Makeup Artist Resume: Templates & Top Tips

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As a Makeup Artist, it’s your job to make other people look great, but does your expertise extend to beautifying your resume?

You likely have tons of different skills to include on your resume, from applying foundation and powder to helping clients choose their best colors and styles. 

But unless you know how to make your skills and experience as a Makeup Artist stand out from the crowd,  you’re missing out on those opportunities that can take your career to the next level!

This guide will explain how to write an effective resume that will wow potential employers. You can also make use of our free online resume builder to ensure your continued success!

Take a look at this example to see how a professional and well-formatted Makeup Artist resume should look!

Resume Example

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Jeannie Hurt
Professional Makeup Artist | 555-555-5555 | jhurtartist@randomemail.com| linkedin.com/xxxxxxx | Instagram: jeanniehartxxxxx

>> Summary <<
Passionate licensed cosmetologist and makeup artist with 4+ years of experience working on numerous film and TV productions as both a freelancer and contracted employee. I’ve recently moved more towards prosthetic makeup and have applied more than 100 complex zombie effects for AMC on ‘The Walking Dead’ for 3 seasons, supervising the rest of the team on the last 2. Looking for another similar opportunity to put my advanced skills to use.

>> Experience <<

Prosthetic Makeup Artist
AMC Productions | Atlanta, GA
2020 – 2023

• Applied prosthetic zombie makeup on over 100 actors across 3 x 6-month long shoots for the series ‘The Walking Dead’.
• Promoted to Makeup Team Leader for the 2nd and 3rd shoots.
• Oversaw a team of 10 makeup artists, ensuring quality control and consistency across the duration of each shoot.

Makeup Artist
Marcy’s Beauty Salon | Atlanta, GA
2018 – 2020

• Performed 25+ weekly client assessments and makeup applications.
• Sold $4,000+ per week of exclusive products.
• Based on client recommendations, scouted by the Georgia Film Board to work freelance on 5 individual productions during this period.

>> Education <<
Online Certification in Special Prosthetic Makeup Application
Stan Winston School of Character Arts
2017

• Specialized in Transformation Makeup and Blood FX.

Cosmetology Certification Course
Atlanta School of Cosmetology | Atlanta, GA
2014 – 2016

• Received high commendations on makeup application and interpersonal skills from 2 professors.
• Interned under well-known makeup artist Marcy Dowd.

>> Soft Skills <<

• Attention to detail
• Creative Thinking Skills
• Interpersonal Skills
• Time Management

>> Hard Skills <<

• Advanced Makeup Skills
• Product Knowledge
• Expert in skin tone matching

>> Social Media <<

• Instagram: 30,500 Followers
• TikTok: 28,400 Followers

>> Awards <<
Shared Creative Arts Emmy Award 2019 for Best Makeup on ‘The Walking Dead’

>> Languages <<

• English
• Spanish
• Italian

>> Other Certificiations <<
Licensed reiki teacher

If you have other skill sets besides cosmetology or are looking to use your pre-existing skills to change your career path, check out some of our other examples, like those in our Hair Stylist resume guide!

First and foremost, your resume should look professional. You can use either the reverse chronological or functional format depending on where you are in your career. There are pros and cons to both, but the most important thing is that your resume’s layout is clear and easy to follow.

Secondly, you should create a clean layout that highlights all of your key skills and achievements without being too crowded or distracting with too many colors.

Make sure you only use one, professional font throughout your document, bold the subheadings, and use bullet points so it is easy for recruiters to skim read.

A good template can save you time by giving you a place to start when creating your unique resume. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel! You can find plenty of examples that will work wonders for a Makeup Artist resume free on our site.

When it comes to saving your resume, stick with a tried-and-true option like Word or PDF. This will ensure that all recruiters are easily able to open your document.

The first few lines of your professional Makeup Artist resume are the most important. If a hiring manager doesn’t like what they see, they’ll toss your resume out without giving it another glance.

Without a doubt, you should include a resume summary or objective.

• A resume summary is a quick introduction to your qualifications. It is usually one to two sentences long and can be placed under your name on the top left-hand corner of your resume.

• Focus on how employing you would benefit the company. You should briefly outline your skills, knowledge, and achievements that make you stand out as a candidate.

• You need to state how long you’ve been working in makeup artistry and can briefly list any awards or accolades received during that time period (such as being named among the top 10 makeup artists in your city).

• You can see an example of a strong Makeup Artist resume summary in the full sample above. 

• A resume objective is similar, but for makeup artists who are just starting out in the industry. This is because it emphasizes skills and enthusiasm over experience. However, these days recruiters tend to favor a summary over an objective, even if your summary is mainly your education due to lack of work experience.

Examples of a Makeup Artist Resume Objective

Take a look at these examples of an objective for a Makeup Artist resume. One is great, the other one, not so much!

This statement is not going to wow any recruiter. It shows a love for the industry but doesn’t state specifics like how they gained experience in applying make up.

