How to break into the beauty industry
Hi Nadine!
My name is E., i live on Long Island and I’m currently in beauty school. I’ve been going crazy trying to figure out what I want to do with my career once I graduate in October. When my cousin told me about you and your blog I fell in love!! I was wondering about what kind of degree you need and what I need to do to find out if I actually want to be a beauty editor. I’m trying to do my own research on it but it seems to be hard to find information on the career itself. So here I’m also wondering besides what kind of degree I would need and where to start working or looking for help, is do you personally like being a Beauty Editor? are the hours long? What city is the best to work in? And if there is any heartfelt advice that you could give me to help me, I would greatly appreciate it!
Thank you!!!
Hi E.!
Thanks for your email!
Five years ago, if you had asked me for advice on breaking into the beauty industry, I would have drilled into your head the importance of getting an internship. That’s no longer the case. With the rise of blogs and the shaky state of magazines, the very best advice I can give you is to start your own beauty blog and approach it as your personal magazine. Your major doesn’t matter; what does matter is developing strong writing skills, solid beauty contacts, and your own editorial voice. And, of course, passion and perseverance are essential! Starting out, you will be ignored or hear no a lot, and you must soldier on!
The magazine industry is in a tizzy guessing what the future will be as advertisers are fleeing and books are folding left and right. I’d put less importance on getting a traditional internship and much more importance on creating your own website, writing short, interesting, informative posts every day, developing a strong, tightly edited voice, and submitting yourself to other websites to write as a freelancer (probably for free). Develop contacts, send emails to bloggers you admire, get on Twitter, network with other beauty bloggers, and really put yourself out there. Eventually, you’ll be able to approach editors in New York with a strong resume and will be able to get your foot in the traditional print door…if you still want to go that route!
I cannot stress enough how much trouble the magazine industry is in, so please keep that in mind. Magazines will, I think (I hope!), always be there, but print is no longer where it’s at. Many editors have jumped ship and are leaving for web, and the beauty of the internet is that it’s completely democratic. Anybody can start a blog…the challenge, of course, is developing readers and then keeping them. If you produce quality content consistently and develop a rapport with your readers, they will, indeed, come, and you will rise like cream to the top. Good luck!
5 Responses to “How to break into the beauty industry”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
April 14th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
Hi Jolie,
I found your answer to E’s question really intriguing. I have young people ask me that question often, and although I worked in the fashion/beauty industries for more than a decade, I don’t know how to answer them.
With the state of the economy and the way even fashionistas are pulling back on splurge items, it’s all such a different playing field than when I first started. I no longer live in NYC (can you hear my sniffling?) and I’m not a part of the fabulous crowd. I use my background as a celebrity makeup artist to produce my own workshops and to do makeup for national ad campaigns. I really miss the posh, but I think it’s very hard to land on solid ground in the fashion/beauty/publishing industries today.
Your answer to E may be the best route possible.
April 15th, 2009 at 8:26 am
Thanks for your insight & advice. Very encouraging for all the newbies out there like myself. It’s just such a fun process & I can’t wait to see where my blog goes!
April 15th, 2009 at 8:37 am
You know the beauty business…it can get ugly. So, be careful what you ask for.
May 27th, 2009 at 10:56 am
Oh Jolie, wow, print really isn’t that dead. I work for a trade assocaiton for printing. We are in the catalog and magazine printing region of the U.S. (Yep there is one) During this economy the advertisers are shrinking, no matter what the media. When the economy rebounds they will be back and the articles will be written. Yes, the internet is free and easy, but I will not be taking my lap top into the bathroom or to the beach any time soon (water and salt not a winning combination on electronics). As you age you will not apprecite the screen size on the “i phones” of the world. And I would bet the over 40 crowd is buying its fair share of beauty products to remain forever youthful.
I agree with your advice to E. Starting her own blog and freelancing articles are good to establish her writing skills. Networking in today’s world is essential, but harder than ever. Research any beauty associaitons or professional groups that exist and offer to write for their newsletters. We have people doing that all the time.
March 15th, 2010 at 12:04 am
In response to your question about the direction of the beauty industry and ‘breaking in’, let me tell you what I am doing. I have been in and out of the industry for over thirty years. As the economy got crazy and I was laid off from my Fortune 500 job, I realized that the beauty industry was what I loved. I enrolled in a Master Esthetician course and got an advanced license. Now I can do all hairdresser and well as Esthetician services. I tried a couple of salons but I found the commissions too scant and the personalities a little boring for my fast paced attitude. So, I decided to start the first ‘Beauty Temp Service’ in my town. Since lots of salons, spas, and medspas don’t want to hire right now, they are often short handed. Also, they don’t have the personnel to do chemical peels, full body waxing, facials and other Esthetics based services. By marketing directly to spas, salons and medspas, they now can call me on a two hour notice and I can come in and do specific clients for the kinds of services that they don’t normally offer. I also sell a lot of skin care product. It’s fgood revenue for them and helps them build a larger customer base without hiring more full-time professionals. It gives me the diversity that I like in my workday and when I go to work, I am really busy. I love it!