Kids, dance and stage makeup
Makeup for dance competitions, dance concerts and recitals, calisthenics, ballet and eisteddfods, photoshoots and birthdays, first communions and bat mitzvahs, plus flower girl makeup for weddings, in Melbourne. Age-appropriate, made with products chosen for young skin, and built as strong or as light as the occasion actually needs.
Dance competitions, dance concerts, recitals and eisteddfods are the most common reason to book a makeup artist for a child, and performance makeup for dance is a different job from a party face. Stage lighting flattens whatever it touches, and the judges and the photographer are a long way back, so a look that seems strong in the change room can disappear from the seats. The face is built for that distance, and to still be there after the heats, the costume changes and the photographs at the end.
Away from the stage the weight changes with the occasion rather than staying at one setting. A flower girl or a birthday needs almost nothing, a family photoshoot needs a little more, and a commercial or dance shoot goes wherever the brief takes it. What does not change is that it is makeup designed with kids in mind rather than an adult look shrunk down onto a child.
- Calisthenics, ballet recitals, Irish dancing and dancesport, as well as dance school concerts. Melbourne runs several competition circuits at once, and calisthenics is a Victorian sport of its own, with grading days and solo sections. Each of them has its own idea of what suits which age group, so tell me the discipline and the age and the face is built inside that.
- Built for the stage, not for the mirror. Set for the seats rather than for arm’s length, which is why it reads as more than it needs when you are standing next to her.
- Made to last the whole day. Heats, costume changes and photographs afterwards, without the face being rebuilt between routines.
- Groups from the same dance school are fine. I work with assistants and can often take on more people than my calendar alone shows, so send the numbers and the call time.
- A family or mother and daughter session needs very little. An hour or two, nothing to outlast, so there is no reason to build anything heavy: a little correction where it actually helps, a couple of accents, and skin still reading as skin.
- A commercial, child model or dance shoot is a different job. A commercial one goes wherever the brief goes: clothing and lifestyle usually want a child who reads as a child, while a styled or theatrical concept goes much further. A dance shoot sits closest to the stage, and it has to survive being danced in, because the girls are jumping, running and warm by the second set-up.
- Tell me which one it is when you book. Photoshoots cover the widest range of anything on this page, from barely there to almost the stage, and the shot list decides where in that range the face should sit.
- Flower girls stay minimal, and a long wedding day does not change that. The girls are usually very small, so it is a hint of colour rather than a smaller copy of the bridal look, and there is nothing here that needs to be built to survive the day.
- Birthdays are light and fun. A little more is allowed as the girls get older, and still nothing that reads as a grown-up face.
- A first holy communion and a bat mitzvah are the same job. Twelve or thirteen, a church or a synagogue in the morning, a party afterwards, and a camera on her from the moment she is dressed. The look sits above a birthday and a long way below a grown-up evening face: herself, with the volume slightly up.
- Holy communion makeup for girls goes under the dress, not on top of it. The white, the veil and a bright church already do most of the work, so it is even skin, a little warmth, and eyes defined just enough to be visible in the photographs rather than in the room.
- A bat mitzvah has to hold from the reading to the dancing. She is in front of the whole family for hours and then at a party half the night, so the face is built once and left alone, with nothing to touch up between the service and the last photograph.
- Mothers and grandmothers usually book at the same time. Hair can be done in the same appointment as well, see hairstyling, so tell me how many of you there are and the hour you need to be finished by, and the morning is planned backwards from that.
- Older girls move on to their own occasions. A school formal or a deb ball is a different job again, closer to a grown-up look, though not necessarily an evening one: some go full evening, others ask for something light and daytime, and both happen. It has its own page: formal makeup and hair.
- The occasion sets how strong it is, not the age. A stage face is strong on a seven year old because the hall demands it, and a birthday face stays light on a fourteen year old because nothing demands more. What age changes is how grown-up the result is allowed to look.
- Recommended from around age five. Below that, sitting still long enough stops being fun for anyone.
- Hypoallergenic products, chosen for delicate skin. A patch test can be done beforehand on request if there is any history of reactions.
- You are welcome to stay in the room. For the whole session, and to say stop at any point.
Portfolio
Kids Makeup
Online booking is for the studio in Middle Park. For a mobile booking, send an enquiry instead: travel time is planned by hand, and the start time and travel fee are confirmed first.
Ask a questionGood to know
Because it is not meant to be seen up close. Stage lighting comes from above and from the front and washes colour straight out of a face, and the judges, the audience and the photographer are all sitting a long way back. What reads as clearly defined from row fifteen looks like a lot in the change room, and that gap is normal rather than a mistake. It is also why a competition face and a birthday face are built differently, even on the same child.
The products used on children are hypoallergenic and chosen for delicate skin, and a patch test can be done beforehand on request if there is any history of reactions or eczema. You are welcome to stay in the room for the whole session, which most parents do, and to say stop at any point. If your child has a known allergy, tell me before the day rather than on it, so the kit is packed around it.
From around five. Below that the skin is doing nothing that makeup improves, and sitting still long enough stops being fun for anyone. From five up, the occasion decides how strong the makeup has to be, and age decides how grown-up it is allowed to look. A younger child on stage still reads clearly from the seats without being painted, and an older girl at a birthday still stays light. Nobody leaves looking like a small adult.
Yes, and they are the same kind of job: a girl of twelve or thirteen at a big family occasion, photographed all day, who wants to look like herself with the volume slightly up rather than made up. Skin stays skin, the eyes get enough definition to survive a long day and a lot of hugging, and nothing on the face reads as a grown-up evening look. If the day starts at a synagogue or a church and runs into a party at night, tell me when the photographs are, because that is what decides how strong the makeup should be.
Yes. I work with assistants and can often take on more people than my calendar alone shows, so a troupe is not a problem as long as I know the numbers early. Send me the call time, how many girls, and roughly what ages, and I will tell you what the morning needs to look like to get everyone on stage on time.
Either. My studio is in Middle Park, and I also travel across Greater Melbourne and come to your house or your venue, which on a competition day usually makes more sense than adding a drive to the morning. A performance look is built for the seats rather than for the change room mirror, which is why it can look strong up close. There is more about how that works on the mobile service page.
Book a birthday, a concert or a family day
Tell me her age, the occasion and the hour she needs to be finished, and I will come back with a start time and what the look should be. Add whatever the costume takes, that part sits outside my time. If it is a stage day, say when she is on, because that decides how strong the makeup has to be.