Kathmandu

Different make-up items are scattered on a table. Thirty-year-old Sizi Thapa is busy mixing various colours in her hand and applying them on the faces of artistes sitting on chairs. Not a hint of tiredness is evident on her face as she applies the make-up to a number of artistes one after another. Instead, she seems to be enjoying her work reflecting the passion and dedication towards her job as a make-up artist.

Hadn’t she been passionate about make-up, the graduate of Taylor School of Hospitality and Tourism, Malaysia would have been running a travel agency. But this resident of Dohalhiti, Lalitpur “was always interested in make-up. I used to apply make-up on my friends whenever they had to attend parties”.

So, Thapa, who had been working in a travel agency (which she owns) in the Capital sought to change her profession. “When I started understanding life I realised that one shouldn’t look back and regret. So, I told my parents (Surja Bahadur and Lilawati Thapa) that I wanted to change my profession,” she narrates.

She started taking training in the Scandinavian School of Make-up in Bangkok in 2014. “I learned everything about make-up there — colour of skin, shape of face, mixing colours, make-up techniques, and the art itself. It was an opportunity to learn about make-up in detail,” she smiles.

She wanted to do something out of the box. The training helped her understand the vastness of make-up and motivated her to live her dreams. She doesn’t regret her decision of career change.

Thapa, who has also worked as a make-up artist in Myanmar is skillful and knows the different techniques of make-up — from basic to special effects.

Creating special effects means “creating fake things”. The artist explains, “It is a trick that is used to create bullet holes in body, skin burn, cuts, wounds and so on. They look real with make-up art.”

To create such special effects, she observes the real things. “The make-up should give a real look. It should not look artificial.”

Giving an instance, she explains, “While applying make-up on a man/woman to create an impression of a dead body, I must be more attentive because the colour of a dead body changes as the day passes. An intensive red colour has to be used if the corpse is a day old. To give an impression of a day after the death, one needs to apply blue on sides and little red on the body. And if it is longer than that, the use of red decreases, and use of colour brown increases. I try to reflect the natural process while doing any make-up.”

The artist uses latex, cotton tissues, foundation stick, and wax among others to create such special effects. “One needs to be very careful in matching colours so as to give it a natural look,” she adds. Thapa even asks her friends to send pictures to get ideas of make-up. Besides, Google and Pinterest have been of a great help. “It’s easy to add beauty to an already beautiful thing. To create the ‘wow’ feel for an ugly thing is difficult,” she further shares.

As she enjoys her work, Thapa also feels that there are good opportunities for make-up artists in the country. “I hope that there will be more fashion photo shoots, making of videos and movies where a make-up artist’s work is necessary. It will take time here but I see a bright future ahead,” she opines.

However, the unavailability of quality and branded make-up items is a challenge which is why Thapa feels make-up is quite expensive here. “I have ordered all the necessary items for the special effects from the US,” she reveals.

She is working as make-up artist for director Nawaraj Budhathoki’s film Bhuimaanchey, and she needs to create some significant special effects for this film.

Thapa wants people to understand the essence of make-up art. “Fair skin is considered to be beautiful. People should understand that black is beautiful too. Make-up artists here want to do bridal make-up because there is more money. But one must understand the essence of art,” she shares.

To teach people about the art of make-up, she works as a teacher in Myanmar. There, she shares her ideas about beauty blend, foundation stick, contour, powder contour, day and night make-up, among others. And this passionate make-up artist wants to work in commercial and short movies in future. She is also planning to teach the art of make-up here as well.