Natalia Naida: “Our school is my main pride”

The article was first published in Makeup&YOU Professional magazine.

— How did your passion for the beauty industry begin? When did you first realize that you were interested in the world of beauty? - In fact, this did not manifest itself in childhood, as in many girls, for example, when you first experiment on yourself and then on your friends. I started this as a hobby when I was still living in another country and working as a teacher at school. And when I moved to live in Ukraine, this activity became an opportunity to earn extra money. After some success, I began to work only in this direction. I became interested, I realized that I was developing, so I set my sights on creating my own school. Essentially, I had experience in the salon industry, but lacked experience in other areas. I realized that there are things I don't know. Therefore, I began to study, discover new techniques, participate in competitions and championships. All this in order to create your own school. Thus began a new page in my life. — Do you remember your first competition? — It was the “Kyiv Cup” and I worked together with hairdresser Lena Voinova, with whom, by the way, I worked for about 10 years. I remember how worried I was then. But already at the second Ukrainian Championship I managed to get a silver medal, after which I actively began to take part in competitions, including international ones. — From your experience, what advice can you give to novice contestants? — First of all, a person must understand why he needs it. In fact, in modern makeup it is not necessary to come to a competitive movement. I tell my students that there should always be something parallel, that is, if you work with clients and your goal is commerce, you must find an opportunity to do things that you would never try with a client. For example, now everyone follows the pro-European model: they try to be well-groomed, with soft, natural makeup that is close to natural. Performing such make-up regularly, the makeup artist will eventually become bored and uninteresting. Therefore, you need to find an opportunity to splash out your creativity. These can be not only competitions, now there are millions of options for development - you can work with a photographer, create your own collections for gloss. Competitions give a lot, it’s simply a mistake to think that absolutely everyone needs to participate in them. — Tell us a little about your school - the subject of your main pride. — I am very proud of my teachers at school, six of them are not just participants or winners of competitions, they are international masters. Their formation took place through a series of competitions that taught them discipline, technique, cleanliness and accuracy. First of all, the demands placed on teachers at school are higher than on teachers who simply do their job well. The talent of the teachers at our school allows you to receive very diverse training, i.e., in addition to the general base, we provide the opportunity to study a whole line of special courses that are developed personally by each of the teachers. Our school is the author's. We have our own methods and techniques, so we do not copy them from other masters, as most schools do. — And what exactly is your author’s approach? — It so happened that my training in pencil technique happened when I already had 8 years of experience, clients and a fairly successful career in salon work. Three days with the coach of the Ukrainian national team Taisiya Vasilyeva added precision, flexibility, cleanliness and technique to my experience - everything that was so lacking for successful performances at the championships. Over time, I realized that I would like to see the same flexibility in commercial work. The recipe turned out to be simple - precision and purity from the classical pencil technique, harmony of color combinations from the artist and logic, endless answers to questions to yourself - these are the steps that formed the basis of our already quite well-known author’s technique. At our school we use a technique in which it doesn’t matter what tool you use: gel, cream, pencil - it doesn’t matter! It is important to understand the starting points, color features, etc. We have created our own system of coloristic adaptation; we pay a lot of attention to color, but not decorative, but individual. Everything is taken into account in the details: how old the model is, whether she has plastic surgery, how many hours she slept today. We also combine decorative colors with natural ones, so when our students graduate from school, they already know how to choose the exact individual color scheme. I believe that colorism is one of our greatest achievements. We don’t give templates; it’s difficult to learn from us. But we are calm about our graduates, because they are thinking people. And we know that they will not remember the scheme, formula or color type; in any situation they will be able to clearly analyze and choose a stylish, competent and modern solution. Therefore, our graduates are in great demand. — You say that it is difficult to study with you. Have there been cases when masters came to you and, with the first difficulties, ran back after a week? - Well, so that in a week it won’t happen. It happened that students simply switched to individual