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Alana has been doing makeup for 12 years. She started fresh out of high school, worked the floor at Sephora's Broadway store, moved to London at 21 with zero plan and a backpack full of kit, built a career doing campaigns for Jaded London, came back to Australia during COVID, assisted the incredible Gillian Campbell, and has most recently been touring the world with Kesha.

Oh, and she's now signed with a talent agency for her content. The girl moves.

In this episode we get into:

• Why working retail at Sephora is the best foundation you'll ever get (and why it's also exhausting as hell)
• What it's actually like to do hair and makeup in London for an Uber-style beauty app
• The Jaded London campaign that changed everything
• COVID killing her momentum right when things were starting to move — and coming back from that
• Assisting Gillian Campbell and why feeling valued on set matters more than people admit
• What a day on tour with Kesha actually looks like (spoiler: you can't poo on the bus)
• The longevity routine she used to make Kesha's base last through a full concert
• How a TikTok she almost didn't post got her 27,000 followers in a month
• Why people don't care who you are on TikTok — they just want to learn something
• Everything being an exchange and why that's not a bad thing
• What's next: Europe, Canada, America and a product line in the works

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This week I'm joined by Sydney makeup artist Katie Moore. If you follow her work you'll know her style straight away, soft, skin focused, never overdone. We talked career, bridal work, and how she keeps things running without burning out. Then we did what we always do and pulled apart our kits.

• Katie Moore is a Sydney-based makeup artist, trained in New Zealand about 17 years ago at a four month full time makeup course focused on film and TV.
• She started out on the MECCA Cosmetica counter in Ponsonby, Auckland, then freelanced on music videos and worked on the TV series Spartacus in New Zealand.
• She moved to Australia in 2014 and broke into TV commercials after meeting a fashion stylist while waitressing in a Surry Hills cafe.
• Her work now spans fashion campaigns, lookbooks, e-com shoots, special events and bridal.
• Bridal work really kicked off for her after she had her son, and she's represented by an agent Kellie from The Future Mrs who handles her wedding bookings, trials and admin.
• Most of her work comes through referrals and word of mouth, plus Instagram, which she treats as an unofficial portfolio.
• She doesn't set hard goals, she calls it "manifesting" instead, and this year that included a wedding that landed in Vogue.
• July is her quiet month. She uses it for admin, taxes and catching up with other makeup artists before things pick back up around October with regional weddings.
• Her advice for makeup artists starting out: stay connected to your network, ask questions, say yes to hard jobs, and know there's no union for makeup artists so open conversations between artists matter.
• Katie and Vanessa go through their kit favourites, kit tools and personal skincare and haircare picks. Full list with notes in the blog post.

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From Mac OG to Agency Founder with Heidi Scarlett King

This week I sat down with Sydney-based makeup artist and King Co Creative founder Heidi Scarlett King — and yes.

Heidi has one of those careers that sounds like fiction. She started at Mac in Sydney when the brand had just launched, assisting Fashion Week shows a season. Then she packed up and moved to London with no plan, started again from scratch, ended up at the Mac Pro Store in Soho, ended up on ITV This Morning as a beauty expert, got on Pat McGrath's runway team in Paris, and came home in 2014 to build an agency with 45 artists on the books.

This one covers the full arc. The exciting bits, the lonely bits, and the hard-won truths that only come from doing this for a really long time.

We cover:

• Starting at Mac in the 2000s and what Australian Fashion Week looked like at its peak
• Assisting legend Dottie and why those early years were the making of her
• Starting over in London and what six years there taught her about resilience
• Getting onto Pat McGrath's team at Paris Fashion Week and what that world is really like
• Accidentally becoming a TV beauty expert on ITV This Morning
• Why she moved back to Sydney in 2014 and how hard it was to restart — again
• How the industry shifted post-Instagram and why events became where the money went
• Directing Australian Idol and The Voice — and how that gave birth to King Co Creative
• Managing 45 artists: what she values more than talent, and why integrity can't be taught
• The Cartier Opera House event: 63 hair and makeup artists across 10 Sydney hotels
• The best advice she has for artists just starting out

Plus Heidi shares her current kit favourites — the By Terry powder she's been using for 15 years, her new Tarte tubing mascara obsession, and why the Half Percent lip liner is her ride or die right now.

