Paddy McGurgan

I was lucky enough to have a brilliant work shop by lovely Make up Artist Paddy McGurgan, so I thought who better to do a biography on then the man himself considering I got to ask him plenty of questions. 

Paddy McGurgan like many artist did not intend to get into make up as a career. He graduated with a degree in music working for some time as a music directer. Shortly after this he gained a job at Mac in in London away from his hometown of Belfast.This was not a make up job this was cashier related. Working at Mac Paddy became really enthusiastic for make up and with plenty of 'pestering' he eventually stayed on to work as a make up artist for the brand gaining plenty of training. Given that Paddy had a creative start to life with his musical background make up was a road Paddy was still able to express his creativity. 

Next from Mac Paddy moved to Space NK and here he received training from the likes of Francois Nars himself and even Laura Mercier herself. This type of training is invaluable to his career as he was able to pick up a lot of different skills from a lot of very talented people.

Paddy says one thing that helped him was his nosiness he was always asking why and what he was using rather then just doing what he was told. He said to us 'never forget to sit and start playing with make up' Paddy is big on constant training he continuously told us that you never stop learning as an artist and I think this is completely true. This is also written on his website. 

Paddy has worked for a number of celebs speaking a lot about his appreciation for his regular client Ruby Wax and listing a number of cool British celebs such as The Saturdays. He has also done plenty of beautiful editorial shoots creating looks for magazines such as the Irish Hair dressing magazine. 

Aside from this Paddy now runs his own course were he helps student over 8 weeks covering bridal, fashion and artistic make up. In Paddys workshop he created a evening look and then transformed it into a fantasy inspired look layering lots of colour and glitter to create something magical. I learnt a lot from his amazing ability to blend endlessly to create an entirely new look from something totally different. I felt his skill with the brush was really inspiring.

Evening Look 

Fantasy Look

Currently Paddy has his own Make up Store known as the Make up Pro store in his home town of Belfast. Paddy picked himself a range of brands to accommodate for professional artist and make up fans. They stock brands such as The Make up Studio as well as Paddys own range of items. 

I particularly love this work taken from Paddy's portfolio. This make up is really creative and for me is up there with the likes of Alex Box's creativity levels. The use of the leaves to create texture flowing from the head to the neck gives a really earthy feel as well as the make up which uses plenty of golds to help the leaves stand out. I feel theres a lot of detail to this look and is very inspiring for my creativity.