Nicola Johnson on 23 Years in Makeup, Fear of Rejection and Getting an Agent at 44
Nicola Johnson has been a makeup artist for 23 years. She's been in beauty for even longer.
This post covers Part 1: the career. The kit favourites get their own episode and their own post.
She started as a beauty therapist at 16
Nicola left school in England at 16 with no idea what she wanted to do. Her mum told her to choose a craft. She was good at art and woodwork, not so much maths and English, and it came down to beauty therapy or becoming a chef.
She picked beauty. It was a two-year, full-time course in 1998, covering manicures, pedicures, reflexology, massage, facials and skincare, plus a tiny bit of makeup. She finished as student of the year.
She was also embarrassed about it. Beauty wasn't cool back then, so she told her friends she studied "beauty therapy and business studies" to make it sound better.
Part of what pulled her towards skin was personal. Nicola had severe acne as a teenager, and she says she was shy and not comfortable in her own skin.
Health farms, Turkey and a Thriller dance
Her first job was at what the English call a health farm: a spa in a big country manor where guests stayed for a day or a couple of weeks. She moved up to premier therapist quickly, which meant she looked after the celebrity guests. Soap stars, Big Brother stars and some of the Spice Girls.
Then came Turkey. She took a job with an all-inclusive holiday company and ended up managing the spa at 19. The staff had to entertain the guests too. One minute she was doing facials. The next she was dressed as a zombie for the Sunday night Thriller performance.
Makeup school in London, 2003
Spa work got isolating. You're in a room, mostly in silence, on your own. Nicola was flicking through a glossy magazine when she saw an ad for the Glauca Rossi School of Makeup in London. She rang a friend from the health farm, and the two of them moved into a studio apartment in W1 London with two single beds.
The course ran four months and it was strict. Working freelance artists taught the classes, and Nicola says Lisa Eldridge taught a few of her lessons. Artists would step out mid-class to take calls from their agents and come back with jobs booked.
One habit stuck. Nobody left until they'd hand washed every single brush. Nicola still washes her brushes the minute she gets home from a job.
Graduates got a leather-bound portfolio and a sheet of paper listing photographers who were testing. Mostly phone numbers. For a shy 21-year-old, cold calling was terrifying. She did it anyway, built her book and worked in a bar.
Falling into TV
A family friend who worked as a producer put Nicola in touch with a Channel 4 team, and they put her on a job straight away. She worked on Grand Designs and other TV jobs, and she was winging the hair because she had no hair training yet. She fixed that later with a session styling course at the Academy of Freelance Makeup Artists.
Her take on all of it: her career has come down to good contacts and talking about the job.
The cruise ship
London burned her out. She went home briefly, then took a spa job on a cruise ship sailing from LA around the Mexican Riviera. Ten months.
There was no wage. Staff lived on board for free and earned tips and commission on treatments and product sales. The spa ran 8am to 8pm. One week you got a single day off, the next week two half days. She worked hard, had a lot of fun in port and came home with savings.
Australia
After a stint on the MAC counters, a model friend from London told her to come to Australia. Nicola booked four weeks in Melbourne, stayed an extra one, went home, got her visa and moved.
Melbourne lasted a year. She did counter work and in-store makeup, including Sportsgirl, through a small agency called Rogue Artists. Then she saw Bondi, and that was that.
Sydney, Elsa Morgan and the TVC years
In Sydney she went straight into freelancing. The only person she ever assisted was Elsa Morgan, and those shoots changed how she saw the job. On the Nutrimetics shoots, the makeup artist got as much time as she needed. The precision and attention to detail were on another level, and Nicola knew that was the work she wanted.
She didn't assist for long. She'd already had a TV career and didn't want the assistant label.
Her Gmail still holds every job she's done since 2012, and that year was back-to-back TVCs, Monday to Friday, no weddings. She had no agent. A producer friend booked her, and producers back then stayed loyal. She travelled with Elsa for L'Oréal fashion weeks, shot in the Kimberley, and worked her way around pretty much the whole country on Tourism Australia jobs.
There was also a reality show. Fashion One TV emailed her about a series called Fashion Filmmakers. They shot it in Cebu in the Philippines. She thought the email was a scam. It wasn't. She spent about eight weeks there as on-camera talent, completing makeup challenges in rough conditions, including one on a cliff edge. She has never seen the full show.
