Fine Makeup Art & Associates — Local services in Chicago

Are you looking for a true professional, who will make you look like the best version of yourself? Then you HAVE to book Traci! About 5 months before my wedding my hair/makeup person backed out, leaving me desperate to find a replacement. After a frantic call to my amazing photographer (Rick Aguilar), he put me in touch with Traci. She was so wonderful! She told me everything was going to be fine, and answered all my questions patiently. Her website was so helpful. She has a breakdown of payment and deposit, a contract (my first person did not), and the option to pay her online! For my trial she did my makeup with a sprained wrist, and it was an amazing job! (She’s a pro!) I couldn’t stop looking at myself in the mirror! There were no layers of makeup on my face or the feeling that my skin couldn’t breathe. I felt natural AND beautiful. I looked like the very best version of myself, which is really what you want. The day of the wedding she came prepared with everything she needed, set up in 10 minutes, and then started doing my mother, mine, and my bridesmaid’s makeup. My mother is like me and hardly wears any makeup, and she made her look fabulous! My Mom was worried because she has very sensitive skin and never wears makeup; but when my Dad saw her, he got this look in his eye and said “Babe you look HOT!” Yep, he did. She looked great, and she did not have a reaction to the makeup either. Each one of my friends has VERY different skin tones (from dark olive to porcelain), and each one of them looked amazing! I cannot say it enough that I loved her work, and if I could have her do my makeup for all occasions I would! My makeup lasted from 8 am until 4 am, and that included me dancing all night long. And my eyelashes lasted for 4 full days, I had to peel them off myself! Her work is flawless! She does the makeup in natural light, and it went from outside to inside, day to night, and looked so natural! She told me what products I would need for day of touchups as well. Her work made me interested in my own makeup. I still use the products she recommended, and I am going back to her for sure! I cannot recommend her enough. She was professional and so...

I really can’t say enough good things about working with Traci on our wedding day… 10/10 would recommend her! Here are just a few things she did that I really want to highlight: (1) It was important to me that my make up looked natural because I don’t wear a lot of make up on a daily basis. Her make up was the perfect balance of formal but natural and it lasted all day and night! Plus, Traci works on photoshoots so she knew how to ensure that, even with a more natural look, the makeup would look flawless in all of our photos! (2) Not only did I love my look, but she and her team did a TON of make up on our wedding day (from myself and my bridal party all the way to my grandma’s makeup!) and she stayed on schedule and made everyone happy! (3) The other thing I loved about working with Traci is that she was extremely easy to talk to and give feedback if I wanted any tweaks (though I didn’t have to ask for many!). She was also honest with her professional opinion when I asked her for a change that she did not think would be flattering which I REALLY appreciated.

In addition to everything above, she took notes after the trial and sent me a detailed email with what we used and any recommendations she had for things I could buy to keep in my bag on wedding day (example, the lip tint we landed on, blotting pads, etc). She had all of the notes and feedback organized and ready for wedding day! Thank you for EVERYTHING Traci! So...

I hired Traci for an at-home makeup lesson after doing a bunch of research and looking at the online portfolios of every local person I could find, and the experience didn't disappoint! I've always been a little intimidated by makeup and kind of just made up my own routines over the years; I wanted to learn some actual skills and Traci was awesome. Super-easy to talk to, highly knowledgable, answered every question I had, went through daytime and evening looks that fit my style, and left me with a bunch of resources (a video of the lesson, plus handouts on the products used and what brushes to get) that set me up to practice everything we talked about on my own. There's zero pressure to buy anything she uses (no referral links or anything like that, just a straight-up list), but I liked it all so much better than what I was using that I basically purchased everything. I've been practicing every day since then and it's already a huge improvement — worth every penny. I'll absolutely book with Traci again when I'm ready to change it up or try some new looks, and have already recommended her to friends....