A beauty consultant is someone who provides advice about personal appearance, with a focus on making someone look more beautiful and professionally polished. Beauty consultants work for department stores and cosmetics companies, selling their products by showing people how they work and how they can be used to improve personal appearance, and they can also run private consulting agencies used by people who want to make radical changes to the way they look. Beauty consultants also staff makeover television shows and other services which are designed to provide image makeovers.
The level of training received by a beauty consultant varies. Employees of private companies and department stores may go through company training programs, which tend to place a focus on selling the company's product lines. Beauty consultants may be graduates of cosmetology schools, fashion programs, and other types of seminars and workshops which are designed to provide people with the knowledge and skills to work in the fashion world. Typically, a beauty consultant also needs to engage in continuing education to keep up with ongoing beauty trends.
Beauty consultants work with both men and women. They can provide advice about hair, makeup, clothing, and cosmetic procedures, along with tips about how to walk, speak, and carry oneself to improve personal image. Some specialize in executive makeovers, helping people look more professional at work to improve their work prospects and the images of the companies they work for. Others are more interested in personal makeovers which are designed to make people feel more self confident, improving their self esteem and their chances at social success.
Working as a beauty consultant can be challenging. These professionals literally need to see the beauty in everyone, identifying features which can be brought out with a variety of beauty tricks, while also zoning in on issues which may need to be hidden or obscured. Beauty consultants may opt to work in teams with several professionals who each handle a particular aspect of someone's makeover, and they can also consult with long-term clients for periodic advice and image updates, accompanying clients on shopping trips, organizing closet purges, and helping clients create and maintain a specific image.
It helps to have a good eye for fashion if someone wants to become a beauty consultant, and to have a good sense of personal style. Beauty consultants always need to look fabulous because their personal presentations are advertisements for their services. They also need to be able to work with very diverse clients from many cultural backgrounds, and to be able to make adjustments for different kinds of people and different sorts of industries. An executive makeover which is appropriate for the head of a software company, for example, might not be good for a banker, and a personal makeover for a yoga instructor should have a very different feel from a makeover for a stay at home mom.
