The Next MUA Maven: Anastasia Park

Ask veterans in the makeup industry about future trends and you’ll be met with perplexed faces and maybe a few laughs. They’ll admit trying to predict what’ll happen in three years is a losing bet when most things change within three months. So how does makeup artists stay ahead of the curve these days? For one up and coming make-up artist, Anastasia Park, her secret weapon isn’t something in her makeup bag, but her creative imagination and strong visual sense.

Park is slowly but surely putting herself on the radar as a sought-after make-up artist. She has primped world-renowned models during New York Fashion Week. She’s even accumulated thousands of followers with attuned ears to her canny knowledge on being a licensed esthetician, but it wasn’t always like that. Park humbly recalls her first days of stepping into the April Love Pro Makeup Academy as intimidating.

“There I was exposed to a new world of words and colors,” Park says, “I didn’t know anything, but I decided early on that I can be the best of the best if I keep working hard.” That conviction and humbleness won her the top spot of her class at the academy. Now she’s determined to learn from the doyens of the makeup industry like Ve Neill, Joel Harlow, Chris Walas and Rick Baker.

Currently, Park is set on expanding her skills into television, movies, and theater. She is now studying at the Cinema Makeup School, where she is recognized as one of the up-incoming stars of her class. Park’s next endeavor is to join the Local 706 Artist and Hair Stylists Guild in Southern California.

Some makeup artists ogle toward trends to gain clout in the industry, but Park observes the biggest discernment between dilettantes and professionals is that professionals persistently create magnificent work. “Makeup is supposed to make you feel good and your best when you wear it,” says Park. She concludes that if the client’s happy, then she’s happy, and that’s the best way to build one’s reputation.