Evie Ry: How to Become a Makeup Artist and Get Recognized Around the World

Ready for another success story of makeup artists from around the world? This time we have the inspiring Evie Ry. She is an independent international makeup artist who is currently working in New York. She started her career in Russia, Moscow and has been recognized by quite a few Russian and international magazines by getting her work published and she also has experience working as a movie makeup artist for a few TV series. At the moment her interests lie in artistic experimenting with form and color as well as creating a commercially great picture. 

Makeup artistry is Evie’s second career, she got a diploma in translation and after a short period of teaching and a few short-term office jobs she figured out that she just got too bored being in an office environment and so her long loved hobby became the main focus. Evie started assisting a lot and going to different workshops which eventually led her to getting bigger jobs.

photo credits: Stephani Diani

Her first ever makeup gig happened when she was still in university. Evie’s friend had a camera and invited her to collaborate. As Evie confesses, it was terrifying to even touch somebody else’s face for the first time! But they have had a lot of fun though.

At first Evie did a whole lot of collaborative shoots that were submitted to different online magazines, that will help to place your name on the map for sure and at some point when she was already working on TV shows, producers would start referring her and offering to work on shoots for different magazines, sometimes it would even be a creative lookbook shoot that would end up in a Vogue or Bazaar.

Evie came to NY without really knowing anyone here and she was doing a whole lot of networking. She admits that it is not as hard as you think, you just need to figure out what style you want your work to be in and from there it will be easier to find like-minded creatives, use Instagram, models.com, Swipecast, meetmybooker.com to find creatives whose work you love and reach out to them by email. “You would be surprised how responsive people are when you know what it is exactly that you want, having an idea/moodboard in mind and ready would make it much easier for people to see if you are on the same wavelength,” — she says. 

Through working in the industry for all those years, Evie learned always to be humble, when you work on set. Not only being a talented artist is important but also the way you treat people around you, that’s the most important thing that will ensure your clients will want to work with you again and again and they will also refer you to other jobs.

photo credits: Sergey Vasiliev

She also has her own secrets as a professional makeup artist: “The main secret any makeup artist needs to figure out first and foremost is how to create perfect skin that looks alive with no noticeable to the eye product, that’s something I see a lot of artists struggling with. You should also understand that a makeup artist is not a complete magician and when we can cover all the discoloration of your skin, the texture is much harder to get rid of, this is the moment when you want to be best friends with gaffers because lighting is so crucial for any type of makeup”.

“Less is more! You don’t need layers of makeup to feel beautiful!”

photo credits: Adel Makulova

Evie loves all the Kevin Aucoin and Bobbi Brown books, The Makeup Artist Handbook by Davis and Hall. “I always enjoy self-studying so the book list could be pretty long, you can study color theory and different art books, they will help you evolve as an artist,” — Evie says.  When it comes to videos she finds Lisa Eldridge’s channel on Youtube full of information and different techniques. Also she thinks that models.com is just a great resource for getting inspired because you can find shoots and inspiring artists from all the international magazines there.

photo credits: Maria Panina

Talking about inspiration, Evie admits: “Everyday confident smart women are the most inspiring, colors and shapes that come from nature, architecture, art — the outside world is just full of inspirations”.

Currently she is working on a makeup course that is going to teach a person the very basics of makeup and will get to a place where a person will be not only comfortable doing makeup in less than 15 minutes but also teach how to be playful and not afraid of colors in a  daily routine.

For those MUA's who want to get started or are just starting out Evie gave her advice: “Even if you are just starting out, try to invest in your kit and it does not necessarily mean buying as many products as possible, invest in great quality that will last you much longer! Always be on time and even 10 minutes early, that will not only give you time to set your kit up but also you will have a second to get acquainted with the team you will be working with”.

You can see Evie’s work on her website www.eviery.com and Instagram page @evie_ry.