For our latest chat, we caught up with Holly Harnwell, one of Australia’s top hair and makeup artists. Holly’s resume is packed with impressive gigs, from Australian Fashion Week to big campaigns for brands like David Jones, Cotton On, Portmans, and Supre. She’s also worked her magic on influencers like Rozalia Russian, Jessie Murphy, Steph Claire Smith, and Brooke Hogan.
During our conversation, Holly shared how her passion for makeup started during her teenage years, trying to cover up acne and boost her confidence. This early experience with makeup sparked a love that eventually turned into a thriving career.
Holly gave us some fantastic tips for achieving that flawless, natural “no makeup” makeup look, stressing the importance of good skincare and blending. She also opened up about how she manages to juggle creative projects with running a successful business, keeping her schedule organised, and maintaining a work-life balance.
Holly, you’ve had an impressive career working with top brands and influencers. Can you share what initially drew you to the makeup industry and how you got started?
I always loved beauty and how makeup can really boost someone’s confidence. I had very bad acne as a teenager so I was always experimenting with different makeup products to reduce the redness of my acne.
We weren’t allowed to wear makeup at school so I had to make sure it was undetectable. I think this is where my love for natural “no makeup” makeup started. It was so nice to feel like I had some control over how my skin looked even though I didn’t have control over my acne breakouts.
I decided I wanted to pursue makeup as a career when I attended a photoshoot with my older sister who was modelling at the time. I spent the day with the makeup artist on set, and couldn’t believe she was making a living doing makeup full time. From that day forward, my heart was set.
Your specialty is the “no makeup look,” and you’re known for creating flawless skin and accentuating natural features. What are some of your top tips for achieving this look?
My belief is that your skin should always look like skin. You want people’s compliments to be “wow, you are glowing” or “your skin looks amazing” not “your makeup looks nice.” Less is more when it comes to makeup. My top tips would be to invest in a good foundation and concealer and take your time to blend.
If you have troubled skin, a full coverage foundation is not necessarily your best option, instead concealing in the right areas will create a more flawless natural finish. Adding colour back into the skin with a good blush or bronzer is also a very important step as it will create more cemetery to the face and put natural colour back into the skin which can get lost with coverage.
Balancing creative projects with running a successful service-based business can be challenging. How do you manage your time and maintain a steady flow of clients while delivering high-quality work?
One thing that COVID taught me is that taking days off and having time for yourself is extremely important for putting your best foot forward on the days you do work. I keep my weekdays open for photoshoots as my week tends to always book out but I’ll try to keep one day free for admin. I then dedicate my weekends to other clients including weddings but will always have Sunday off to make sure I am getting down time.
Running your own business and working with high-profile clients must be demanding. How do you maintain a work-life balance, and what strategies do you use to ensure you have time for yourself and your personal life?
Around work, I try to use up each hour of the day so I feel like my days aren’t just work as shoot days can be super long. I am one of those crazy people that get up at 5.30am, go running and hopefully catch the sunrise before work. It puts me in such a great mood leading into my work day.
I also try to get most of my admin done by around 6pm so that I can put my phone down and completely switch off at night, dedicating this time to my personal life only. Creating strict schedules for yourself when running your own business is super important otherwise your work life can very easily seep into your personal life and that’s when things can start to feel really overwhelming, especially in busy periods.
You’ve worked with many influencers and celebrities. How do you prepare for these high-stakes projects, and what have you learned from these experiences about managing stress and expectations?
I always make sure I do some research on my clients to see what looks they have done in the past and have my kit organised, stocked up and ready to go before the day. Everyone has an expectation of how they would like to look once the makeup is complete. Managing these expectations is essential.
If you haven’t met your clients’ expectations, it’s because there was a lack of communication somewhere. On the day, dedicating time at the start of your session to really listen to your client and make sure you are both on the same page with the look you are wanting to achieve is super important.
Ask all of the questions, look at reference photos together and make sure you are both seeing eye to eye when it comes to the details. This will give your client confidence that they have been listened to so that they can feel more at ease during your session, and will give you confidence in your application, especially if it’s your first time working together.
I find that clients always pick up on your energy, so remaining calm and confident will help them feel more confident. Lastly, allowing your clients to feel comfortable to say if they would like something tweaked or changed at the end of your session is so important to their overall satisfaction of the makeup.
I would hate for someone to walk away wishing they had asked for something to be changed and not booking with you again vs them feeling comfortable to ask and feeling 100% happy with their makeup. Taking these steps will help create a stress free environment for you and your client.
Looking ahead, what are your future goals and aspirations within the makeup industry? Are there any new projects or collaborations you’re excited about, and how do you plan to continue growing both professionally and personally?
Goals are extremely important to me. I really do love my job, but when things begin to feel stagnant and repetitive, it can definitely kill your passion and motivation and that’s when you know it’s time to change things up.
Every year or two, I like to take a step back to look at my career for where it is now and where I’d like it to go. Setting goals for myself always puts me in a growth mindset and it’s crazy how that mindset shift really opens the door for all kinds of opportunities to come your way.
This year has been a big year of change for me. At the start of this year, I made the decision that I wanted to explore opportunities in bigger cities, and it’s been amazing the opportunities that have come my way. So my goals this year include a big move to my favourite city and with that will come an abundance of growth both personally and professionally.
