My photography partner, Amanda, of www.amandamaxphotography.com and I share a site that features mostly high school senior portraits – Professional Hair & Makeup comes with every session package we offer, so there’s no guess work – – especially since HS girls are only in the first few years of doing their own makeup…so, getting it done professionally is an amazing way to pick up tips to use for life.
However, for my headshot site, www.brandinphotography.com makeup is optional, since so many actors are on a tight budget. This often leaves a LOT of guess work…. I always include a list of tips in my “before shoot info sheet”, but I started thinking a video tutorial could be helpful too.
Below you’ll find one of my favorite natural makeup tutorials on YouTube. You’ll notice in the video that the makeup is little punched up beyond “natural”, so, I would suggest leaving out the black top liner for a more natural look & replace it with a softly smudged dark brown liner. However, you may add the black liner for your final look of the day if you’re wanting to do a “Sexy Smoldering Eyes” look….always a favorite!
Regardless of the look you’re doing you should absolutely SKIP THESE STEPS in the following video tutorial: 2 items she applies that really don’t work for Actor Headshots are:
1. white liner in the inner rim of the eye often washes away with blinking, & can sometimes smear a bit with the under eyeliner, resulting in retouching fees 🙁
2. Luminescent highlighter she uses toward the end of the video on her upper cheekbones is very often “bad for camera”. What looks dewey and glowy in person, can look sweaty & glaring on camera. Stick to MATTE powder, MATTE bronzer as well to avoid having a shiny face.
Hope this Video helps!
LA Headshots
Below is an example of some of my favorite Natural Makeup 
Actor Katrina Law shot these in LA with makeup artist Mitzi Druss, & we thought she achieved a perfect makeup look for each. The left image is a little edgier, but without going over the top. The lips & face were kept very natural, letting the eyes take center stage. The image on the right is classic natural makeup. The apples of the cheeks pop & the eyes have only a little neutral shadow for depth. Katrina doesn’t need much, so the makeup artist let her natural beauty shine through
