How to Prepare for Your Makeup Trial: Tips for the Best Results
To make the most of your session, its essential to come prepared. Follow these tips to ensure your trial goes smoothly and that your makeup artist can create your desired look.
1. Wear White (or the color of your outfit)
2. Groom your brows
3. Prep Your skin with moisturizer and eye cream
4. Share your preferred finishes (matte, dewy, or natural)
5. Hydrate your lips
6. Communicate Honestly
a. Be upfront about what you love and what you don’t. Honest communication ensures you walk away happy with your final look.
7. Take photos in different lighting.
Why Pinterest Inspiration Photos Are No Longer Helpful for Makeup Clients
By Blush by Brittany
Pinterest has long been a treasure trove of inspiration for everything from wedding décor to makeup ideas. Many clients walk into a makeup session with Pinterest boards brimming with perfectly curated looks — glossy lids, flawless complexions, and perfectly blended eyeshadows. But here’s the catch: relying on Pinterest inspiration photos is becoming increasingly unhelpful, and here’s why.
1. Filters and Editing Distort Reality
Most photos on Pinterest are heavily edited, filtered, and retouched. Skin looks impossibly smooth, colors are enhanced, and lighting is expertly manipulated. As a result, these images often create unrealistic expectations. Achieving “Pinterest perfection” is more about Photoshop than makeup brushes.
Pro Tip: Trust your makeup artist to deliver a look that works in real life, not just on social media.
2. Different Face Shapes and Features
The makeup that looks stunning on one person might not flatter someone else. Pinterest inspiration photos rarely account for diverse face shapes, eye types, and skin tones. For example, a smoky eye that looks soft and sultry on a model with deep-set eyes may not translate the same way on someone with monolids.
3. Lighting Makes a Huge Difference
The lighting setup for Pinterest photos is carefully controlled to highlight makeup in the best possible way. Natural daylight or event lighting may not reflect the same results.
4. Trends Move Fast
Pinterest images often showcase makeup trends that may no longer be in style or suitable for current beauty aesthetics. The heavy contouring popular a few years ago has given way to lighter, skin-centric makeup.
Pro Tip: Ask your makeup artist for modern updates to classic looks rather than copying outdated trends.
5. Personalized Looks Are More Impactful
The best makeup is tailored to your unique features and style. Instead of trying to match a photo exactly, work with your makeup artist to design a look that complements your individuality.
The Solution? A Collaborative Approach
Instead of relying on Pinterest for inspiration pull photos off of my Instagram. That way I know what technique was used. Also if you are hiring me because you like my work, then you should show photos of inspiration of my work. After 18 years of experience, I ask a lot of questions at the trial about likes and dislikes of make up. If after I complete your luck and you still don’t like it or feel something is off then you can show me the pictures and we can go through them and figure out exactly what you need.
6. The psychological impact of photos
Creating a Pinterest board and looking at the same dreamy picture over and over almost plays a trick on your brain. I’ve done this with hair photos before with my own hair stylist and once they are finished, you think that the look is going to be transformed on you and it’s not, it’s always different.
At the end of the day, it’s about trusting the artistry and expertise of your makeup artist — not chasing an unattainable Pinterest fantasy.