongest at, and which would you pass to another artist?
Why ask it
'I can do everything' is the weakest reply available. A soft bridal specialist and a bold editorial artist are both employable, as long as you know which one you are getting. Compare what they name with last month's booking sheet or call sheets.
How does your makeup change for daylight, flash photography, video and stage lighting?
Why ask it
A production or a bridal agency needs someone who has seen their own work come back on camera. Concrete replies cover shine, the products they avoid under flash and how much stronger a face has to be for a stage. For salon and counter hires, the daylight part is the one that matters.
Besides a standard face, which of these have you been paid to do: lashes, brows, airbrush, body coverage, men's grooming, hair?
Why ask it
Each is its own skill, and 'paid to do' filters out the ones tried once on a friend. Mark the answers against your service list, where an honest 'not yet' beside two of them is useful for planning. Some of these may need a separate license where you are, so check before adding them to anyone's column.
Have you done character, period or special effects makeup, and what did the job involve?
Why ask it
On a film, theater or events production this can be the center of the role, so ask about materials, application time and how removal was handled when the day ended. Salon, counter and bridal employers can skip it, or treat a yes as a pleasant extra.
How do you keep up with trends, and which recent one would you talk a paying client out of?
Why ask it
Where they look matters less than what they reject. A trend that reads well on a phone screen can look heavy across a dinner table, and an artist who knows the difference will protect your clients from it. No opinion at all suggests they follow more than they think.
Brief and clock
How long do you need for a full face with lashes, and how long for a quick daytime look?
Why ask it
Get the answer in minutes, since that is how you will build their column or the morning schedule. Then ask how often they run over, and by how much. A fast artist who knows where they are slow is easier to plan around than one who says every face takes 'about half an hour'.
You have six faces to finish by ten in the morning. How do you plan it?
Why ask it
Let them do the arithmetic out loud: start time, minutes per face, a cushion, who goes first and who goes last. Experienced bridal and production artists work backward from the deadline without being prompted. Ask at what number of faces they would want a second artist.
You are twenty minutes behind with three people still waiting. Where do you find the time?
Why ask it
The answer should name what gets simpler, perhaps the eye look or the contour, and what is never dropped: skin prep, cleaning between faces and telling whoever is running the day. Saying nothing to the coordinator or the front desk is the costly habit, because the delay lands on them.
A director, a photographer or a bride hands you a mood board. What do you ask before you pick up a brush?
Why ask it
A brief is only as good as the questions put to it. Useful ones cover the lighting, the wardrobe or the dress, how long the look has to last, and which single image matters most. An artist who starts painting without asking is working to their own taste.
How do you take it when the person in charge wants a look changed that you were happy with?
Why ask it
Get a real occasion out of them, with who asked and what was changed. The hire you want makes the change quickly and saves the discussion for later, since on a set or a wedding morning the clock belongs to somebody else. Strong opinions are fine, and arguing them in front of the client is the problem.
How do you make sure a look can be repeated, on day three of a shoot or between a trial and the event?
Why ask it
Continuity is a record-keeping skill: face charts, product and shade lists, photographs from fixed angles. Ask where those records are kept. On an agency roster they also decide whether a colleague could step in when this artist is ill.
What do you need from a location, and what do you do when the light is bad and there is no table?
Why ask it
Location artists have a short list: a window or their own light, a chair at the right height, a surface, an outlet. Experience shows in what they carry for the bad day, such as a portable lamp or a folding table bought after a venue let them down. A salon-only candidate may never have faced it, which is worth knowing if you send staff out.
Tell me about a job you shared with a hair stylist, a wardrobe person or a second artist. Who decided the order of things?
Why ask it
Makeup is rarely the only chair in the room. The story shows whether they agree the running order early or fight over the model at the last minute. Pay attention to how they speak about the other trades, because those people will be your staff or your regular suppliers.
Clients and sales
A new client sits down. What do you ask in the first two minutes?
Why ask it
This is the consultation, where a lot of complaints are either prevented or planted. The occasion, what the client normally wears, what they dislike on themselves and anything their skin reacts to should all come up. Notice whether, in their telling, the client does most of the talking.
A client asks for 'natural' makeup. How do you find out what they mean?
Why ask it
'Natural' covers everything from tinted moisturizer to a full face in soft tones, and guessing wrong is a classic route to an unhappy client. Artists who have been caught by it ask for a photo, ask what the client wears on a normal day, or show one finished eye before doing the other.
A client shows you a picture from social media that will not work on their eye shape or skin. What do you say?
Why ask it
Reference pictures are a routine part of the job, and many are lit and edited beyond what a face does in a room. The reply to hope for keeps what the client liked about it, perhaps the color or the shape of the liner, and explains what will be adapted and why before any product goes on. An artist who simply copies the picture is setting up the complaint.
