Thursday 22 November 2012

Copycat, copycat where are you...

What’s new copycat? Woah, Woah
What’s new copycat? Woah, Woah…

Nothing in terms of you or your work it seems!

An industry filled with copycats that should be ashamed of themselves!

Now don’t get me wrong, at this stage in the game there is nothing truly original out there as most makeup looks are regurgitated versions of old. However, most artists manage to create their own unique take on something that has been done before. As for those of you that continually copy looks and make a hash of it… shame on you!

One thing I am seeing again and again are the Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead), the calaveras, which stand for "skulls" in Spanish. This Mexican skull make-up art is copied again and again and again and it's gotten pretty boring at this stage. Here's a test for you, type 'Mexican skull makeup art' into google and just look at the amount of stuff that comes up! 

Another thing I am noticing a lot is schools that are teaching students by continually telling students to 'copy' what they have done and often what they have done is a bad imitation of someone else's creative idea. 

I've heard of tutors printing off images I have heard stories of school printing off makeup images from the internet, handing them to students and telling them to copy it... yep, that's the way to go :/

Worse still, there are those of you that go beyond copying, opting instead for the even lazier route which is just to steal someone else's work and publish it on social media sites as your own! 

Here is a shocking example. Makeup Artist and Beauty Blogger, Karla Powell (www.karlapowell.co.uk) and another blogger happily allowing her readers to believe this is her own work! 


Karla has built up an extensive following and it must be extremely frustrating when another so-called professional uses your work (without credit!) as their own. This does not a makeup artist make!

This kind of thing takes effort, determination and creativity - all part of being a professional makeup artist. If you can't be bothered to give credit where credit is due, to cultivate your own ideas and create your own looks then you are in the wrong industry.

Now don't get me wrong, it can be very flattering to have someone openly recreate 'your' look, but please, oh please at least make sure you credit the person who's work it actually is. And certainly, in the event that you are just posting someone else's work, when your followers/friends comment on how amazing 'your' work is, at least have the decency to point them in the direction of the actual artist who bothered to do the work in the first place!


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