Laura swaps courtroom for make-up room
FROM a career in the courtroom to a labour of love creating head-turning make-up... Laura McGowan’s work life has taken a surprising turn.
But the make-up artist has no regrets about leaving behind her law degree as she’s already working with TV stars – despite still being a college student.
Laura studied for a degree in law, thinking she would go on to practice in the field but she soon realised the career wasn’t for her.
The 32-year-old had always had a love of make up so she decided “on a whim” to take up some classes.
And she realised she had found her passion.
Mum-of-two Laura said: “My background is law and I have my degree but I didn’t enjoy the subject enough to go into it as a career.
“I then had my children and stayed at home with them.
“I’ve always enjoyed make up so I started doing classes and then decided to do my HNC and then went into my HND.
“I went on a whim and it worked out.”
She added: “I love being on a shoot. It’s such a nice environment with everyone working towards a creative goal together – I love being creative in my job.
“You never know where you’re going to be and I get to travel round different places in Scotland working, which is brilliant.
“I was never made for sitting at a desk.”
Laura, a West College Scotland student, is already hotly in demand and Laura has worked with Still Game actor Sanjeev Kohli and comedian Janey Godley, preparing the stars for TV performances.
For Sanjeev, Laura even had to freehand draw tattoos on his arms.
She said: “I really liked the concept and brief for the shoot.
“They have a character that you have to help create and so that’s a very different creative challenge.”
Laura, mum to nine-year-old Olivia and Caleb, 4, spends a lot of time practicing weird and wonderful prosthetics in her kitchen.
The two children are often roped in to help, finding themselves wearing everything from fake wounds to full stage make up.
She said: “Make-up artistry is really challenging and you’re always learning. There’s an element of education about it that I think would surprise people. So, for building prosthetics you have to know your products and how to work with them safely.
“For me, I don’t do a lot of classic, beauty, Instagram make-up. I’m more towards film and TV.
“Probably the most challenging thing I’ve done is a music video for the Glasgow band The Ninth Wave.
“The concept for the video was that they wanted them to have no faces.
“That was really challenging. I did a lot of experiments beforehand to get it as good as I could in the time frame I had.
“That sort of thing can take three months but I had two weeks.
“My kitchen table certainly looks... interesting.
“Caleb come to a lot of shoots with me and he loves it but Olivia absolutely hates it because she’s at that funny age where I’m not cool any more.”
Laura, from Cathcart, has now been shortlisted for Creative Make-Up Artist of the Year at The Official Make Up Awards 2019, an honour she can’t quite believe.
She is “overwhelmed” to be nominated for the awards – although