Julia Melnik about winning a competition from the Hollywood make-up school, the image of Alien and new goals

Julia Melnik is a professional make-up artist since 2009, winner of the American Next level of Cosplay competition from the Hollywood Cinema Makeup School in 2016, a follower of Leonard Engelman, a make-up artist with experience in films (The Perception, Let it snow, Let's Dance, " Bobot”, “Egregor”), commercials, music videos and with show business stars, as well as a member of the jury of our project Pro Beauty Battle: Makeup .

Today we are talking with Julia Melnik about winning the Next level of Cosplay competition, self-study, professional dreams and goals, and at the end of the material you will find tips and wishes for participants in Pro Beauty Battle: Makeup. Let's read quickly!

Julia, tell us where your passion for the beauty industry began? And how, in particular, did you come to the decision to master the art of makeup?

My passion for the beauty industry began when I was studying acting. We had the opportunity between couples to do our own things, and I chose different kinds of courses. At the modeling course there was a lesson on “make-up for yourself”, and for this I needed to buy a minimal set of cosmetics and tools.

Over time, I started helping a photographer friend by touching up models for photo shoots. He was the first to tell me that it was time to start charging money for makeup! And I felt that without professional training it was inconvenient for me to accept payment. I trained as a makeup artist and two days later I was already working on the set.

I developed quite quickly: a month after training, my works were already published in magazines, I started working with stars on projects like “Star + Star”, “Dancing with the Stars”, “Intuition”, “Voice of the Country”, etc. Then I gained a lot of experience when I had to quickly put on makeup for ballet participants, musicians, and artists. And all this non-stop! But I still enjoyed the process.

Over the course of five years, I tried different areas of my profession: makeup for music videos, commercials, TV shows, photo shoots, weddings, and so on. But at some point I didn’t feel any development. Then I came across the American reality show Face Off and watched all the available seasons with tears in my eyes. I couldn’t understand why they don’t teach this here! I really wanted to do this.

As far as I know, at first you taught yourself makeup. How it was?

I started looking for where to study, where to order materials. I had no desire to go to Russia; America is too expensive. I decided to try to study makeup on my own and at the same time looked for cheaper schools, but the dream of studying at Cinema Makeup School did not leave me. I decided to write to them directly and find out about the discount. They did not have such an option, but there were grants for training. To get them, you had to win a competition.

I have a goal to win this grant! I ordered my first materials from America and started learning prosthetic makeup from YouTube videos. Not everyone reveals their production secrets, so I spent nine months experimenting. At that time, I only worked on materials, and devoted all my free time from work to makeup.

As a result, I created an image for the competition and sent an application. I was sure that I would surprise the jury, since I took the most difficult material and came up with the image from scratch. But as it turned out, the rule needed to be read more carefully, since the task was “to recreate an image or show your vision of an existing image.” That's how I flew by... Of course, I was very upset. I thought that I had wasted nine months, that it was all not mine, but how much money was spent, and no result! Then I gave up...

What happened next? How did you manage to win?

After a week and a half, I pulled myself together and decided: I’ll try again, but this time I won’t be so killed if I don’t succeed. And the next year, 10 days before the end of the application, I created my vision of the image of the White Walker from “Game of Thrones” and was among the 20 best make-up artists selected by jury members from all over the world.

Next came a month of online voting. In total, about 44 thousand people supported me! So I got into the top five, from which the judges unanimously (for the first time in the history of the competition) chose me as the winner! I couldn’t believe my luck then! I was able to realize this at the moment when I was already sitting in the auditorium of this school and listening to a lecture. So I lost my self-taught status in 2017.

Tell us what you remember most about studying at the Hollywood Cinema Makeup School?

The American education system is very different from ours. They raise artists free from complexes. They will find thousands of reasons to praise you and will never say that you did a bad job. Yes, they will give advice on how to do better, but personally, with my self-criticism, I asked that they be as frank as possible with me and tell me what I was doing wrong. But I was still praised, and not only by teachers, but also by my classmates - such is their mentality. (Smiles.)

At first this surprised me the most, sometimes even bothered me, but then, on the contrary, it began to inspire me! We should learn from Americans not to be afraid to show our emotions and compliment each other. Here you encounter competition and envy more often than the approving “you did this job so well!”

What projects are you working on now? Makeup for movies, videos or your own pleasure and development?

After my training, upon returning to Ukraine, I continue to work actively. But now people think that I have stopped doing beauty make-up, and more often they call me for complex tasks. Customers are very surprised when I say that I still do makeup. (Smiles.) Sometimes I work on images that need to be created for more than a month in the studio, and sometimes I really want to change blood, silicones and latexes to highlighters, winged liners and lipsticks. (Laughs.)

At this stage of my life, even though I graduated from the best American makeup school, I still remain self-taught at heart. We live in a time when everything is developing and science does not stand still, new materials and technologies are actively appearing. Therefore, I spend all my free time on experiments and creating new images.

You graduated from school four years ago. What achievements are you most proud of during this period of time?

After arriving from the USA, I received an order to create an Alien (Xenomorph). This is my pride - a 2.5 meter tall make-up with a head, elongated fingers, a tail and curved joints in the legs. This is not an exact copy of Alien, so as not to violate copyright, but an association arises that this is the same image.

I love it very much because it was my ticket to the ADI studio, where I was able to meet the makeup artists Alex Gillies and Tom Woodroof, who worked on the original Alien in America! I visited the studio and saw how they produced images, asked questions about the creation of Alien, and was even invited to an event dedicated to the 30th anniversary of their studio, where the best work and awards were exhibited. It's amazing that one look can lead to meeting Oscar-winning makeup artists who are your idols!

What goals do you set for yourself in the near or not so near future?

In the future, I want to create a school where I could teach complex makeup, but for now I decided to start teaching individually. This year I will practice this type of training, and then we’ll see!

In your opinion, how developed is the makeup industry in Ukraine and what is it missing at the moment?

At the moment, the makeup industry in Ukraine is developing, and this cannot but rejoice! Nowadays, customers are becoming bolder, and there is more work on prosthetic makeup! This is not only the creation of monsters and mutilations, it is also a change in facial features - the appearance of one person can be made completely different with the help of special overlays.

Finally, materials have appeared in Ukraine thanks to Strukova FX, where you can find almost everything you need. Previously, I had to order everything from the USA, but now I understand that if my packages do not arrive in time, I have a safety net. And this is also an indicator that the level of creating more complex makeup has gone up.

At the moment, we do not have enough budgets to realize all the ideas of directors, clients, producers, etc. Not everyone understands how much makeup costs, how long images take to produce, how much materials cost - budget cuts begin, and quality suffers as a result.

What would you like to wish/advise to makeup artists and makeup artists who take part in the Pro Beauty Battle?

Don't be afraid to be creative, always strive to come up with something that no one has done before! Be a pioneer! Then you can surprise not only the jury, but also yourself! When you yourself don’t expect what the result will be, and you do something that you didn’t even expect from yourself, you get double the pleasure! So go for it! You will succeed!