Saying that Birdie Coughlan knows her way around a face isn’t nearly as odd as it sounds. As a makeup artist, she is up close and personal with faces all day long. And as the resident artist at Rex Lott Photography, she’s a total pro when it comes to how you want to (and how you should) look for a headshot session. To get the inside scoop on all things beauty, Backstage chatted with Coughlan about her work, her number one headshot trick, and the item actors should always carry with them.
Tell us a little about what you do.I work primarily for a headshot photographer in New York. I also freelance and do events and stuff like that. I also work for a woman who runs a school for crossdressers, which is really cool and really fun, but my main job is doing [hair and makeup for] headshots for actors.
How did you get into makeup?My parents are both artists, so I grew up always drawing and painting. My mom is a doll artist; she repaints faces on dolls. I always joke that I do the same thing she does, except I have bigger dolls. I went to school for theater…but always loved doing makeup. After college, I started taking makeup jobs and started to realize that I felt more passionate about behind the scenes and doing
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