From Sephora to Touring with Kesha: What 12 Years in Makeup Really Looks Like
Makeup artist Alana Lucy
If you think becoming a successful makeup artist is a straight line, Alana Lucky is here to disrupt that story.
Alana has been doing makeup for 12 years. She's worked the floor at Sephora, lugged her kit through the London Underground for a beauty app that paid her 20 quid a job, shot campaigns for a major UK fashion brand, and most recently spent weeks on a tour bus with Kesha doing glam before sell-out shows in Europe and Australia.
She sat down with me on The Makeup Insider to talk through all of it — the wins, the gut-punches and the stuff she wishes someone had told her before she moved to London at 21 with nothing but ambition.
The Sephora years
After a six-month makeup course at the Academy of Makeup, Alana landed a role at Sephora's Broadway store, the second Sephora to open in Australia. She spent two years learning to colour match every skin tone, work with every skin type and handle clients who wanted wildly different things with wildly short time frames.
"Now I can colour match anybody. I have so much knowledge about product that I would never have had if I hadn't gone through that."
She'd avoid the shop floor and gravitate straight to the makeup studio chair. Classic. But the grounding she got in those two years, the product knowledge, the speed, the ability to read a client's brief, became the foundation of everything that came after.
London at 21
Alana moved to London determined to make it as a makeup artist and nothing else. No bar job. No retail fallback. Just makeup.
She ended up working for Blow Limited, an Uber-style app for hair and makeup, carrying a full kit (blow dryer, curlers, straightener, the lot) on the tube for £20–45 a job. They also taught her how to blow dry, which she credits as one of the best skill sets she picked up.
"If you can blow dry, I think you can really handle hair well. It's hard. It's a lot of coordination."
The gigs were not glamorous. But they kept her in makeup, kept her working for herself, and eventually led to a test shoot that changed everything.
Jaded London and the career pivot
Through a test shoot, Alana met a stylist at Jaded London, a cool, directional UK fashion brand, and got called in for campaigns and e-commerce work. From there, she started getting noticed by other brands. She was building momentum. Things were moving.
Then COVID hit.
"I just started getting the momentum happening and then it was COVID. And I was like..."
She stayed in London until the end of 2020, then came back to Australia for what she thought would be a couple of months. That was six years ago.
Coming back to Australia and starting over
Returning home during COVID meant starting from scratch. No one in the Australian industry knew who she was. The London work hadn't translated.
"I came back and it was like that whole career never happened."
She started assisting Gillian Campbell, an incredibly respected Australian makeup artist, and it was the reset she needed. Working with someone she admired, being treated with respect on set and getting in front of the right people rebuilt her network and her confidence.
She also worked at a brewery. (Yes, really.) And says it was exactly what she needed, making friends, not being consumed by the hustle, and letting the work come to her rather than chasing it all the time.
The Kesha tour
This is the bit everyone's been waiting for.
Alana was called in to do makeup for one of Kesha's Australian shows in early 2025 through a connection with a New Zealand agent. That went well. Then Kesha came back for a bigger tour. Alana saw it coming, reached out, and got asked to do Adelaide and Perth.
When she was leaving the Perth show and mentioned she wished she could come to Europe, the tour manager told her they didn't actually have anyone booked. One casual comment later, and Alana was on a tour bus riding through Europe.
"We got on a tour bus and we were just riding around... I was so excited by everything. I'm like, whoa, this is so awesome. And I'm getting paid."
What the show day actually looks like
Lobby call at around 2–3pm. Travel to venue. A 90-minute glam window with hair and makeup happening simultaneously. Final checks just before showtime, lashes, lip, powder. Quick changes mid-show with two minutes to freshen everything. Then do it all again the next city.
The longevity routine that made the base bulletproof
Alana's skincare base: D’alba spray, Charlotte Tilbury Magic Serum, Tatcha moisturiser.
Then: One Size Secure the Sweat primer pressed into the T-zone. Double Wear foundation (straight, no mix). House Labs concealer. Huda Beauty Powder set with a puff. Charlotte Tilbury setting spray throughout. Final One Size aerosol spray to lock it all in. MAC 24 Hour Eye Base a tiny amount, pressed in well
"Nothing was moving."
The key is the layering, spray between cream and powder stages, not just at the end. She refined this from her first Kesha show where the base didn't hold as well, and used it as fuel to come back better.
TikTok and learning what people actually want
Alana started posting on TikTok when she returned from a three-month holiday and wasn't getting much work. A friend had started posting and growing fast. Alana had 12 years of professional knowledge to share. She went for it.
One video about contouring, filmed in a t-shirt she almost didn't wear on camera, got two million views and 27,000 followers in a month. She's now signed with a talent agency for content partnerships.
Her big realisation about TikTok: "People don't care who you are. They just want to learn something."
If you're posting get-ready-with-me content and wondering why it's not taking off, this is why. You need to offer something. Position yourself as the professional you are and teach people something they'll actually use.
She also has a clear vision of where she's headed: working with beauty brands, building a celebrity client roster, and launching her own product line. The social presence is the foundation she's building right now.
What she'd tell you
Just keep going. Brick by brick. Your right clients will find you, and the ones that don't weren't aligned with you anyway. That's not a failure, that's a filter.
"Everything is an exchange. If you're not giving something in the exchange, or you're not going to get something out of it, really think about whether you want to do it."
And if you're a makeup artist thinking about posting on social media? Stop waiting for the perfect lighting setup and the perfect t-shirt. Alana's biggest video lived in her drafts because she thought her hair looked weird.
Post it anyway.
Products Mentioned: Alana Lucky Episode
Alana's Kit Favourites
Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream A kit staple. Alana uses it on cheeks at the end of a glam to bring skin back to life, and doubles it as a lip product and cuticle treatment.
Homeoplasmine A French matte lip balm that hydrates without adding shine. Great for prepping lips before application and ideal for male grooming looks.
Huda Beauty Powder Alana swears by this for setting. She uses it with a puff and describes the finish as smoothing and almost witchcraft-level perfecting. Shades she has: Banana Bread and Cherry Blossom.
Charlotte Tilbury Setting Spray Hydrating, not drying. She layers this throughout her application — after creams, after powders — not just as a final step.
Mecca Zoom Sticks Long-wearing, smudge-proof eye pencils in a huge range of colours. Her pick for when you need a great eye look fast.
Other Products Mentioned
Foundations Shiseido Synchro Skin — her long-time go-to Natasha Denona High Glam Foundation — a current favourite formula Makeup Forever HD Skin (new updated formula) — tested at a brand event and loves it
Concealer NARS Soft Matte Concealer — always in the kit
Mascara Merit tubing mascara Revlon tubing mascara (new release) — currently using both together.
Body Made by Mitchell Body Glow — used on Kesha for radiant skin on stage