What is the difference between Natural, Natural-Glam, and Glam Makeup?

Sometimes my little heart hurts when I see people post something like “I just want a quick makeup look.” “Natural makeup, so it shouldn’t take long.” “Well, natural makeup should cost less because you’re not using as much.”

Then I remember not everyone has extensive experience with makeup. There’s nothing wrong with that because when you think about it, those statements can be true IF we’re talking about everyday makeup. i.e. a BB cream, some mascara, blush, and we’re out the door.

Professional makeup is different. When you hire a professional makeup artist, it’s for a specific reason. You want the makeup to last and look beautiful for your entire event. You want to achieve a specific look that is elevated from your everyday “out the door” look, even if it’s natural. This takes skill, time, knowledge, experience, and more products than you might think. It also takes time, knowledge, and effort outside of the chair in terms of educating ourselves about product ingredients, what products will work for your skin type, products that work well together and for your skin type, etc.

When I do a natural look, I use just as many products as a glam look. A natural look takes just as much time because every single aspect needs to be extra precise. For example: when you do a glam look, a lash band can be camouflaged in the darkness of the eyeshadow. You won’t see breaks in the lash band, or the band itself, because it will blend in. When you do a natural look, the eyeshadow will not be as dark. Therefore, the lashes need to be applied with extra care and precision so that the lash band does not show.

That’s just one example.

Now, let’s talk about makeup language. There is a difference between Natural, Natural-Glam, and Glam Makeup. Below are some examples of what I consider each category to be. (These are taken from Pinterest and not my work. I chose to show these because they are frequently used inspiration pictures.)

Natural

Natural- Glam

Glam

None of these are simple, everyday looks. They all take skill, time, knowledge, and products.

This information will help you, the client, understand what to ask for and what to expect when you get your makeup done professionally. The more you know, the better prepared you’ll be!

To All My Artists:

It’s important for our clients to understand the difference between professional makeup and everyday makeup, and what they are hiring us for. When they say things as I mentioned earlier, they aren’t being rude, they just don’t know. It’s our job to inform them so that we can do our best work leaving them pleased with the outcome.

-S