1. Make-Up Artist By Chloe Gurney

2. Money To start off you get £15,000 As you get more experienced you can earn up to £45,000 a year

3. Qualifications Most make-up artists start by taking a relevant course in make-up or beauty therapy and building up their practical experience. Specialist media make-up courses include: BTEC National Certificate or Diploma in Production Arts (Make-up) VTCT Level 3 Diploma in Theatrical and Media Make-up ITEC Level 3 Diploma in Fashion, Theatre and Media Make-up foundation degrees, BTEC HNCs/HNDs and degrees in media make-up, intensive courses at private make-up schools. For some of these, you may need to have taken a course in general beauty therapy and hairdressing such as an NVQ level 2 – you should check entry requirements with course providers.

4. Jobs in a normal day Make-up artists prepare make-up and hair for anyone appearing in front of a camera or a live audience in film, television, theatre, concerts, photographic shoots or fashion shows. As a make-up artist, you could create anything from a straightforward natural look to period wigs and make-up, or special effects such as scars and prosthetics. You could work alone, as an assistant to a senior colleague or as part of a larger hair and make-up design team. Depending on the job, your tasks might include: researching and designing make-up and hairstyles to suit the production working to detailed notes or a rough design brief applying 'corrective' make-up for a natural look hair tidying and styling fitting wigs, hairpieces and 'bald caps' applying prosthetic make-up to completely change a performer's appearance making notes and taking photographs to keep continuity standing by on set to re-do make-up and hair keeping work areas and equipment clean and tidy.

5. Promotion prospects Depending on the nature of the job, make- up artists work alone, as assistants to a more senior colleague or as part of a make-up design team.

6. Other Interesting Aspects As well as taking a relevant make-up course, you should gain practical experience, build a portfolio of your work to show to employers, and develop a network of contacts in the industry. You can get useful experience in various ways, such as: backstage in amateur theatre student film, theatre and photography projects charity or student fashion shows work experience with established make-up artists and photographers. Once you have built up some experience and made some contacts, your first paid work in film or TV may be as a trainee or assistant to the make-up team. You might also find casual work as a 'daily', doing the make-up and hair for extras in crowd scenes