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MUA Hygiene Horror Stories
Mia24 wrote: Hey, if it works for you! Sep 04 06 08:25 pm Link dee and mia thank you for not "double-dipping" as we estheticians call it. everytime i talk about it w/ an mua they are not understanding me correctly. what i mean by double-dipping is are you taking a clean brush, applying to product, then to the model's face (it is not dirty/contaminated) then back to the product? you now have that model's germs in you product with u use on everyone else. i was taught to remove product w/ a clean spatula and then on a clean pallette. i just use those pallette that painters use w/ the wells in it. that way you can double-dip w/ that and not into your main product. Sep 04 06 08:38 pm Link As has been discussed before, double dipping in dry products is not really an issue. Bacteria does not live long in dry products. There are ways to sanitize dry products as well, like scraping off a top layer after clients. Applying makeup with cotton balls is something I was taught in cosmetology school, but it's not practical in the real world, and can't possibly give the desired effects that you can achieve with brushes. Now, if you're referring to taking product out with cotton balls, but using brushes on the cotton to then use on the models, that makes more sense, but I wonder about product pick up and delivery. Sep 04 06 08:57 pm Link Hi everyone this is interesting subject. That's why I tell models to have their own brush set, mascara as well. I have a studio and I can control my hygene. I spray disinfectant spray after every client, I shampoo and condition my brushes after every client and have multiple brush sets when I work runway or group shoot. I also use disinfectant wipes everywhere etc. I use q-tips for cream foundations and disinfect other stuff. So one time someone asked me for a favor to work in this very high end salon.I said ok and when I went there what I saw was crazy. The brushes where so dirty they were sticky and dusty, there was wax form brow waxing all over the table make up display was not covered and all dusty I was ashamed to do anyones makeup. That day I washed the brushes cleaned up, scraped the wax etc.Next day when I came back the brushes were dirty again, wax all over the place, same story all over again. There was another MUA working as well and when I asked her to wash brushes she said why? everyone in the salon using them anyway so just leave it like it is, also everyone in the salon was using lipgloss straight from the tube, eye shadow etc.Needless to say I was gone in a week and a half.Sometimes I also hire MUA's to work with us when I am not available etc.And one time this girl showed up one hour late had dirty brushes and licked her eyeliner brush while talking on her cell very professional:).I think as a MUA we should be more careful and considerate toward our health and the health of our clients. Sep 04 06 09:04 pm Link I am with Em and Roshar on this. You can scrape off the top layer and then spray it with 99% alcohol. I can't imagine a cotton ball working very well. Sep 04 06 09:29 pm Link inese wrote: Why do you tell models to bring their own brushes? You have no idea when they've been cleaned, and who has shared it with them. Sep 04 06 11:21 pm Link If I did that to an agency model Id get laughed at. Besides what is gonna guarentee that the model has the "right" brushes anyway. Sep 04 06 11:43 pm Link Althought it sounds like an interesting/tempting idea, telling a model to bring her own brushes to a shoot is a little over the top. It's a make-up artist's job to bring all the supplies needed to apply make-up. A model has enough to worry about and I personally wouldn't trust her with cleaning brushes as she/he should be. If we start asking that, then why not bring your own scissors and brushes to your stylist? Or nail clippers, polish and files to your weekly manicures? No matter what company you work for, they each have their own standards of hygene or how something should be cleaned or applied. But you as a make-up artist should have your own do or don't when you're on the job. Horror stories do happen, and it's disgusting, but education customers and other make-up artists is the best way to go. Sep 05 06 03:14 am Link . Apr 06 07 03:01 pm Link ahhh I was just watching one of those "make over" shows, and the make-up artist double dipped, and then used the same tube on another model. AHHHHHHH Why Why Why Becasue of these horribly dirty artist people dont know that they shouldnt share. We need to start a campigne about NOT double dipping  Apr 06 07 03:15 pm Link Kevyn B wrote: Thats disgusting. Good thing you were paying attention to what he was doing! ew. Apr 06 07 03:34 pm Link i used to work for aveda and they cut all the wands out of the lip glosses and mascara and we scraped the lipsticks however many times a day and scraped the eyshadows, then again when we used them, sharpend the pencils, cleaned the brushes but really, how clean CAN you keep a counter? people double dip the q-tips and disposable mascara wands, apply their lipstick with clean brushes straight from the tube and use their dirty fingers to apply makeup and why do they do this? because the general public don't know better. you can't work at a counter or be shopping and see a "civilian" double dip and hold it against them, they just don't know. it's not ignorance it's just probly not a topic they learned in college or their mommy never explained it to them when they were younger. i didn't know about the whole mascara thing until i went to school to be an