Sooo. I have a confession. I may have ‘accidentally’ enrolled in another make-up course. Let me explain! As you know I’m a bit of a Youtube addict. I don’t watch regular TV like ever unless I am at somebody’s place. But Youtube! that’s a whole other level of crazy addiction there. When I’m at home whether it be cleaning, ironing, editing and retouching photos I will always have Youtube playing. It’s funny to see my Youtube history depending on my mood you’ll see it full of homesteading, suburban gardening, tiny house living, van life, all things photography and most recently all things freelance makeup artistry.
Another one of my addictions is learning. I’m always studying something. I like to watch videos on how other people became a freelance makeup artist, how they get their clients, what they carry in their kit and their make-up school experience- both in person schools and online schools. One of the schools that I kept hearing about was Vizio Makeup Academy so naturally I did some googling and at some point I must have given them my email address. Well end of last week I received an email from them about their ‘Anniversary Special Promotion’ that they had running. It said it was $399-USD for the first 20 people that enrolled. Well I doubt very much they limited it to just the first 20 students. Nonetheless it was available at a great discount and I couldn’t help myself.
Vizio has a number of Makeup Courses available and of course the one I signed up for was the granddaddy of all their courses. I can see this post becoming extra long so at a later point I will write a post about Vizio’s different makeup courses which you can read here.
Lucky for me it was the Elite Makeup Course with FX that was on sale- normally $799-USD and I paid $399-USD. For that price the sales page said I can also select one of the bonus courses “Ultimate Facial Course” or “Ultimate Bridal Course” or the “Eyelash Extension Course”. I selected the “Ultimate Bridal Course”. I feel like for a facial course to be beneficial it would be best to take an in person class and I didn’t select the eyelash extension course as I already did it last year at The French Beauty Academy. While I’m in a blog writing mode (happens rarely but I hope that will change) I’ll write about “My Experience at The French Beauty Academy” here and about the “Eyelash Extension Course” here. Back to where I was- yes I chose the Bridal Course as I feel like my training in bridal specifically is still lacking so out of the 3 this was the one I wanted to take the most.
Part of the special said that I’ll also receive a “Hello Kitty Travel Brush Set” and a “196 HD Colour Makeup Kit” plus a “24 piece Ultimate Brush Set.” I really don’t ‘need’ another brush set or any of the makeup pictured below but it’s part of the deal so I’ll take it with open arms. It’ll also let me do some genuine reviews on it. On that note you’ll know that everything I write about Vizio Makeup Academy is 100% genuine as I’ve paid for this program in its entirety.
This next part I’m a little confused about. All the text on the sales page is telling me I’ll receive the above but when you watch the video also on the sales page it says I will also receive the below. So which is it Vizio? the way I read it I should receive everything that’s on the sales page. It seems like the below palette is also part of the “Anniversary Special” which is pretty cool! I forgot to add that I also had to pay $35-USD for shipping all these products to me. [Update: I only received the above not the below makeup- a little deceiving so they should probably update their website].
After paying & signing up for the course all I received was the receipt- no login details. Less 24hours later I did receive another email from them which contained login details for my course. I logged in and this is the dashboard. I was greeted with another special $79-USD for a 24 piece special effects brush set. I don’t have any special effects brushes so I thought this would be a good start. I had to contact them and asked them if they could add it to the same shipping box as the makeup so I could save the $35-USD shipping fee which they gladly did as of course they want the sale and they hadn’t sent my parcel yet.
When I get a course I like to have a quick flick through and see what content is included and I normally just start watching the videos. This course is different- it wouldn’t let me pick and choose what I wanted to read and watch. It let me download the ebook and watch the intro video. Only after each step is completed does it reveal what’s next. The only way for me to see the contents of the course was the pdf outline but I can’t see what videos and assignments are coming up.
I was a little upset that I couldn’t just poke around the course. I have to do it step my step in their order. And each assessment must be completed before moving on. I didn’t really want to start doing the assessment but I wasn’t really left with much choice so I just began. Lucky for me I passed the quizz’s first go and for the 250 word blog post parts it kind of just said I passed even though no human actually read what I wrote. That is until I got to the practical part where I had to do contouring and highlighting on somebody and take a before and after pic. It won’t let me pass until this unit is marked. For this unit it was 3 parts- I’ve completed the first 2 parts but the third part is the actual contouring and highlighting on someone. As I don’t have any friends or a sister living with me I wasn’t able to complete this part. I guess I’m at a standstill until possibly the weekend when I can find a model to practice on.
Vizio Makeup Academy say that you can do the assessments on yourself if you have no other choice but I really think that I need to be doing the assessments on somebody else to really make the most of the course. Doing makeup on yourself and on somebody else is completely different and seeing as I want to make the most out of this course and get useful feedback I’m going to try and do my practical assessments properly and use a model- and not the same model for that matter- I’m going to try and get a different model for each practical assessment for 2 reasons. One to practice applying makeup on different skin types, tones, conditions and different face shapes etc. and secondly I’d like to use the photos for my portfolio so a variety in models is also a good idea.
Above is what the Elite Makeup Course with FX includes and so far I have completed:
History- video, quiz & very short essay which they say to write as a blog post.
Building your pro makeup kit- video and very short essay which they say to write as a blog post
Choosing Foundation, Highlight, Contour & Colour theory- video, quiz & 2 out of 3 parts of an assessment.
Well I guess that’s it for now and we shall patiently wait for the makeup and brushes to arrive.
Sing out if you have any questions and I hope you will follow me on my Makeup Artistry journey.
Also- I do eventually want to start doing Youtube videos but I’m a bit shy and I’m still trying to work up the courage to record them. I’m literally like a dear in headlights and I just sit there and stare at the camera blankly- I’m not kidding!
Cheers,
Grace