Tell me about the last client who did not like what they saw in the mirror. What did you do?
Why ask it
Anyone with real experience has this story, so 'it has never happened' is a worry in itself. Follow the order of events: whether they asked what exactly was wrong, what they changed, and who they told. A version in which the client's taste is to blame from start to finish is the one to mark down.
A client says 'this is not me' with ten minutes left. What can you change in that time?
Why ask it
It tests technique and nerve together. Practical fixes exist: sheer out the base, soften the liner, swap the lip, take the lashes down a size. You also want the first move to be a question, because 'not me' often points at one feature and not the whole face.
How do you work with someone who is anxious about their skin, or who has not worn makeup in years?
Why ask it
Nervous clients rarely announce it. Look for small courtesies: explaining each step, handing over the mirror early, starting light and building up. The words the candidate uses about skin in this answer are the words your clients would hear.
The person in your chair is fifteen, here for prom, with a parent watching. What do you do differently?
Why ask it
Two people have to be happy, and they may want different things. The careful approach asks the teenager first, keeps the look right for their age without a lecture, and checks in with the parent before the finish. If you take bookings for anyone under 18, tell the candidate your policy on a parent or guardian being present.
After a makeover or a lesson, how do you get from the mirror to what the client might buy?
Why ask it
The natural route is through what was just used: naming the two products that made the difference and showing how to apply them at home. Ask the candidate to do it to you with any item from your shelf. If they dislike selling, better to hear it now, particularly for a counter role.
Were you set a sales or rebooking target in your last job, and how often did you reach it?
Why ask it
A number, plus who counted it, tells you far more than 'I did well'. If targets come with your job, state yours here and say what follows a missed month. A freelancer may never have had one, in which case ask how they win repeat bookings and referrals from a bridal party.
Fit and terms
What made you apply to us, and what have you seen of our work?
Why ask it
A candidate who has looked will mention something particular: a bride on your feed, the brands on your counter, a production you crewed. Ask what they would have done differently on it, which turns flattery into a conversation about makeup. A reply with nothing of yours in it often comes from an artist applying everywhere at once, and it is fair to ask where else they are interviewing.
Why are you leaving your current job, or how did the last one end?
Why ask it
Seasonal contracts, a counter closing and a wrapped production are ordinary endings in this trade, so a short job is no warning by itself. Pay more attention to the story told about the manager, the bride or the head of department. If the reason was hours, targets or kit costs and yours are the same, tell them at this point.
How were you paid in your last role: hourly, commission, a day rate or per face, and what are you hoping for here?
Why ask it
Counter, salon, agency and production work are paid in different ways, and an artist moving between them may be picturing the wrong one. Lay out your structure with a sample week or a sample wedding morning, including who pays for the product used. Whether someone on a day rate counts as staff or self-employed is decided by the rules where you are, so check before you make the offer.
Which days and hours can you work, including early starts and weekends, and how do you and your kit get there?
Why ask it
Makeup runs on mornings and weekends, so give your real pattern first: the 5 a.m. calls, the Saturday weddings, the late nights before a holiday. A kit is heavy, which makes transport a fair thing to ask about for location work. A clear 'never Sundays' is easier to roster than a yes that turns into a maybe.
Do you take your own freelance bookings, and how would those sit beside this job?
Why ask it
Plenty of makeup artists do both, and Saturdays are where the two collide. Ask which dates are already promised and whether they expect to keep private clients. If your contract restricts outside work, say so plainly now and do not leave it for the paperwork.
Do you photograph your work and post it online, and how do you ask the client first?
Why ask it
You want the asking to happen before the phone comes out, and a no to be taken without sulking. Settle the house rules now: whose account the pictures go on, whether your business is tagged, and what happens to the images if the artist leaves. Rules about using someone's image vary by place, so check what applies to you.
What would you want from us in your first month?
Why ask it
Product training, time to shadow, a kit allowance, a say in the shade range: whatever they ask for tells you what they think good work needs. It also hands you a first-month plan if you hire them. No requests at all can mean they have not pictured the job yet.
Where do you want this work to take you: bridal, editorial, teaching, your own business?
Why ask it
All of these are workable once you know. An artist aiming at film will treat a counter as a stopover, and one who wants to teach could run your makeup lessons. Ask what would make them stay two years.
Would you do a trade test on a model we choose, and what would you want to know beforehand?
Why ask it
The questions they ask back are part of the test: the model's skin, the brief, the time allowed, whose products. Say at the start whether the test is paid, and check your local rules on unpaid trial work before you decide. A candidate who is keen to be watched working is telling you something good.