Ten years with Emma
Nicola did some casual work on The Wiggles TV show through another makeup artist. It wasn't her thing creatively. But Emma requested her for a Women's Weekly shoot, they became good friends, and when Emma left The Wiggles she asked Nicola to be her makeup artist. That was ten years ago.
This year they filmed a TV series together. It meant 4am wake-ups, Monday to Friday, for three months. Nicola is a single mum, so she negotiated an eight-hour day to make school pickup.
She's clear about what the juggle has cost her. She has turned down great opportunities because of it. Her words: "She is my baby and she comes first."
The callback she never made
This is the part of the chat I keep thinking about.
Back in 2013, while Nicola was assisting Elsa, she went in to meet Elsa's agency. They told her they loved her, they had just signed someone, and to come back in six months.
Nicola heard a no. "Well, that's that, done then. They don't want me." She never went back.
She says fear of rejection has held her back through her whole career. She always knew she was a good artist with good etiquette. She got rebooked and stayed busy. But pushing herself to the next level is something she thinks she could have done ten years earlier.
Then there's the Dior story. Nicola worked a lot with Margaret Zhang, who rang one day with two front covers. Nicola said no because she had a friend's wedding booked and didn't want to let her down. The friend later told her she would have understood. Nicola watched the covers come out. "That would have got me an agent ten years ago."
I get it. I told Nicola I once said no to paid work because I had a test booked. I didn't know you could find someone to cover you.
Rates: the 2012 problem
When Nicola scrolled back through her 2012 calendar, she found her rates. Some of them match what those same jobs pay today. And clients are trying to push them lower.
Her answer is transparency. She has always told other artists what she charges. Artists message her for help quoting, and she tells them exactly what to charge. If someone's prices are too low, she tells them that too, because artists have to hold the level together.
The grey area is free work. Nicola recently said no to influencer weddings that wanted her for free. One of those weddings ended up in Vogue. She still doesn't know if she made the right call. Bills are real. So is the value of a Vogue credit in the wedding space.
How she books weddings
Weddings didn't really start for Nicola until after her daughter arrived in 2018. Saturdays opened up, and the money is good. She says a wedding can pay double or triple a shoot.
Here's her setup:
A separate bridal website and a separate bridal Instagram
Collaborations and styled shoots for strong images, including an OK! magazine wedding special
Instagram ads on the bridal account only, and only when she needs bookings
Positioning: editorial-style, luxury bridal. Her brides want a sleek bun or a wave and glowy, natural skin
Dubsado for the whole booking flow. A studio that specialises in it built hers
The Dubsado setup is the game changer. An inquiry comes in through her website form. She checks her diary, presses one button, adds the number of people, and the system sends a proposal, a three-day check-in and the payment schedule. She can answer ten inquiries in five minutes. Before that, she sat up at 10 or 11pm writing quotes by email.
She takes most payments by bank transfer now and only opens a card link when a client asks.
One catch: she's now so booked she has no free weekends, and she wants some of them back.
Getting an agent at 44
The agent came through a relationship, not a cold approach. Her booker, Sam, used to book her at Women's Weekly before moving to Vivien's. Sam was scrambling to fill a job one day and Nicola said, "If you signed me, I could do that." A couple of months later, Sam asked her in for a chat.
Nicola asked herself the obvious question: had she left it too late? She's 44 and the new person at the agency. But the agency handles the paperwork and bookings, she's getting higher-end jobs, and she thinks it will compound over the next few years.
The goal she's saying out loud: a Vogue front cover.
Her advice for newer artists
Back yourself. And advocate for your work on set.
Nicola told a story from a recent job. The talent arrived late, the client wanted her on camera immediately, and Nicola needed two more minutes to finish the hair. She didn't ask. She watched the footage back and could have kicked herself.
Her point: the photographer won't remember that you jumped in. They'll remember the stray hair in the edit. "It's your work and it's your reputation at the end of the day."
The rest of her list:
Take every opportunity you can
If something better comes up, find someone to cover you, as long as you don't leave anyone in the lurch
Be a good, kind person
Use social media. We didn't have it. You do
Get in front of the camera if content is where you want to go
Talk to other artists. It's a solo job, so build your community
Listen to the full episode
Part 1 with Nicola Johnson is out now on The Makeup Insider, wherever you get your podcasts. Part 2 is her kit favourites on The Insider Edit.
Follow Nicola: @nicolajohnsonmakeup | @nicolajohnsonbridal | www.sydneymakeupartist.com