Carmela Malapira concedes that her life as a makeup artist is fun and glamorous. She interjects however that most people forget about the ridiculously early hours and lugging equipment around that accompanies her work with models, actors, and music artists. Still, it’s this career that has enabled her to travel and work with a rotating roster of famous and interesting professionals who, like her, are passionate about what they do. A lot of the fulfillment in her job comes in embracing the unexpected; it’s an all-encompassing theme for Carmela who states, “For a very long time, I wanted to pursue Interior Architecture as my career. I enrolled myself into an introductory makeup course at Media Makeup Academy as part of one of my senior subjects as I thought it would be fun and easy to pass! After the first class in my introductory makeup course, I went home a little deflated as I felt that I was behind in knowledge and skill than everyone else in my class. However, I had a burning desire to learn more and perfect this craft. I remember thinking to myself that I could imagine doing makeup as a career and it was the easiest and clearest image to envision. That was the exact moment I knew I wanted to pursue makeup as a career.” Now, just a short time later, Carmela’s drive and talent has led to a schedule populated with shoots for major fashion campaigns, video shoots, and beyond.
Carmela was thrilled when she received the offer (via award-winning Global Marketing Agency We Are Komodo) to work on the Pretty Little Thing “Desert Dreams” Campaign. This UK based clothing company (with offices in London, Paris, Manchester, Los Angeles) is a known favorite of celebrities including Nicki Minaj, Jessie J, Miley Cyrus, and many others whom often wear PLT creations in public. Shot over two days in Coober Pedy, South Australia, Carmela did the makeup for top influencers such as Cynthia Taylu, Brooke Lee and Leah Perkins for this campaign. The creative looks featured elements like diamontes, iridescent eye looks, and “soft glam” looks. The amazing results of these looks belie the time allowed to manifest them as Carmela divulges, “The most challenging part of this production was staying on time with makeup. It was quite a tight schedule where we only had 45 minutes to an hour to glam each model, even though the looks that we were producing usually require between an hour and an hour-and-a-half. This was due to trying to film certain shots before the sun went down. It was quite stressful but we just worked twice as fast to get the job done.”
Universal Music Australia/Interscope Records singer Tkay Maidza personally hired Ms. Malapira to create the makeup look for her music video “You Sad” directed by Jocelyn Anquetil. Tkay is one of today’s most exciting and lauded young Australian music artist whose recognitions include being an ARIA Music Award Winner (Australia), MTV Europe Music Award Winner, National Live Music Award (Australia) Winner, Rolling Stone Australia Award Winner, South Australian Music Award Winner, and a BET Award nomination. Carmela relates, “Tkay told me that she loved my work and I was the perfect person for what she was looking for. She had seen through my work on Instagram that I’ve worked on darker skin tones and knew how to do makeup with vivid colours which was the overall aesthetic of her music video.” Shot in Adelaide (South Australia) in the midst of COVID, “You Sad” was released on numerous platforms including Youtube, Spotify, Apple Music and Instagram; dramatically expanded Tkay’s audience/fanbase in the United States, UK and Australia, among other locations. Carmela describes, “The overall style of my work for this music video was having a fresh, natural and glowy makeup base with a splash of colour to add an element of fun to the look. The overall aesthetic of the look created on Tkay was to portray a fun, playful a vibrant makeup look which was portrayed through her eye makeup using bright oranges and pinks with a touch of face diamontes to add further dimension to the eye. Despite this, I tried to keep the overall look fairly natural looking with glowy skin and glossy lips.” Carmela’s work will also be featured in a couple of upcoming music videos by Australian music artist Natasha Bianca in early 2023.
There’s a symbiotic nature to the work of professionals like Carmela Malapira and the artists and models she works with. The uncertainty of what future trends will be is a challenge to pursue one’s own vision and style while including a malleable element as well. Carmela states, “I would consider it more important for a makeup artist to be creative. Creativity helps you love and enjoy what you do for a long time. Even after years of working as a MUA, you get inspired to create something unique for each client. It is your creativity that makes you unique and different from other makeup artists. It makes you special for your clients. Creativity also helps you grow as a professional when you have mastered your craft because it makes you try new things. You might be very good at what you do but makeup products are constantly being released while makeup trends are constantly changing so it’s important to adapt and to do so with a creative mind.”
Writer: Coleman Haan