Like most makeup lovers I discovered my passion for makeup at a pretty early age, and as I got older I kept asking myself this question, “how do i monetize my interest in makeup?”. My biggest dilemma was that i had a full time job and I was not confident that this hobby was able to sustain me financially if I made it my full time gig. So I kept searching for various ways I could earn from makeup. If you are like me, hopefully this post might spark some ideas.

I did some digging here and there and found six ways in which you can monetize your love for makeup; bear in mind that you can conveniently play in one or all of these categories simultaneously but here’s the catch, master one area and then move to the next.

Freelance or Full Time artist

This is the first and most popular on the list, its where most of us started our careers in makeup. As a freelance artist you dictate your working hours and determine who you work for or otherwise. As a one time makeup artist with Lancome, I worked freelance a couple of days a week and also had the liberty to take on private clients. That is the biggest advantage of going freelance. The other part is you can simply work full time at the counter for any makeup brand or retail stores like Sephora, Macy’s etc

Social Influencer

This is a sweet spot :-). Everybody wants to be an influencer because its financially rewarding, builds your reputation with brands and helps gain huge following on social media. Popular influencers like Jackie Aina, Mali Magic, Renny Vasquez, Mario Dedivanovic and others are so huge that brands pay them to promote and sometimes even collaborate with them to develop new products. Almost every single makeup brand that exist today is riding on the back of one influencer or the other to increase their market share. The job of the influencer is to give reviews, recommendations, compliments and criticisms on the said product. If you are a product junkie, give authentic reviews and love makeup, this is definitely for you.

Teacher /Educator

So this is one area where we find the fewest number of makeup lovers. While lots of people offer random, quick fix makeup tutorial videos, some people are actual educators. They’ve studied and understand the techniques, processes, tools, colors, skin and even the business of makeup. One of the first educators I ever heard of was Sam Fine, I remember his book, Fine Beauty from over 8 years ago, there’s also Kevyn Aucoin, Nicky Posley and many more who have a passion for sharing their knowledge of makeup. Some have books, some teach via in depth video tutorials and others via live classes. Most of these people started as makeup artists and then decided to specialize in makeup education.

Sell or Retail Makeup

Besides being a makeup artist, you can also express your love for the industry by selling makeup. Let me break it down, there are several opportunities open to you if you decide this is the route to take;

• Start your own line of makeup. Seven out of every ten established makeup artists that I know have a line of their product. It can be as simple as a brush cleaner, to a blush or even eyelashes but they try to put out one product and then they grow from there. Huha of Huda Beauty is a good example of a lady who started as an influencer and then branched out to produce her line of makeup.
• Own a franchise. If the thought of starting your own line of products is too overwhelming then piggy bank off an already established brand. You can be a wholesaler or retailer stocking another manufacturer’s product. It could be an old product in a new market, city, state or even country, the opportunities are endless.
• Affiliate partnerships or Google Ads on you blog or social media You can sell via google Adverts on your site like pay-per-click or affiliate partnerships which involves getting a commission on every item that is sold via your site or using your special code. This is an easy convenient way of earning money however the most successful people in this space are those who have great content and are constantly churning out more.

Content Curator or Writer

This is a new fad that picked up a couple of years ago. Makeup curators are people who have an eye for makeup. You may have noticed those pages on IG with pictures of makeup from many different artists, yes, those are curators. These pages are designed to promote, compile and celebrate beautiful makeup from different artists. Pages like darskinwomen.makeup, wakeup and makeup are those I follow but there’s hundreds of them managed by people who simply curate other people’s work and give them credit. These curators make money when brands pay them to advertise their products on their page. The advantage of this is that your only responsibility is to grow the page by sourcing and posting fresh and relevant content.

Temporary/Permanent Makeup

This is a more specialized field that requires some level of education and certification depending on the precise area of interest. This category of makeup lovers are your brow/microblading/shading/tinting, lash, lip color, eye liner permanent makeup experts. It is another interesting area of specialization that’s raking in a good amount of money. The average microblading expert charges between $300 – $500.

There you have it! Six possible ways to increase your stream of income leveraging on your passion for makeup. Let me know if I missed out anything.