learning. It also happened that we did not issue a diploma, but only a regular certificate of completion of the course, since we are responsible for each student. We do not advertise in glossy magazines. We prefer word of mouth. This is the most powerful advertisement, because recommendations are usually given by clients and students. I would like to point out that when you develop as a master, you work on your mistakes, but if you develop as a teacher, you already work on the mistakes of your students. Regarding the complexity of learning, we create real situations that our students can expect in life. Yes, studying with us is difficult, but interesting. — How do you interest your students so that they don’t get tired of difficult learning? — First of all, my higher pedagogical education plays a role here, because I am a teacher-methodologist and worked at school for 5 years before taking up beauty art. Therefore, I know how to properly prepare for a lesson and calculate the time. Also, everything that is now in the basic program, I initially discussed with my colleagues, step by step, recording what we ultimately want to get from students in a lesson, the maximum and minimum, in what form the information should be presented. We do not practice the options that other schools use - when the teacher draws on a model, and the students need to repeat it, and they do it as best they can. During the first half of the course, the teacher and all the students analyze each model, first comes the analysis, then the oral part, and after that the teacher shows his solution. We teach how to analyze the selection of clothing shade, hair shade, and so on, and only during the second half of the course do we give students the opportunity to work independently. — At the beginning of the conversation, you mentioned that salon work is not entirely creative. What is important for a master to know in order to learn how to work adequately with clients and become in demand among them? What should you not forget? — Let’s just say that salon work is very small in area and therefore difficult. No matter how much we want to reveal ourselves as much as possible, the client is already used to seeing himself in the same image! He already has a favorite shape of eyebrows, lips, favorite color, and so on. And not everyone is ready to change something. There is a problem that the less we work, the more God we are. A person is just graduating from school, and already thinks that he knows and can do everything, now clients will come who will listen to him and happily agree to any color, any shape and are generally ready to do any experiments. This is wrong, because every woman wants to be confident, and this happens when she sees familiar facial features and shapes. A very small percentage of women are ready to change completely and this is a rather narrow age category. Therefore, it is a great skill when you listen, hear and add something of your own. And no matter how creative we want to be with the client, there will still be limits that he will set for you, beyond which you will never be able to go. We always tell our students that every woman deserves to be listened to and has the right to like herself the way she wants. We don't have to grab at all the flaws that we want to change, even if from our point of view it is necessary. For you it is ugly, but for the client it is beautiful, which means she is right and we do not overstep her wishes. — The client is the face of the master. How should a master act when a client asks for something out of the ordinary and goes ahead? Should you agree, refuse, or still find a compromise? - Complex issue. I will tell you using my example, which happened 4 years ago. A woman approached me who was quite old and wanted black makeup for her wedding. Not gray, not smokey eyes, but black. Due to the fact that certain age-related changes have occurred in her skin, the black color would focus attention on those problems that are usually invisible without makeup. We had a trial job and, of course, I didn’t dare say that it wouldn’t suit her, because I would have to voice her problems. I tried to take her in the other direction and incline her to smokey eyes, it is softer, not so catchy. We tried it and she liked it. I was pleased, everything looked very good. But on her wedding day, another master worked with her, who made her black eyes, as she originally wanted. I usually tell my students, “What is more important to you?” And the most important thing, of course, is to retain the client, so you need to be very flexible. Sometimes it's worth doing what you initially don't like. This way, the client will begin to trust you and over time he can be persuaded to other shapes and colors that suit him much better. But if you have a good client base and your reputation is impeccable, you can refuse a capricious client. It is necessary to do this delicately, explain that you do not work in this direction and recommend another specialist. We always try to avoid phrases: “it doesn’t suit you”, “it will emphasize your wrinkles”, “it will make you look older”, etc. Correctness is important in our work. — Tell me, in what proportion is the skill of a makeup artist, on the one hand, knowledge and ability to implement a request, and, on the other hand, creativity and imagination? — In any work there is a customer. If