I took the plunge and moved to London, so here I am writing a blog post on the terrace..
I had always liked the idea of moving to "the big city", but never thought id actually do it, having spent all of my teenage years working in retail/other crappy jobs and hating every second of it, I finally decided to do something about it and study in the field that I've always wanted a career in.
So after checking out several makeup schools, I finally decided on applying for a place at DFMA Makeup Academy. I'm not going to lie, it's expensive but the insight from the tutors is incredible and I also received a full makeup & hair kit, which again is pretty ace.
I chose to study in Brighton so I packed up all my things for a month (surprising how much stuff you actually need for a month..) and rented out a cute little (I say little, it was actually massive) apartment right on the seafront. The school is based at the stunning Stanmer House which made it easy to get up for "school" everyday.
I wont go into too much detail about the course as i'll do another post about that!
One month down and I passed making me a fully qualified makeup artist! After the course I joined a fashion & beauty agency which gave me some work in London. After umming and ahhing, I decided to move to London for a trial month, do some agency work and see if I can find myself something more permanent.
Now this is where social media comes in very handy, after searching everywhere for somewhere to stay in LDN, I decided to just send a tweet asking if anyone knew of anything, to which I got a reply from the lovely Becca. It all seemed a bit random and from our friends and families perspectives it seemed a bit weird, however we went with it and met up to discuss our options. Becca was looking to travel for a month in Bali and I obviously needed somewhere to stay for my trial month, so why couldn't this work, id pay Beccas rent whilst she was loving life in Bali and she'd be massively helping me out by putting a roof over my head. So we did it, and I ended up at the most gorg townhouse in Camden! And have met some of the most ace people.
I did a few weeks work with Ralph Lauren promoting their new fragrance in Harrods, which was a great experience, but again I just felt like id done all this training and spent a hell of a lot of money to just do the same old shitty retail work.
With 2 weeks left in London and I decided to get my arse into gear and go job hunting. I've always had a love for Bobbi Brown so obviously they were my first stop. I noticed they had a full time position available at their FSS in Westfield, so CV in hand and a flawless face of makeup, I jumped on a tube an headed over.
Soon as I handed my cv in they invited me back for an interview that week, I was actually a little taken back, but I obvs jumped at the chance. Anyway instead of going into major detail (which again i'll do in another blog) I got the job in my last week in London. So as you can imagine, I was super excited but then the nerves started to kick in, and when you suffer from anxiety this isn't just butterflies in your tummy.
So as amazing as this was, getting a dream job and moving to London, I was also facing having nowhere to live, as after my month was up I was heading back to Bristol..
After messaging Becca we decided to do another month, she'd travel some more and id have time to find a place!
Now I'm here, just put a deposit on a room right in the centre of Camden high street and feeling pretty ace!
So as stressful as the last 4 months have been, living out of a suitcase, travelling backwards and forwards from Brighton, Bristol & London, I basically want to say that even though I thought I was going to have several breakdowns a day, things worked out and I'm actually starting to feel pretty happy.
This has all been made so easy thanks to my family, even though we're now living hundreds of miles apart, they're always on the other end of the phone, and if they aren't, it's because they're on the M4, on their way up to see me ha!
Hope you enjoy the blog!
Love Keeks
xx