The second example is a lot stronger because the applicant gives a quantifiable idea of the work they are already doing in their field. They also indicate what goals they are currently studying towards and the area they want to work in. The name drop of the famous artist they interned with also doesn’t hurt!

Moving on to experience. It’s important not just to list your job titles on your resume, but also the achievements and responsibilities associated with those positions, as employers will be looking most closely at this standout information.

For each role that describes your experience as a makeup artist:

• Use bullet points when formatting the information.
• Action words should be used to describe what you did (e.g., “spearheaded”, “implemented”, “designed,” “created”). These power words stand out more than simply “worked on”, or “helped with”.
• State exactly how many hours per week / month / year completed duties required (e.g., “20+ hours per week”; “6 months”).
• Write a brief description of what you did in each role (e.g., “provided consultation regarding product selection”).
• Include achievements from each role, such as awards or recognition you’ve received for your work, new skills and techniques you have learned, or significant responsibilities you have taken (such as being a team leader).

Do not include jobs that are too far in the past – especially if they’re no longer applicable – since employers typically only look at recent experiences when deciding whether or not they want someone on their team. Usually one to two previous positions, or covering the past 5 years, is more than enough.

If you’re looking to put together a freelancer resume, it’s important to check how to include freelance work on a resume.

🌟Featured content:  If possible, quantify all your achievements with numbers: “Increased sales by 50% during my first year at company X”; “Sold $10 million worth of products within six months after taking over sales team leadership.”

Experience Section Examples

To illustrate this point, let’s see some good and bad examples of the experience section.

This is a very lengthy description of the tasks associated with the jobs and goes into far too much unnecessary detail in long sentences. The applicant doesn’t need to describe the premise of ‘The Walking Dead’ – pretty much everyone and their grandmother knows what it is about!

They mention working a lot and that they got a promotion but don’t give any specific details about what this involved. Furthermore, they don’t probably do not need to stress their hope that this work will land them another job.

The example above is a much better description of a job in makeup. The candidate uses bullet points and action words to clearly outline their tasks and accomplishments. Not only that, but they also quantify their achievements, e.g. ‘100 actors’ , ‘oversaw a team of 10’.

The education section of your resume should include the following:

• The type of degree you received (bachelor’s/master’s/doctorate), and year you graduated from the college.
• School name, city, and state. 
• Any honors or awards that you may have received during your college career. For example: “Recipient of Dean’s List for academic excellence with 3.5 GPA for all four years at Brown University School of Arts”
• List any relevant coursework you took at the university level (e.g., “I took a class on hair styling techniques”)
• Any certificates or licenses that relate to makeup artistry that you may have earned during your degree  (for instance if there were courses related to this field).
• Any relevant extracurricular activities you were involved with while at school (e.g., “I was the official makeup artist for my college’s cheerleading team”).

If you don’t have a degree (and many Makeup Artists don’t), it’s perfectly fine to list your certifications on your resume in this section. 

Education Section Examples

Now let’s see some good and not-so-good examples of the education section for your resume.

This example is severely lacking. Although it outlines where the applicant went to school, it gives zero information about the courses they studied or any achievements within them.

Here, the applicant includes the full name of their certifications. Although no grades are mentioned (likely due to the style of the course), they clearly outline where they excelled, and the mention of an internship under a well-known artist is a bonus.

Knowing how to list Makeup Artist skills on your resume is key. When you’re filling out the skills section, make sure that the skills and experience you list match up with the job requirements from the posting. They should also match the keywords from the post. 

You should also divide your skills into hard and soft skills. Here are some examples:

You might want to include some additional sections on your resume. 

For example:

• Awards & Accolades. A great place to list any awards you might have received that relate specifically to makeup artistry (e.g., MAC Award). Include the name of the organization who gave it out and a link where applicable.
• Volunteer Work & Charity Events experience section.  If you volunteered as the make-up artist for a community, college, or school theatre production, for example,

However, It’s best not to crowd your resume with too many additional sections. 

This is a good example of extra sections for your Makeup Artist Resume.

• Social media is becoming increasingly important for companies, especially those working in a visual medium. So it’s a smart move to give an idea of your presence there.
• Languages can also be a big bonus to include, especially if you are writing a freelance Makeup Artist’s resume and expect to be working in multiple countries. Add any foreign languages you speak, and to what level (beginner, intermediate, advanced, etc.).

Here are some final points to consider before you start sending out your shiny new resume!

• Don’t forget to include your name and contact information.
• Use a professional email address for any correspondence about job opportunities.
• Make sure you include keywords from the job description.
• Proofread your resume before sending it out! Even if it’s just a quick glance over, make sure there are no spelling mistakes or grammatical errors!

Now that you’ve seen a Makeup Artist resume sample and read through tips for writing your own, it’s time to jump into action!

There are a lot of things that go into creating an effective professional resume, but if you follow these guidelines and make sure your skills are up-to-date, we promise that your new resume will help land your ideal cosmetology job in no time.