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In this episode of The Insider Diary, I give a personal update on how work and content creation have been going. The main focus is my Instagram growth, I've picked up almost 2,000 followers in five weeks by posting reels daily, and I break down exactly which reels worked, which ones flopped, and the workflow behind it all. I also cover my content days and open the waitlist for my upcoming hair masterclass.

• Started posting reels daily from 18 March this year. 
• Nearly 2,000 new followers in about five weeks.
• Biggest lesson from the whole run: people only watch for 7 to 13 seconds. The hook decides whether they stay.
• My workflow: uses ChatGPT to help with captions, hooks and on-screen prompts, edits everything in the Edits app, posts to Instagram first, pulls the original file from Edits (not a re-download from Instagram) to post on TikTok, then reposts from TikTok to YouTube Shorts.
• Next move: repost her best performers again with a reworked hook, using ChatGPT to help tweak them.
• Advice for anyone starting out: just start. Mistakes are part of it. You'll find your style along the way. Collaboration helps (like her episode with Max) but isn't essential.
• Announcement: the waitlist is open for her hair masterclass. Format isn't locked in yet (leaning look-and-learn), and it'll be offered virtually too, so it's not just for Sydney or Australia.

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Adam Garland has worked backstage, assisted Sam McKnight, and had two shots at getting onto Guido Palau's team. Right now he's in his dad's garage in Somerset, UK, building a hair education platform from scratch. In this episode we talk about how he broke into session work (Model Mayhem, zero plan), the real cost of working for free, imposter syndrome, addiction and recovery, why chasing the agency dream was holding him back, and what changed when he finally let it go. He also shares the products he genuinely uses on set and why the humble ponytail elastic deserves way more respect than it gets.

• How Adam fell into hairdressing at 14 and went from a village salon to Vidal Sassoon, Tony & Guy, and eventually session work
• Finding his way into editorial around 2008-2010 via Model Mayhem, testing before he even knew testing was a thing
• Assisting Sam McKnight backstage at Chanel with Karl Lagerfeld and Kendall Jenner in the chair
• What nobody tells you about walking into those environments for the first time when you're from a small town
• The industry language nobody teaches you: options, confirms, releases, pencils, hard outs
• The pay debate: why working for free is not a free university, it's one day of university
• His experience on Guido Palau's team, twice, and why it didn't work out either time
• Addiction, recovery, and how starting his recovery journey around 2018 changed everything
• Why Sam McKnight's team stood by him for five years through the hard stuff
• AI in the creative industry and why "AI slop" is the wrong response
• Letting go of the agency dream and what happened to his career when he did
• Building sessionhair.com: 1:1 mentoring, a free initial consult, and an education platform coming soon
• Archive research and why knowing your references is how you find your visual identity

Products covered in this episode:

• Bedhead TIGI Queen for a Day thickening spray
• Keune Get a Grip texturiser
• Keune Sea Foam
• Sam McKnight Modern Hairspray
• Session Kit elastics (sessionkit.co.uk)

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This week I sat down with Sydney makeup artist Max May. Nearly 30 years in the industry, self-taught, Armani Australia ambassador, Charlotte Tilbury Glow Squad, and one of the first artists in this country to build a blog and digital presence when the industry told him it would ruin his career.

