ZAIDA GLIBANOVIC
By ZAIDA GLIBANOVIC
LOCAL makeup artist Alarna Bell has just launched an innovative and inclusive beauty range accompanied by free and accessible online tutorials. Starting her career locally, Ms Bell achieved a Diploma in Beauty Therapy and went on to run a salon out of Lloyd Street Moe, called Kolors and Klaws. Having stayed there for 18 years, as the industry changed, so did she – and Ms Bell opted to adopt a travelling business model with makeup as the main focus. Her makeup artistry has taken her a long way, internationally and at home; now the makeup director of Miss Universe Australia, New Zealand and Singapore and on the Miss Universe selection committee, Ms Bell has launched a product range and software that gives away all the beauty secrets. Having just jetted back to Australia after a Miss Universe photo shoot in Vietnam, Ms Bell was excited to launch her new collection of makeup artistry tools. The selection of products are hand and custom-made to provide education, efficiency, and simplicity to makeup originated from Ms Bell’s customer experience, having worked for decades in the industry. “I teach people how to do their own makeup in workshops and, over the years, simply collected all the problems that people have with makeup, and I wanted to be able to help solve all those problems,” she said. “People would come up to me and say, ‘I can’t see’ – so, I made glasses that you can flip from one side to the other so you can be able to see.” Called the ‘Flip Make up Glasses’, the tool is listed as an ‘ultimate game-changer for anyone who wears glasses and struggles with makeup application.’ The glasses are designed with needs in mind, and come in nine different magnification levels to suit varying degrees of vision impairments. Traditionally, the beauty industry hasn’t been particularly kind to a whole demographic of people who can’t see, but in modern times, beauty brands are picking up on more inclusive values. Earlier this year, Estée Lauder launched a new app to help visually impaired users apply makeup. The world-first app uses AI technology to analyse make up and give audio feedback. Ms Bell and Estée Lauder alike are paving the way for a more inclusive beauty industry. Being a teacher at TAFE Gippsland allowed Ms Bell to understand the common issues regarding make-up application. “I needed an easy way to be able to show people and identify how they can get the best outcomes,” she said. “One of the other main problems they’d have is that they’d look at their make-up brushes and go ‘I just don’t know which one does what’. “I thought the best way to do that is me showing them visually – how to use each brush and know what to do with each one.” So, Ms Bell went on to develop an easily accessible website with free videos allowing people to bridge the gaps in their makeup knowledge and know how the professionals do it. To accompany the online tools, she had to find the perfect beauty tools that would get the job done like she would. The range includes more than 60 products based on 31 years of makeup artistry experience. “I couldn’t find the right brushes at the same place, so I just went ahead and made them,” she said. “They don’t all come from the same place because I couldn’t find them from the same manufacturer, so I just sourced all different places and assembled a collection. I’m so bloody proud of them.” TAFE Gippsland’s beauty courses have been among the very first to trial Ms Bell’s newest collection of products. “TAFE has taken the contract, so they supply all their students across all their campuses with my brushes, so that’s been a really good feedback journey to get back from students – the feedback has just been extraordinary,” she said. With so much information on social media these days, debunking beauty marketing myths is hard. Continually, young girls and women are constantly swept up in the void of the most popular brands. Still, Ms Bell’s service reminds us that it’s not always the product that makes the look but the application itself. “I was a makeup artist in the 90s. I was a teenager doing this with an amazing mentor – people are a lot savvier now; they know what quality is, and they expect it,” she said. Not only does Ms Bell hope to make make-up more inclusive, but she also aims to give her customers the ability to satisfy themselves: after all, if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. “Doing my job, I see how much I can make someone’s day so much better because they feel confident. I can do that when I paint each face, but to give the people that ability to do that for themselves,” she said. “I’ve seen through my workshops how thankful people are; now it is on a broader scale; anyone in the world can access it now.” Alarna Bell Makeup Solution Brushes can be brought in kits or individually, starting at around $12. However, you don’t have to buy a brush to access her educational videos – anyone can have access to the free tutorials at the click of a finger that will turn you into your own makeup artist. “It prompts people to try it for themselves; it’s very accessible, I’m all for that. My videos are free – you don’t have to pay for me to teach you,” Ms Bell said. Now a big business woman and international makeup star, Ms Bell said it was the local community where she continues to get the most support. “One of the things that warms my heart … Is while I had the salon in our local Gippsland community for 18 years, the support of the people from those early days in the salon, they’re the ones who are the most supportive,” she said. “There’s something about our local Gippsland community, they’re so loyal, and they still are.” You can access Ms Bells online videos and services at www.alarna.au