MUA, but then again i never wore makeup growing up and when i was doing makeup for my friends in highschool i always told them to use their own because i didn't have any. sorry i just feel bad for those who just don't know, maybe if we just each picked an unsuspecting customer at a counter and told them the makeup world might get one step cleaner every day! so now for my icky story so i'm branching out to new and uncharted makeup products for my kit (makeing a bit extra cash so learning about more brands and adding nicer things to my kit, but since it's not alot of extra cash i like to know abit about the product before i buy it) so i go to the private beauty party at sephora, i havn't worked with anything other then smudge pots with stila so i figured since one of their head reps are there (that sephora was raving about) i'd get my makeup done and see how i like the product. i hate getting my makeup done but i figured a rep would do me justice. sooo, i watch her work on the girl before me for about 5 minutes then i go walk around, i come back sa she is getting out of the chair and the MUA says, alright your turn. NO she did not clean the ONE set of brushes she had, but i figure maybe she'll give them a quick spray before i sit down, NOPE, i know i iknow i should have left but i still wanted to see some product. i even told her what i do for a living and just wanted to get to know the products. so she starts with the tinted moisteriser, yes applied it from her hand (which wasn't washed with a dirty brush) and only did half my face becuase she ran out of product, so she went to grab another one and found that there was no more of that color left so she tried to sneak one in it's place, it was totally a different color and she thought that i wouldn't notice. so she uses peacy cream blush over my powdered face to cover the red in my cheeks from being prego, puts so much eye shadow on me i could feel how heavy it was, used a disposable mascara wand thank god, but then double dipped it for my other eye, proceded to use lipstick straight from the tube. i just looked at her like WTF are you doing, i couldn't even say anything i was in shock. i looked like shit, my glowing pregnant face was covered in crap, she used a horribly concealer under my eyes that made them even darker. the funniest thing was she was talking to me like i had never picked up a brush in my life, "this is what we call tinted moisteriser, you apply it like a regular moisteriser and" blahblahblah my husband was there with my and even he was laughing! it made me so mad that someone so unworthy of her position had it and all these other MUA's trying to get work can't. don't ask my why i stayed in that chair, i don't know, maybe i thought she would redem herself Apr 06 07 03:50 pm Link Wow, gross! I had no idea... Although, when I was a kid, I would always want to try out the makeup samples, and my mom would NEVER let me touch them. She was terrified I would get herpes or hepatitis or something. I often bring my own brushes and my own basic makeup (foundation, powder, mascara) to shoots. That way I keep my germs to myself. Apr 06 07 04:47 pm Link I love the clients that see all my make-up and products and think it is ok to put there DNA in my Make-up! Then get pissed when I say do not touch the Make-up for sanitary reasons! Usally classless people with Money? G Apr 06 07 04:49 pm Link I am very picky about Sanitation. It is very important. Buy throw away everything! Apr 06 07 04:53 pm Link This thread makes me feel yucky inside. Apr 06 07 04:57 pm Link I disagree about the Bring your Own brushes. I do not want your gross brushes in my clean make-up. Think about it contamenation happens when to many people are touching the same thing. Only you touch your make-up then no ones stuff has been in your Product Apr 06 07 05:03 pm Link I attended a breakfast for women at a very up market hotel on the gold coast Australia. It's where all the celebs stay when they are here. They were doing hair and make-up makeovers for 5 guests. To my surprise I watched the make-up artist take out the mascara wand and use it, then double dip to do the second eye then return it to the bottle. I was shocked and thought maybe I hadn't been watching properly. But yet she did it again with the next girl. So now two faces had been in contact with the same wand in the same bottle. I left as I had to be somewhere but my mother rang me later to tell me she did it with every person. This person was introduced as one of Australiaâs top artists and had her cards on every table. There were over 300 guests so it was good advertising for her but I can't believe she did that and what's worse is most of the guests there wouldn't know any different Apr 07 07 02:45 am Link It disturbs me how surprised models are when they see how neat and clean my kit is. Thant means that they've worked with many MUAs that weren't clean. I had a shoot yesterday and I couldn't find where I stored my extra mascara wands. So I went and bought a brand new mascara and used it on the model straight from the tube. When I told her she could keep it she seemed shocked. I guess other MUAs have used the wand straight from the bottle on her all the time and then put it back in their kit. There's must be many very dirty MUAs out there. Apr 07 07 08:10 am Link Michael Kirst wrote: You're picking on her choice of words when you know what she is talking about and then you use the word "weather" out of context? What does it matter WHETHER it is raining outside or not. Apr 07 07 09:06 am Link I did a shoot for a rather large, well known accessories