Hiring a makeup artist: the interview and the trade test
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Match the interview to the job
Find out what your location requires
Whether a makeup artist needs a cosmetology, esthetics or other license to work for pay differs from one state or country to the next, and can differ between a salon, a retail counter and a film set. Read your licensing board's or local authority's guidance, or call them, before you write the job ad. Then you can ask to see the right document, and you will know which services on your list the new hire may perform.
A counter or retail role
A counter artist sells and teaches all day in front of the public, with testers the public has already handled. Lean on Kit and hygiene, the shade matching questions in Range and the two sales questions that close Clients and sales. Ten minutes on a stranger's face, ending in a product recommendation, is the realistic trade test.
A salon column or a bridal roster
Here the work is a consultation, a deadline and a client who may have pictured this face for months. Brief and clock and Clients and sales carry the most weight, along with early starts, travel and private bookings under Fit and terms. For bridal work, test a soft look that has to last all day and photograph it with flash.
A set, a stage or a shoot
A production artist takes direction, keeps continuity and waits for long stretches before working fast. Ask the lighting, mood board, continuity and shared-job questions, and the effects one if the script calls for it. The sales questions can be left out entirely.
The portfolio and the references
Ask for it a few days ahead
Request a link or a folder before the meeting and choose three images yourself to ask about, including one that looks unlike the others. Candidates left to pick their own three tend to pick the easy ones.
Count the faces, not the pictures
One model in ten looks is one face. Tally the skin tones, ages and skin types that appear, and note which are missing. Those gaps tell you which Range questions to ask and who to put in the chair for the trade test.
Separate the makeup from the photograph
A polished feed shows what the artist can do on a chosen face, in chosen light, often with a hair stylist, a photographer and an editor behind it. Ask who else worked on each image and whether an unedited version exists. Speed, manner and cleanliness do not show in a picture at all, so let the feed decide who gets an interview and nothing beyond that.
Call someone who has waited on them
A photographer, a wedding planner, a salon manager or a counter manager can tell you the two things an interview cannot: whether the artist turns up on time, and how they behave when the day goes wrong.
Running the trade test
Announce it in the invitation
Tell the candidate when you book the interview that they will be asked to do a face, how long they will have, whether to bring their kit and whether the time is paid. Rules on unpaid trial work differ by place, so settle that before the invitation goes out. An artist who arrives prepared shows you their normal standard, and their normal standard is what you are hiring.
Choose the model on purpose
Do not let the candidate bring a friend whose face they have painted fifty times. Pick someone whose skin tone, age or skin texture is scarce in the portfolio. Brief the model to behave like a client: a little vague about what they want, with one firm dislike.
Give a brief and a time limit
Write the brief the way your clients or directors would give it: 'soft daytime look for a mother of the bride, thirty-five minutes' or 'clean skin for camera, twenty minutes'. A face done with no deadline tells you about taste. One done to the minute tells you about the job.
Watch the hands as well as the face
Before the first product goes on, note whether they clean their hands, ask the model anything and lay the tools out on a clean surface. While they work, see where a brush is put down, how cream products leave the pot and what goes into the mascara tube. Habits like these are hard to fake for half an hour, and they are what your clients will sit through.
Look at the result in more than one light
Take the model to a window, then photograph the face with a phone flash. Check the jaw and neck for a step in color, the under-eye for creasing and the forehead and nose for shine. Afterward, ask the model in private how it felt: whether the touch was gentle, and whether anything stung or was rushed.
Ask for their own critique
Finish by asking what they would do with another ten minutes. A candidate who points at the same flaw you noticed can be coached, and one who admits a weaker side, such as deep skin tones, mature skin or selling, has handed you a training plan. Then ask which two products they would send this model home with.
Where the hire goes wrong
Testing only on easy skin
A young model with even skin makes every candidate look good. The clients who complain are more often the ones with texture, a hard-to-match undertone or a face that has not worn makeup in years, so put one of those in the chair.
Forgiving hygiene because the work is beautiful
Range and speed can be trained over a few months. A candidate who is casual about clean tools, shared product or an irritated eye is a risk from the first client, however good the portfolio. Find out what your insurer and your local health rules expect, and hold every candidate to that.
Leaving sales out of the conversation
If the job carries a retail or rebooking expectation, the interview is the time to say the figure. An artist who took the job for the artistry and hears about targets in week three is likely to feel misled, and you may be hiring again sooner than you planned.
Being vague about who pays for the kit
Decide, and say, who pays for the kit, for replacing what gets used up on your clients, and for disposables. On a counter, say whether staff may reach for another brand's product. Left unsaid, this becomes the first argument.
Drifting into personal questions
Small talk in a beauty setting slides easily toward age, family plans, health or religion. What an employer may ask differs by place, and those subjects are commonly off limits in a job interview, so check the rules where you are and keep the conversation on the work.