Is Wedding Hair and Makeup worth it? And why do they charge what they charge?
The short answer is; If you get a good one, Absolutely!! And, the price needs to cover their costs.
Two completely understandable questions which I aim to give honest, straight forward insight about, to hopefully allow people to understand that a good price should be fair for both the client and the artist doing the work. And a bargain is only a bargain when the quality outshines the price.
You are not just paying for hair and makeup styling. You are paying for an artist’s time, experience, training, knowledge, skills, expertise, talents, reliability, their ability to make you look and feel great, and for the smile they put on your face, amongst other things.
So, Mobile Make-Overs Australia is in the ‘average’ price range in Adelaide for professional hair and makeup artist services. We are not the cheapest, and we are not the most expensive. BUT; we are ALL professionally qualified experienced artists, we are not self -trained, or hobbyists, this is our career. I personally have over 2 decades worth of experience, multiple 5-star reviews + awards and I am a makeup trainer, with many of my competitors being my own makeup students. There are many examples of my work to be found.
Most students and new artists to the industry start out with cheaper prices, because they don’t have as much experience as some of their competition and there is less evidence of their work, proving their worth. They also don’t tend to invest as much into advertising in the beginning. The more they do however, the more the experience they get, the more they learn, the better artist they become, the more confident they get, the more they invest, thus the more they can/need to charge. I started out the same way.
In Adelaide the average cost for hair and makeup packages are between around $180 and $300 per person. Much more, or less than this and I’d be a bit worried. In Sydney this price can range from $250-$400 per person, so we are pretty lucky in Adelaide.
But why this price range?
Well, what do hair and makeup artists actually do??
We make people feel great! We make people feel confident. We put smiles on people's faces.
Most clients want to hire a hair and makeup artist because…..
- They have a special occasion and they want to look the part.
- They are getting married and want to have that gorgeous bridal glow.
- There will be photos taken and they want to ensure they look amazing in them, forever.
- They want to feel confident and gorgeous.
- They want to look timeless and more glamorous than what their own skills can achieve.
- They are not quite sure what styles suit them best.
- They want the hair and makeup to last longer than usual.
- And they don’t want to look white and pasty in their photos. No flashback please.
A great Hair and Makeup artist will have to achieve all of this and more, not just to meet client needs and expectations, but to exceed them. That is value for money.
We are trained to make you feel confident, sexy, stunning and simply amazing, by making you look gorgeous. We are in the game of creating happy people, by using beauty styling.
How do we achieve this and how does this effect the cost?
Professional hair and makeup training
Our first port of call is to get some professional training to understand all the face, eye and lip shapes, hair textures and styles. To understand different skin tones, colour schemes and the multitude of different hair and makeup designs. And most importantly to master the knowledge of the science between photography and makeup reflection and learning why the choice of products is crucial to ensure the best results.
Good hair and makeup courses range from around $3500 right up to over $12,000!! This is a critical investment for our clients’ benefit. A good artist will invest in the right training to ensure they provide the absolute best, safest and most beautiful outcome possible.
Professional makeup kits
We also have to make sure our kits are fully equipped with the best, high quality products and tools. Now although professional brands do tend to be cheaper than your commercial department store or supermarket brands, we need to make sure we have everything for every client and every look. This can make our hair and makeup kits cost anywhere from $5000 to $15,000. I wish I was exaggerating on this. Just imagine having enough foundation colours to suit any and every skin tone out there in the world and every eye shadow colour needed to create literally any design thrown at us at any time. That’s a lot of makeup!
Advertising and Insurance
Then we have to advertise to attract clients to us, otherwise how can you find us? Advertising can cost anywhere from $300 to $3000 PER ADVERTISER every year. And that’s not including the costs involved in having a website and hosting. The easier you find us, the more we are likely to have paid for it.
Next is making sure we are insured for your protection and ours. Insurance can cost anywhere from $600-$1200 every year. Just in case any thing happens, or if our kits get stolen. Peace of mind is key
Makeup studios and transportation
Many of us are mobile and many have studios. Those who are mobile have to make sure our vehicles are as reliable as possible. This entails regular servicing, insurances, registration and road side assistance memberships, not to mention petrol costs. This generally adds up to a few thousand dollars every year. Those who have a studio, have electricity, water, rent, and set up costs. This also adds up to somewhere in the thousands.
Behind the scenes work
I also get the comment “I wish I got paid that for 2 hours work”. A 2 hour client booking can take up to 1-2 hours of behind the scenes work to get that booking (Emailing, invoicing, confirming details, making sure all advertising is up to date, social media content creation and scheduling, etc). So once you take off all our expenses, then divide that money by 2 for bookings and business support/admin work, that money can add up to less than the average Australian hourly rate and that’s before tax is taken off. I can’t stress how much I wish I was exaggerating on this point!!!
Competing with hobbyists
Yes, there are cheaper artists out there and many of them who do it as a hobby or for extra income, are new in the industry, or are self-trained makeup enthusiasts. Now this does not make them bad at what they do, but when I get so many phone calls from stressed out clients saying their artist has cancelled at the last minute, or they have hated their trial, or brides needing to do wedding photo re-shoots because their makeup looked terrible in the photos, I have to wonder how seriously some of them take their clients’ needs. Hobbyists don’t tend to have as many expenses, because they don’t pay much, if anything for advertising, as they don’t rely on the work to pay bills, thus their prices tend to be far lower. But are you getting a good, reliable and knowledgeable artist? Well, that is the question.
So there are a few costs involved in setting up our businesses and to survive we do need to make enough money to cover these and hopefully give us some income to cover our living needs like food, clothing, mortgage, bills and general living, just like any other person out there.
We want our client’s to feel great and I’m sure many artists will agree with me when I say, I am honoured and feel incredibly appreciative when a client chooses me for their occasion. With all the brilliant talent out there, my clients mean the world to me and I thank them graciously and according to all their reviews, it seems they think I am worth the price. So when shopping around for a makeup artist, do your research and remember a cheap price often does not mean a bargain.
There are so many amazingly talented artists out there, but finding a great one can be a bit tricky. Please check out my blog Six Steps to Choose the Perfect Makeup Artist on tips on how to do this.
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