Emily Filice has always loved Oregon.  She grew up in San Jose, California, but regularly visited family sprinkled throughout Oregon. After graduating high school in San Jose in 2016, she went to college for Business and Photography and realized neither were her calling.  She realized her real passion was makeup! That was when she began researching local makeup schools. Like most places, there were only esthetic and cosmetology programs available nearby.  Emily enrolled in Paul Mitchell Esthetics School in San Jose and graduated in 2018. This began her journey toward becoming a makeup artist!

In 2019 Emily and her high school sweetheart moved to Portland with a plan. Emily wanted to have a career in professional makeup artistry. Like most esthetics schools, Paul Mitchell Esthetics program didn’t offer much education in makeup artistry, so Emily went seeking more.  She wanted to work on sets doing photo shoots, movies, and special effects makeup. The Art of Makeup School was just the education she was hoping to find!

She enrolled in The Multimedia Master Program and graduated in August 2020, right smack in the middle of the pandemic.  Not an ideal time to start a career, but it didn’t get in Emily’s way! In fact, I’m not sure I’ve seen a graduate’s career take off so quickly and with such consistency. In only 6 months after graduating, Emily started working as a full-time makeup artist, and her career has only gotten busier since.  Every time I look at Instagram there is a new post from Emily working on a new job.  It is incredible, and nobody deserves it more than Emily.

While Emily was attending The Art of Makeup School, unimaginable circumstances prevented her from finishing her full program all at once. While attending school she managed to stay focused while her life was in upheaval.  As soon as she was able, she returned and finished her program without skipping a beat and retrieved her graduation certificate.  She is a true example of resilience, staying persistent, and keeping her eyes focused on the goal. If life makes you stronger then Emily wins for the strongest.  She made it through school and now she’s kicking butt.

Now, how has Emily achieved so much success so quickly? If you meet Emily, you’ll have your answer. Emily is a genuinely empathic person that truly cares about others, is very gracious and appreciative, and you can feel it.  As a makeup artist that is essential.  Whether you are applying beauty or fx makeup, the makeup artist is a nurturing position, and we take care of our talent.  Everyone on the team can see that and when talent leaves the chair, sometimes the experience they just received can influence the entire day for everyone and the outcome of the shoot.  See how important we are?

Ok that isn’t the only reason Emily has gotten so far so fast.  The Art of Makeup places graduates on a job board email list for 18 months.  In that time, many opportunities are emailed out to graduates, and it is up to them to go after them. Not everyone does, but Emily sure did. She grabbed her first job from the job board just after graduating, and it was a monumental step that skyrocketed her career. It was a music video called Secrets by a local band called We Three. “That job helped open many doors for me as I ended up doing another music video for them called Sara and other film and video jobs as well!” Emily shared.  She recommends always coming early to jobs and being prepared for anything. Because she was the only makeup artist who showed up for the job, she ended up doing makeup on the whole dance cast.  If that didn’t lock her in with this production company as their go to reliable, flexible and capable makeup artist, I don’t know what would! Here is the music video Secrets

I asked Emily how she finds work and what marketing skills did she learn at The Art of Makeup that help her and she said, “One of the biggest things I learned that has helped me in my career is how to market myself and create a website and portfolio that shows my work. The Art of Makeup really taught me how to build and showcase my portfolio and structure my work and that has helped me get many opportunities!  I think that has been really important. A lot of my job opportunities are through referrals and people seeing my work through my Instagram or my website.”

What else has helped? “Also building good connections with those you meet in the industry is really important. Showing up early and prepared, always remain professional and kind. That will take you a long way!” She also mentioned how important the in-depth sanitation knowledge she learned at The Art of Makeup has been.

Lastly, I asked Emily to mention some of her favorite jobs and this is what she said,  “I have so many jobs that I have done that I feel really blessed for and that have made me really excited! I also feel fortunate to have met some amazing and talented people along the way I can continue to work with often! One of my favorites was the Sara music video for We Three because that music video is about something so important and really makes a strong impact. I felt like my work was going past just makeup and making a larger impact.” Here is the music video Sara:

Emily also mentioned how much she enjoyed doing a commercial with Polo Ralph Lauren and Bleacher Report featuring Olympic Skateboarder Jordyn Barratt and Trailblazer CJ McCollum. Sounds exciting! Emily also graciously mentioned she was recently published in a local Seattle magazine called Japi Culture. “A dear friend of mine, Crystal Loverro, who was chosen to tell her story in the magazine asked me to help bring her vision to life and it was an honor to help her!”

Emily’s journey since she moved to Portland in 2019 has been a fast paced one, but not without challenges along the way. We are excited to see her success and follow her career path, and are grateful she chose The Art of Makeup for her makeup career education, or we may have never met this inspiring and kind person. And what about that high school sweetheart? They just got engaged on Emily’s birthday and will be married this year!