Make Up First

I’ve absolutely loved the class at Make Up First! Let me say that Jill and her staff are all great, they are all talented and the fact that I feel like I’ve learned so much in two weeks makes me so excited to continue the program. I would recommend the school to a friend with out hesitation! The best part of the school is that you have the opportunity to work on your classmates and gain practical experience working on people from different ethnic backgrounds, skin types, tones, genders, it’s pretty darn amazing! It’s been a great investment!

Love the staff & especially Jill (the owner). Before I came to make up first I thought I was going to be stuck in the medical field. Jill has inspired me so much! If you want a true career in make up come to this school! You won’t be disappointed :)

I only took the first three courses of the program, Basic Makeup 1, Basic 2, and Media HD, because I knew these would be most beneficial to my career (I’m a TV News Makeup Consultant working for my husband who runs the CBS and Fox newsrooms). I also attended the brand new weekend workshop where Jill combined Bridal and Airbrush into one day.
The owner and main instructor is Jill and although she’s unprofessional, she has put together a good curriculum. There are also a few assistant teachers, all of whom are knowledgeable. Class starts with a lecture/​demonstration and then students pair up and practice the day’s lesson on each other but this is rushed through and unclear most of the time. Don’t make the mistake of partnering with the same person two days in a row. I did and Jill scolded me loudly in front of everyone. When you have finished, the assistant teachers will critique your work.
The curriculum builds on itself and you learn something new every day including color theory, prepping a face, sanitation, corrective makeup, making and following a face chart, and day to night makeup for example.
They provide all the products you need in Makeup 1 (you’ll need your own set of brushes) and this is useful because you get to experiment with different brands of makeup. They also sell all these products at the school but don’t feel pressured to buy the brands they push. It did seem like the school was eager to make money off us regularly. Keep in mind that drug store brands are perfectly acceptable when you are first starting out. By Makeup 2 you will need to have a small kit put together, all of which you pick and purchase on your own.
For specific lessons, Jill brought in models with dark skin, mature models, and Asian models. They are not real models but normal, everyday ladies. Because the class was so large, about 25 of us, there were 2 students for every model. Most of us had complaints about this because we only got to work on one half of the models face which seemed ludicrous. Also, the day we worked on Asian models to learn how to do makeup for monolids, our model did not actually have monolids so that was a lesson my partner and I did not learn fully and there are no second chances or opportunities for extra help at this school.
Another frustration many of us shared was that all the instructors weren’t synchronized with their critiques. An example is Jill teaching us to moisturize the clients face with your hands so you can feel their bone structure and began to create a plan in your mind of what corrective makeup they may need. Later, an assistant teacher told us not to do that because clients don’t want you touching their face.
On photo shoot day in Media HD, you need to bring your own model. This is particularly difficult if you are from out of town and some students had to pay the school to bring in a model for them. We were all disappointed that our shots turned out to be full body shots and not the close up beauty shots we were expecting (for use in our portfolios).
Never park in the garage in the building. Before school started, I called the school asking where to park and the girl told me the garage there was $ 14. On the first day I parked there and was shocked when I had to pay $ 36! Turns out it’s only $ 14 if you get there really early in the morning. This is the case for all the parking garages in that area but I found a garage for $ 14 all day on Canal and Lake which is a safe and easy 15 minute walk to school.
Class is only 2.5 hours a day so it stretches on for months and becomes financially draining if you are from out of state. Besides the large expense for school, I spent an extra $ 1000 per WEEK on hotel accommodations, food, and daily parking downtown for school. I wish they would have had an accelerated program which fit into a shorter time frame.
Following each course, you are asked to write your opinions anonymously about the course but I don’t recommend writing anything negative about Jill. Someone in our class said Jill told far too many personal stories which took away from learning time. For the next week, Jill constantly brought this up during class and whoever wrote it must have felt very embarrassed.
The one day Bridal/​Airbrush workshop is a good investment. Instead of doing bridal makeup application, which we all knew how to do since we were current or previous students of the school, Jill taught us the business of bridal. And the airbrush part was good because the school provided everything and Jill let us get hands on right from the start.
This school gives you a basic foundation to build on. You will still need lots of practice.

A wonderful resource for airbrush and HD makeup supplies, e.g. Kett, Temptu, OCC.
The product room is small but enough to meet someone’s last minute needs.
Call first before going to the store so Lane (or someone) can assist and meet you at the door. The venue is a classroom setup instead of a store.
I went to buy 1 – 2 products but end up with 5. It was a no pressure sales. As I checked out the products, I realized I needed a few necessities.
One of the 5 products is a makeup brush cleaner that I thought I didn’t need for the past few years. Cleaning the brushes with soap and water made it dry and partially clean especially the lipstick and eyeliner brushes. The Brush Cleaner moisturized and cleaned the brushes like new.
Good selection of brushes at a good price. I found a comparable brush for $ 20+ that Sephora was selling for $ 40+.
Lane encourages to test product from a sample bottle. Product area is super clean and cob web free.

I recently completed the Illinois State Certification of Makeup Artistry courses @ Makeup First School in downtown Chicago. I have nothing but good things about my experience there — everything from the valuable information covered in each course to the individualized, in-​depth, and hands-​on training throughout the certification process. The course sizes are limited so I received an ideal level of individual attention.
I enjoyed being taught by each of the instructors there, seeing as they each had high levels of industry experience and varying fields of expertise (shout outs to the instructors Jill, Dave, Jaime, Lane, Megan, Deena, and Dr. Harris!).
Every course I took at Makeup First revealed a new, exciting set of skills to be learned… for example, the scope of different «effects» we learned in Theatrical Makeup with Dave Bova from NYC — an experience that I will never forget! Another favorite class of mine was Clinical Makeup with the school owner and instructor, Jill, and board certified dermatologist Dr. Matthew Harris. I acquired very specific, industry relevant information and training on the «canvas» aka, the skin, and the product ingredients that should and should not be used on that canvas.
We also learned about and were able practice hands-​on application of camouflage makeup (for burn survivors and/​or people with certain skin conditions) as well as camouflage makeup for tattoo coverage — all on models who were pleasant and helpful! I am so glad to have received valuable training in these real-​world scenarios, as well as many other aspects of makeup artistry. It opened up my eyes to the numerous career paths that exist for professional freelance makeup artists.
I definitely recommend this program if you are looking to build a solid foundation for your career as a professional makeup artist.

I moved back to Chicago from Orlando and I have attened Makeup First and was State Certified late May of 2011
Since then I have done freelance jobs with Makeup First inluding Fashion Showes, Haunted Houses and Make Overs. And with the help of Jill and her team I am now working at Kryolan Professional Make-​Up. They prepared me for the world of Makeup in the upmost professional way. I could not have picked a better school. The staff there is so welcoming and amazing. I would reccomed this school to anyone