In this episode we cover:

• How Max got started — growing up in the country, moving to Sydney, falling into hairdressing by accident and discovering makeup on set
• Why he never did formal training and why he still thinks assisting is the best way to learn this industry
• What it was actually like to assist in those early days — it was tough, the industry was different, and he got on a bus to pick up dog poop for the person he worked under
• His years doing fashion weeks in Paris, New York and Milan
• Being the Australian Armani ambassador and what that role actually looked like
• Directing fashion shows in Australia for ten years straight
• Working with Jennifer Hawkins, Laura Bingle, Sarah Murdoch, Cheyenne Tozzi, Miranda Kerr and Mel B on The Masked Singer
• Why he finds editorial more creatively satisfying than TV
• Being one of the first Australian makeup artists to go digital — he lost work and friends over it and did it anyway
• His social media formula: how many times he posts a week and what the algorithm actually wants right now
• Why he has zero interest in TikTok and is not sorry about it
• His thoughts on AI and staying relevant in a changing industry

Full list of products mentioned over on The Makeup Insider. 

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3. The Inside Edit 

Tannia T has been doing this for over two decades. She started at the Napoleon Perdis counter and worked her way to global artistry — training staff, creating content, and travelling to LA and New York for major industry events.

Today she runs her own home studio, takes one-on-one clients, does bridal work, and has some clients who have been with her for over ten years.

In this episode, we get into what that kind of longevity actually looks like. The kit, the tools, the booking system, the products she keeps coming back to, and the real talk about social media as a working artist.

We cover:

• How Tannia went from Napoleon Perdis retail to global artistry
• Training staff and creating content for a major brand
• Travelling to LA and New York for industry events
• Building and running her own home studio
• Balancing bridal work, one-on-one clients, and being a mum
• Her Surratt eyelash curler obsession (and why it's worth it)
• Sonya G brushes — quality over quantity
• By Terry CC Brightening and Benefit Brow Glaze
• Her honest take on social media as a business tool
• How she manages bookings: manual tracking meets Google Calendar

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Kiana has been in and around the makeup industry for 13 years. But her path wasn't straight. She started on the Mecca counters, stepped away to work in disability support, and came back in 2022 through The Iconic's e-commerce team.

Since then? Sydney, Milan, Paris Fashion Weeks. A freelance career built on cold calls, genuine connections, and trusting her own eye.

In this episode, we talk about what it actually takes to rebuild in this industry, how networking opened doors she didn't even know existed, and why finding your own aesthetic matters more than chasing trends.

We cover:

• How Kiana got back into the industry through The Iconic's e-commerce team
• Why cold-calling creative agencies actually works
• How assisting at Fashion Weeks changed her career
• Building a skin-focused, mood-driven style
• Her kit essentials — including NARS Sheer Glow and Giorgio Armani Luminous Silk
• What she wishes she'd known earlier

For aspiring and working artists, this one is worth a listen.

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What A Stylist Actually Does with Kate Lauren Harper

Recently week I sat down with Sydney-based stylist Kate Lauren Harper for a refreshingly honest conversation about what stylists really do and what that means for us as hair and makeup artists on set.

If you have ever wondered what the stylist is actually doing while you are in kit, or how to build a better working relationship with styling, this episode is for you.

We cover:

• What a stylist actually does, from brief to final look
• How mood boards, client decks, and feedback rounds shape the whole shoot
• Why timelines and budgets are never as simple as they seem
• The unspoken etiquette of working on set
• How the stylist x hair and makeup relationship works (and when it does not)
• Kate's path from Wollongong to lead stylist, including the ecomm grind that built her skills
• Why boundaries matter more than you think, for stylists and for us

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Episode 2 of  The Insider Edit | The Makeup Insider

It's just me this week — and I'm bringing you 10 products I genuinely can't live without. Five from my kit, five I use on myself every day. Plus a quick chat about PR gifting, asking for what you want, and why a 'no' is never the end of the story.

Full list of products 

Also in This Episode

• How Vanessa gets PR gifting (hint: she asks for it)
• Overcoming the fear of pitching yourself
• Why a 'no' just means 'not yet'
• The scheduling technique that changed how she reaches out

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