brand a few weeks ago. We were shooting in a studio, that was attached to the photographers house. I had my full kit in the house were we had been doing makeup, hair and wardrobe and had just bought a set bag of things I needed into the studio. On the first days shooting, the client suddenly wanted a change of lipgloss, so I ran into the house to get a colour I knew they would like. When I came back, one of the clients came over and said "oh dont worry, we just found a lipgloss in your bag and got her to put it on...." Can you imagine my face?! So I said "Ummm which lipgloss? Cos I dont remember putting one in my set bag." ..."oh this one..." says the client holding up what is actually a HUGELY expensive, cream eyeshadow. The worst thing was, I couldnt do or say anything except throw the eyeshadow away  Civilians just dont understand sanitation. Apr 07 07 09:50 am Link Wow, I would seriously want to kill a skinny girl if I caught one of my models touching anything in my kit wihtout asking. You're a lot nicer than I am. As for the cotton ball thing, it's not that far fetched. Not that effective either, but I've come across it. I worked for Clinique for a number of years and they wanted us to swipe the colour onto the cotton ball and then use it for our pallette. Lame, but whatever. They were writing my cheques. Another practice I picked up there and still use to this day...Q-tips. Awesome little things. I buy them in bulk(love the ones from medical supplies stores. They're very sanitary) and I use them as dispoable pallette knives. It's a lot faster and easier to throw away a Q-tip and reach for another when I need to grab more product than to have to resanitize a pallette knife. Just my 2 cents. As for lashes, I pretty much refuse to use strip lashes in my kit. I absolutely detest them unless I need them for a more complex look. I normally use individuals and I never take them back. Ever. They're less expensive, easier to apply, look more natural, and they don't cast a shadow over the eye. I started using them after hearing a few photogs complain about the heavy fringes of strip lashes. I'll never go back! Funny story: Clinique makes thier reps wrap a cotton ball in a tissue(the whole thing is called a 'ghost' because of the way they wrap it) and use that to apply powder to a client's face. It's the jankiest, goofiest looking thing I've ever seen. Gross story: I let one of the counter girls at the Bourjois counter apply colour to my eyes once. Only once. Never again. I hated the stuff to begin with and was only being nice. She had me close my eyes before she applied the mascara (?why?) and then proceeded to apply mascara out of the tube. By the time I noticed, too late. A week and a half later, I had a full-grown sty on one eyelid. It was horrible. I was actually embarassed to do a client's MU with that thing on my eye. Now, I won't let anyone at a department store come anywhere near my face. I workes behind those counters long enough to know how gross they can be... Apr 07 07 10:14 am Link I have had the...challenge of working at Glamour Shots. First, they didn't really have great product to work with. They also didn't have very good brushes either. I brought my own set of brushes. I figured at least I would have good brushes AND I knew for a fact that MY brushes would always be clean. Looking at the brushes that were there, none of the brushes looked that clean. Even if they were "cleaned". As it turned out none of the other make up artists were the least bit sanitary. They double dipped mascara, blew on the brushes, and blew on faces. Some of the other make up artists worked on each other and ended up giving each other pink eye. I figured it was only a matter of time before any problems with clients would come back to haunt them there. To add insult to all this, someone from corporate came in and told us as part of the "sales pitch" that we were supposed to tell the clients that the make up artists really have nothing to do with how they look in the pictures. The make up is for "fun and color" only. It is all Glamour Touch (Photoshop). I no longer work there. When I work in actual professional settings, I have had models seem surprised (and pleased) at how clean I keep everything. I always keep everything clean and nice and orderly. I also always lay out all my supplies on a clean white towel. It looks nice that way and it keeps all my stuff off of whatever surface I happen to be working off of. I usually alcohol clean the surface first, but the white towel is still a very nice touch. Apr 07 07 11:08 am Link Angelah_ wrote: Some MUAs who worked on me actually asked to get the lashes back... EW! Apr 07 07 11:28 am Link XLisa_MarieX wrote: It wasnt the model, it was the client who had rummaged in my set bag. Apr 07 07 12:59 pm Link artemis wrote: Hi, Apr 07 07 03:11 pm Link Okay so this is a dumb question I know...How do you all use mascaras without double dipping? Are there a lot of different ways? I actually often do use one tube per model, but I end up buying cheap mascara, because of this. I just haven't found a way that works for me to be able to use the same tube. Do you just swap out the spoolie every time you dip? Pardon my lame question!! Apr 09 07 10:07 pm Link angela camp wrote:
Apr 09 07 10:14 pm Link VanessaM MU and Hair wrote: Use disposable brushes. Apr 09 07 10:15 pm Link Monica Jay wrote: Okay. I saw someone on here make a comment about "still using it out of a tube" with made me think there was a way of taking it out of the tube first? Apr 09 07 10:17 pm Link Bringing this back from the dead! Jan 06 08 11:45 am Link I shall now tell my friend's tale of woe: Back in the early 80's my friend was a makeup artist in N.Y. and I guess hygiene wasn't a huge issue then. She was working in Macy's (at the counter) and decided to use a (counter) pencil in the inside (waterline) of her eye. She told me that she never used the counter cosmetics, but she was going out that night and wanted to amp her makeup up. -Flash forward 2 weeks- her eye was red and itchy and she thought, "Oh, must have gotten pink eye from that eye pencil". Then her iris started to turn milky (which she thought was cool looking) and during the course of the year she started to lose vision in her eye. Turns out that the eye pencil that she used was used as a lip pencil. By a person who had a cold sore. And that she had herpes in her eyeball. She ended up getting a cornea transplant. Since she has told me that story, I've sharpened and alcohol-ed every lip and eye pencil before I use them on people. So it shortens the life of the pencils (not that I would ever touch anything of mine on a cold sore), but you don't know what buggies that people have, and you haven't seen her cornea. When I work with other artists, the models will remark upon how needlessly sanitary I am-hand sanitizer, paper palette, scraping creams out, every talent has their own brush cup, disposable wands, a gazillion brushes, alcoholing tweezers and small scissors, etc. (I guess we're a bunch of slobs in Cali)-I usually recommend to models that they bring their own mascara and liner if they see that the artist isn't hygienic. They are, after all- their own product- and they need to protect it as best as they can. I have also noticed that the huge print makeup artists are really unsanitary. And that Canadian trained makeup artists are the most sanitary. My own tale- I was on a game show and had to go through makeup. Makeup artist was eating a slice of greasy pizza, talking to her friend, and perfunctorily wiped her hand off on a tiny napkin and proceeded to do my makeup. I didn't want to say anything like, "Hey-uh...can you wash your hands? See...uh...I'm a makeup artist and...uh..." Besides, I was too petrified to go on the show and nervous as all get out. Ended up winning $1000 though. Jan 06 08 03:24 pm Link Eleanor Sabaduquia wrote: ahhh thisis soo friggen yucky !!! ewww we need to post this story in every single drug store and in all fashion mag's in locker rooms prity much every where. i couldnt imagine getting a cornea transplant, it makes my eye hurt just thinking about it....... Jan 06 08 03:28 pm Link I don't know much about make-up, but sadly enough I sometimes have to do it. I think I am very clean... and mostly apply always with a brush, and have disposable. Most new models look at me kind of funny, but I wouldn't want them to be using me as a horror story  Jan 06 08 03:40 pm Link Eleanor Sabaduquia wrote: Should I mention that herpes is contagious even when you don't have a breaking? Jan 06 08 04:54 pm Link i purchased my own set of metal palettes from cinema secrets and a spatula for mua's to use...instead of their hands.... and i also carry around a small bottle of alcohol to disinfect lipsticks and such. Jan 06 08 05:14 pm Link Oh oh oh, I want to add my own horror story! I was at a fashion show, the first one I've done, so I really wasn't in the place to say anything to "their favorite mua". (By Mua, I mean model with a ton of MAC that she personally used...) I watched her pull everything out of her bag and start her work as I did some other models. All was good until I got grossed out by her using LIQUID eyeliner from one girl to another, I mean YUCK! The same thing with the mascara, from one to another out of the tube with the original wand! She had NOTHING disposable and was using the wands from mascara, gloss, and liquid eyeliner. Here I was keeping everything clean & hygienic and she's just contaminating everything, yuck yuck! It was horrible not being able to say anything.  Jan 06 08 05:21 pm Link Mosh wrote: I think this isnt a bad idea, hoever I use the back of my CLEAN sterilized had as a palet for drier products , I always ask if its ok that I do so and no one has objected yet, But you shouldnt have to provide pallets and spatuals to a real professional, professionals have all of these tools. Jan 06 08 05:51 pm Link Good discussion. Very educational. Thank you. Jan 06 08 05:53 pm Link When I was working at London Drugs in Richmond for a while, I saw some seriously scary stuff! O_O One time, I was cleaning up the counter when this oriental lady came in. She headed straight for the Revlon makeup. There's the Revlon Sugar Sugar lip powder innocently sitting there, and this lady comes up and starts EATING it like it was a DipStix candy pack! O_< EW! I obviously threw out the tester. I mean, I know it tastes like sugar, but ew! Now, our London Drugs had a drug rehab program. This lady came into the store, shot up in the bathroom, then proceeded to stumble towards the cosmetics counter. She opened a brand new Lancome skin cream tester, shoved her hand in, took out a big glob, and smeared it down her face while going "aaaaaaaaaaaahhh"!  Next, this other lady came in and started trying all of the testers directly on her face. Now, I mean ON HER FACE! She was putting lipstick and everything all over her face! O_o We were very lucky that a Richmond Centre Mall security officer recognized her and notified us that she has herpes and other STDs! We had to throw out ALL of our testers, because we weren't sure which ones she had used! I have many more stories. LOL! Jan 06 08 06:22 pm Link |
