Wicklow Body Painter Steals the Show!

Irish Beauty winner Danielle Fitzgerald triumphs at London competition.

Last May, Irish Beauty and AIT were delighted to organise the Irish Beauty Makeup Competition held in partnership with Professional Beauty & Hair, and were thrilled to crown Danielle Fitzgerald (@misfitz_ MUA) as overall winner. Ten months later, Danielle travelled to London as part of her prize to compete in the Professional Beauty Makeup Competition, and guess what, she only went and won!

Danielle, a tutor at Carlow Institute of Further Education and Training (@carlowinstitute_makeup), competed in the Body Painting category with the theme of Natural Elements. We were delighted to catch up with her in London to celebrate her win and find out how she consistently achieves success…

Tell us about the inspiration behind your design

“Our theme for this competition was The Elements. Initially I thought of the usual things like Fire, Wind, Earth and Water and how to represent them, but I always develop my idea several times to try and have something different from my competitors.

“I ended up settling on the idea of glass blowing as this needs all the elements to be achieved. Being from Waterford, I had to represent my County.

“I wanted my costume design to look like holographic glass or when you see a prism of glass and light shining through it with the beautiful rainbow effect it causes.”

What are the stages in formulating a design and how long does it take?

“It takes several weeks to formulate the idea; I find it’s like exercise, the more you do it the faster you get at figuring it out.

“I usually start with a lot of research, which leads me down the road of discovery until “I finally have a feeling for what I want it to be.

“Next, I will do a body chart and figure out placement and colours. Using my mannequin torso, I practice and figure out the layout based on my body chart. Most of the time I hate [the design] at this point and go back to the drawing board and rejig it a bit. This is where you can lose faith a bit but it’s all part of the process.

“All the way through this process I work on the costume and prosthetics, which like the body paint, changes as I go, and tend to inspire each other until

“Turning my model into a Goddess is always my goal. Whatever the theme is I always seem to end up there, regal and powerful. If I can make them feel confident to walk around in my paint and costume, I have done a

“Depending on the competition, you get a different amount of time to paint. For this look it was four hours, which sounds like a lot but it goes by in a second. So when I am planning for a competition with this much time I have to be realistic about what I can achieve.

“I like to make headpieces, capes, shoes and different accessories, so if I am doing all of these things in one look, I make sure they tie in with the paint the whole way through the planning.

“The fabric in the cape was pivotal in the colour palette of the paint, so sometimes as I said before, the costume influences the theme.

“As I am researching, I save pictures all the way through, building a mood board which by the time it is competition time, I can cut out and stick all my ideas together. This is a really important step because it lets the judges see into your mind and helps them understand your plan”.

What are your favourite products that are always in your kit bag?

“My top favourite products are:

1. DFX Essential Pale Green

2. Mehron Metallic Gold and Mixing Solution

3. Kryolan Fixing Spray

“My favourite thing to have in my bag is my Kabuki brushes, these are so important to get a beautiful blend and ombre effect in your paint. These can be inexpensive Kabuki brushes and having several in your kit is the ideal set up.”

What advice would you give to makeup artists hoping to compete in the future?

“My advice is simple, if you are nervous about competing then work hard on everything that you can do before you even get to competition day. Get all the small points you can, for example make sure your costume idea is strong, that you have read the rules and have everything perfect, a consultation card, you’re wearing black, have neat hair and makeup, bottles labelled etc; all these points add up, so read the rules!

“Plan out your look and when you’re practicing, have a list of times (for each section) and where you need to be at certain points. If your model is eager to help they could let you know if you are running behind and need to speed up.”

What’s next for you professionally?

“I am competing again at the end of March in Liverpool and then in Dublin again at the Professional Beauty and Hair Show. In September I am competing in the online competition for the World Bodypainting Competition in Austria; I am hoping to go there next year in person to compete.

“I will continue to teach in my dream job where I hope that I inspire students to take a chance and bodypaint.”

Read more about Danielle and see how she created her winning design online at www.irishbeauty.ie