we work in a salon, no matter how much we want to try something new, we will not be more creative than our client. He pays money for it. Therefore, the concept “I am an artist - this is how I see it” does not work here, rather, “I paint as the customer sees it.” The competition is very tough, if we don’t understand this, clients will go to others. As for competitions, there are clear rules. One championship is completely different from another. I can say “that’s how I see it” as much as I want, but if I go against the rules, my work will never be appreciated. Now, if you are working with a photographer or for yourself, you can fantasize and be as creative as you like, because, ultimately, the customer is you! — What about commercial filming? What is their specificity? And how is it going for you personally? — I now have many projects for foreign publications. For example, with the Romanian magazine Make up magazine. I also often work with Baltic publications, and at the moment I have projects with America and Canada. It’s one thing when they say “we like your collection, let’s take it,” but it’s another thing when they set tasks and need to come up with something and develop something. I did a number of rebrandings for cosmetic companies, they said that they needed three girls in the frame, they should be contrasting, the customer specified a certain range of colors and style. And I can no longer step over the demands that are put before me. You need to be very flexible. — Have you ever had such cases when the customer’s wishes were completely contrary to yours? How did you deal with such cases? — There were, of course, but I never refuse projects, because it is always an experience. I recently returned from Romania, where we did the cover of Make up magazine. When I flew there, I knew that the filming would involve a public person who is well known not only in Romania, but also in Europe. I was informed that this is a man, a famous pop singer. I was hysterical - not only do I practically never work with men, but this star also has his own special style: he always wears a hood, glasses, and face art on his face. No one sees his real face. I had the task of making a face art that he had never had before, taking into account the presence of a hood and glasses. And in the end they generally informed me that this should not be one work, but at least three, and one of them must be done in watercolor, which I don’t like at all and never practice. In principle, I also don’t like makeup on men, especially fantasy makeup. In general, I was in real panic. But I am very glad that I participated in such a project. It was like a mini-exam. And in general, every time I take on something unknown or something I’m not good at, it’s always an improvement in my skills and invaluable experience. — Which show business star do you think has excellent, close to ideal, make-up? Who might you like to work with? And, conversely, who would you like to radically change the image? — Regarding the last question, perhaps this is Alla Pugacheva. I think this would be the most interesting project, since I would really like to make it completely different. As for perfect makeup, I always liked the Baltic artists in this regard. I admire Laima Vaikule, I think that she is a person beyond age. Her style, image and makeup are on a level that I can talk about a lot. The same can be said about Ingeborg Dapkunaite. — Tell us about your experience in judging competitions? What are the main difficulties of this type of activity? “The most difficult thing was when I trained participants without much experience—at that time my school didn’t even exist yet.” I remember one participant for whom everything was quite easy. The other one, on the contrary, worked for several months, every movement was difficult for her, so she tried very hard. I was very worried, knowing all the subtleties and features that lie behind the work done. I was given advice to forget everything that happened before and evaluate the work based on the fact. It was in those years that Natalia Kondratchuk and Natalia Kripak asked me to help prepare for the Ukrainian Championship. I invested so much emotion into these masters that I felt as if I was performing myself. During the course of our work, we became such good friends that we decided to open our own school, and for 9 years now we have been working together on a common cause. The real test for me was when we took the team to the Nevskie Berega championship. This was our first trip, for the first time we were able to declare ourselves as an independent Ukrainian national team. We were on the train and reworked our sketches, learned how to do body art and much more, since it turned out that we had misunderstood the requirements, and there was very little time to correct everything. Then I had 5 students, and we returned to Ukraine with an average of 15 cups. This success marked a great start. Today we are considered the best makeup team. — And finally, what advice would you give to people who want to follow in your footsteps and open their own schools? — Now there are a lot of schools and I have a negative attitude towards this phenomenon. I believe that a school should arise when a person is ready to give, and in order to have something to give, one must have a certain amount of baggage and a desire to do so.