So I used to use this Make-up box, but it quickly got far too full and WAY too heavy to lug around on shoots, so I now use clear plastic zipped bags which I then put in a suitcase.
All my bags are from Superdrug, you get a set of three for £5.99, one big one, a middle sized one and a smaller one. Clear bags are great because you can see exactly what's in each bag, saves so much time because you're not rooting through everything trying to find that one lipgloss!
So I'll go through each of the bags, starting with the three big ones.
First up I have my skincare and disposables. I have a bag of sponges and powder puffs in different shapes, cotton pads for cleansing the face, Simple face wipes, disposable mascara wands so there's no double dipping! Beauty So Clean sanitizing wipes for products, cotton buds, hand sanitizer, a spray bottle of alcohol for sanitizing make up, a spray bottle of water for when I want to use wet brushes/products, Lush lip scrub in Bubblegum (smells and tastes amazing and makes lips silky smooth ready for lip products), a face primer and eyelid primer, Bobbi Brown vitamin enriched face base, Micellar Water for cleansing, Nivea hydrating primer, RCMA Foundation Thinner, and finally my ELF Setting Spray.
Next up are my palettes. To save a lot of space I try to use palettes for most things, I have pre filled ones and ones I have depotted items into like my Z-Palette and my DIY lip palettes. Top left is an eyeshadow palette that I don't use too often but it's great for when I don't have a colour of eyeshadow that I want. The neutral eyeshadow palette next to that is a great mix of neutral shades in matte and shimmer, great for brides! Next to that is my Crownbrush blusher palette, a great mix of colours, I don't even tend to reach for any of my single ones anymore! The two small ones at the top right are by Sleek, the top one is a primer palette for making shadows really pop, and the lower one is a shimmer shadow palette. Below that is my RCMA VK #10 Foundation palette, a vital part of my kit so I can match everyone's skintone! Below that is a magnetic eyeshadow palette I've filled with all my favourite nude lipsticks. To the left of that, is my beloved Urban Decay Naked palette, a beautiful range of neutral colours. Left of that is my DIY lip palette. This is so handy, as rooting through lipsticks where you have to open every one to find the right colour is a pain in the bum! Next to that is my Z-Palette, which is an empty magnetic palette with a clear lid that you put depotted shadows in. And finally the little white empty palette is from ELF, which I can pop any of the small depotted pans into to make a custom palette!
So these are my foundations/face powders, concealers and blushes. My foundations are a mix of Revlon, MAC and Sleek, in a range of colours, which I can also custom mix in the mixing palette (bottom left). I also have two shades of Vichy Dermablend corrective foundation, which is an AMAZING foundation for anyone with any skin problems like acne or rosacea, really light on the skin but massively high coverage. I then have a range of face powders from MAC, ELF, Revlon and Max Factor. Third row is a corrective concealer palette from ELF, Studio Finish concealer from MAC, Revlon Photoready Primer, Urban Decay Mineral Fouantion and Chanel's Soleil De Tan bronzer. Bottom row I have a few random blushes, Sleek's Contour Kit in light, and a cream blush from MAC.
These are my lip products. Top row is a range of lip glosses mainly from MAC, and then some cheaper brands like Barry M, Gosh, 17 and MUA. Second row I have some more glosses and a lip stain, and Sleek's Pout Paints, which are amazing mixable lip paints, very highly pigmented, similar to OCC's lip tars I believe! Bottom row are three lipsticks I haven't yet depotted and then a good range of lip pencils, nude colours, pinks and reds.
Next up I have my Mascaras, clear brow gel for unruly brows, glitter eyeliners for creative shoots, pencil eyeliners in black, brown, white and a couple of other colours, black liquid eyeliner, black Bobbi Brown longwear gel eyeliner, Illamasqua Brow Cake and the Sleek Brow Kit in Dark.
Next up are loose pigments and shadows, most at the top are Barry M Dazzle Dusts, a couple by GOSH, one NYX one and two beautiful Pure Pigments by Illamasqua.
I then have two bags of lashes, a range of different strip lashes and a set of individual ones, and the ULTIMATE lash glue, DUO adhesive in dark. There isn't another lash glue that even compares to this! Normally I have a few more sets than this when I go to a job, but I'm putting in a bulk order soon so I'll be all stocked up for my upcoming beauty pageant and weddings :)
Sometimes I do hair on set, so I have a little hair kit with me (along with my heat styling tools). I use this little bag which is a handbag organiser from Primark! (Thanks to Katie Vallis for the idea ;)) This is what I have in it-
These are just the basic essentials, hairspray, dry shampoo for texture, styling gel, big rollers, a hair donut, sectioning clips, hairbrush/comb, heat protection spray, hair bobbles, and different sizes/colours of bobby pins.
And of course my brush belt! Mine's from Inglot, which I studded up myself. Most of my brushes are from Crownbrush, a few are MAC and I have the Core Collection by Real Techniques. I also have an eyelash curler, nail scissors and Hello Kitty tweezers in there.
And lastly I have a black hand towel which I lay out all my kit on to keep everything clean and tidy, straws for models on shoots so they don't mess up their lips! And not pictured I also take take tissues, chewing gum, a couple of bottles of water and my Galaxy Tablet, with my inspiration pictures for the shoot!
So that's it! Hopefully it'll give any MUA's starting out a little help on what basics to have in your kit. My kit is constantly changing and growing, replacing products with better ones and adding random bits in, but I have pretty much everything in it to create anything I want at the moment. Though of course, I still have a wishlist as long as my arm! Thanks for reading :) Feel free to ask any questions!
xxx
