Melbourne Cup and Spring Racing makeup
Hair and makeup for the Melbourne Cup Carnival at Flemington: Derby Day, Cup Day, Oaks Day and Stakes Day. Early starts, groups getting ready together at one address, and a face built to hold from the first photograph on the lawn to the last race of the day.
Melbourne Cup and spring racing makeup artist
A race day is the longest day makeup is asked to do. Photographs before you leave, then hours outside on the lawn at Flemington with no shade you can rely on, in wind, in sun, on your feet, eating and drinking, and it does not finish until the evening. So the face is built once, at the start, with that whole day already accounted for, rather than touched up between races in a bathroom queue.
Long wear is the part of my work I am known for, and this is the day it is actually for. Sun is planned for, not hoped about: on an open lawn the protection goes in from the first layer, an SPF primer under a foundation that carries its own. Wind is the other one, and it decides the hair more than the makeup does.
Most race day bookings are groups, and that suits the morning: everyone gets ready at one address, in one session, instead of driving separately. I leave the studio from 4am when the morning needs it and can start on you from 5am. See hair styling if you want hair in the same appointment, and mobile service for how coming to you works.
Race day hair and makeup
How a race day booking works
- Derby Day, Saturday 31 October. Black and white is the signature of the day, so with no colour in the outfit the whole look comes off the face: a graphic eye, a precise lip and cleaner edges than the other three days ask for. It is also Halloween this year, so see Halloween makeup if the evening is yours too.
- Melbourne Cup Day, Tuesday 3 November. The biggest and the most photographed, and the day the racecourse itself asks for vivid tones, daring prints and statement hats. The face is built to read twice: strong enough to hold up in a photograph taken from across the lawn, clean enough to stand next to someone at the rail. That means more definition through the eye and a lip that carries colour, rather than a heavier base.
- Oaks Day, Thursday 5 November. Ladies Day, the one for florals and delicate millinery. The face goes lighter and warmer: more skin, softer contrast, blush doing the work the eye does on Derby Day, so a fine headpiece is not competing with the makeup underneath it. The wear is the same, only the weight changes.
- All four are run at Flemington, and the season starts before them. The Caulfield Cup at Caulfield and the Cox Plate at Moonee Valley fall in the weeks before the carnival, and for makeup they are the same job in a different postcode: sun protection inside the base, colour set so it does not move, and hair pinned for wind rather than for a photograph.
- Stakes Day, Saturday 7 November. The family day, closer to a garden party than to the other three, and the one where photographs are taken by people you know rather than by a race photographer. Daylight makeup that reads as skin rather than as makeup, a soft lip, and hair that survives an afternoon outdoors.
- Bring the headpiece to the appointment. A hat and a fascinator sit in completely different places on the head, and the hair has to be built around whichever one you are wearing. Styling first and fitting the hat afterwards is how a morning gets redone.
- A wide brim decides the shape. Anything with volume on top fights a brim, so the weight goes low: a chignon or a twist that sits at the nape and does not get crushed when the hat goes on and comes off through the day.
- A fascinator wants something to pin into. It needs a set section of hair to hold onto, so that anchor is built while the style is going in rather than found later with a handful of pins.
- Wind is the real test, not the hat. Flemington is open ground. Hair down looks softer in the photographs and behaves worse by the third race, which is worth deciding on purpose rather than by accident.
- Sun protection is part of the base. An SPF primer under a foundation that carries its own, laid down at the start, because on a lawn with no shade the sun works on the makeup for as many hours as you are standing in it.
- It has to survive being photographed all day. Phone flash finds every powder edge, and race day photographs get taken from the driveway to the last race, so the base is built for a camera rather than for a mirror.
- You are told what to carry. For most people the whole touch-up is one thing in a clutch, which matters on a day when your hands are already full.
- Tell me the hour you need to be finished. Not the gates, not the first race: the hour I have to hand you back, or the hour you have to walk out of my studio. Dressing and driving you count in yourself, only you know what they take.
- A group is planned as one session, not as separate appointments. I work with assistants, so a morning takes more people than my calendar alone suggests. Send the numbers early, because these four days fill from the top of the morning down.
- Early is normal here. I leave the studio from 4am when a morning needs it and can start on you from 5am, so an early finishing hour is never the problem.
- My studio in Middle Park, or your address. For a group, one house is easier than everyone driving to me. Travel is charged at $1 per kilometre driven, and because I drive out and back that works out at $2 for every kilometre between us, confirmed before you book.
- Everyone gets their own face. Same room, same morning, but four friends do not have one set of features between them, and a dress code is not a template.
Race day makeup and hair
Derby Day and Cup Day are the two that go first, and the early slots inside them go before the late ones, because everyone needs to be finished by roughly the same time. If you are getting ready as a group, send the numbers and the hour you all have to be finished as early as you can, and the morning is planned around them. Travel to your address is quoted before you book, so there is nothing to work out on the day.
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
Earlier than most people expect. I leave the studio from 4am when the morning needs it and can start on you from 5am. Tell me the hour you need to be finished and how many people, and the morning gets planned around it.
That is what this look is built for. The base goes on once, with sun protection in it, and it is set to survive wind, heat and being photographed from the driveway to the last race. You leave with one thing in your clutch for a touch up, not a kit, because your hands are full enough on that day.
A makeup session runs from about 40 minutes to an hour and a half, depending on how much the look asks for, and hair alongside it adds to that. The exact time is worked out with you when you book, because it depends on the look and on how many of you are getting ready together, so send the details and the morning is built around the hour you need to be finished.
It changes the hair, so bring the hat or the fascinator with you. A wide brim and a fascinator sit in different places and need different things underneath: a brim wants the weight low at the nape so nothing is crushed when the hat comes on and off, and a fascinator needs a section built for it to pin into. Styling first and fitting the headpiece afterwards is how a morning ends up being done twice.
Yes, and that is the usual way this is booked. Everyone gets ready at one address in one session rather than driving separately, I work with assistants so a morning takes more people than my calendar alone suggests, and each person still gets a look built for her own features rather than one template repeated four times.
Yes, and for a group that is almost always the easier way to do the morning. My studio in Middle Park is the other option if there are one or two of you. Travel is charged at $1 per kilometre driven, and because I drive out to you and back again that works out at $2 for every kilometre between us, quoted and confirmed before you book. Everything comes with me.
All four at Flemington: Derby Day, Melbourne Cup Day, Oaks Day and Stakes Day, and the days that lead into the carnival as well, the Caulfield Cup at Caulfield and the Cox Plate at Moonee Valley. Each one has its own dress code and its own light, so tell me which day you are going to when you book, because a black and white Derby Day outfit and a floral Oaks Day one do not want the same face.
Yes, and it is worth it if you are unsure how bold to go or how the makeup will wear on you through a long day outdoors. A trial is the whole look built properly, not a shortened preview, so it costs what the day itself costs. Then you live in it: a full day of sun, wind and a crowd tells you what a mirror cannot, and whatever you want different is changed before the carnival.
Book your race day
Tell me which day you are going to, what time you have to leave, how many of you are getting ready and whether there is a hat involved, and I will come back with a time and a quote.