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Do not assume a studio will do your makeup. Bring a basic foundation matched to your skin tone and a few sponges. It takes two minutes and it removes shine from the lights, dark circles under the eyes, and five o'clock shadow, all of which the camera exaggerates.
Nobody warns you about this
You may think that when you go to a media interview, they are going to have makeup for you. Not necessarily. You may get there and find they have not hired a makeup artist at all, or that the artist they do have is working on the people who are interviewing you.
Whether you are a man or a woman, you need to be thinking about looking your best. This is not vanity. On camera, appearance is either neutral or it is a distraction, and a distraction competes with your message.
What the camera actually shows
Here is what a lens and a set of studio lights find that a bathroom mirror does not:
- Five o'clock shadow. Even a half hour after shaving there is something there, and later in the day you really see it.
- Dark circles under the eyes. Overhead lighting deepens them.
- Shine. Studio lights are hot and bright, and skin reflects them.
- Lines and sun spots. More visible on camera than in person, and more visible again in a tight shot.
In the video above I zoom all the way in with no makeup on, which is a slightly uncomfortable thing to do, and then do half my face on camera so you can see the difference on one screen. It is not a transformation. It is smoother, less shiny, and less distracting, which is the entire goal.
The kit is two items
Go to a drugstore and get someone to help you find a basic foundation that matches your skin tone. That is the only decision that matters, and it is the one worth asking for help with, because a shade that is close but wrong reads worse on camera than nothing at all.
Pick up sponges while you are there. They are what gets you an even application instead of streaks.
Foundation and sponges. Obviously you can do far more with makeup than this. The point is the smallest thing you can do that makes you look noticeably better under lights.
If you want one more item, buy a concealer made specifically for the under eye area. It handles dark circles better than foundation does on its own. Optional, but useful if that is your particular issue.
A case study: the CEO who said no
I was training the CEO of a technology company that had just launched a real estate app. He was practicing for an appearance on CNBC, and we had spent all day working on his messaging and getting him ready for any question that might come his way. When I took out makeup, he laughed in a way that made it clear he thought this was silly and not something he was going to take part in.
So I put it on myself, on camera, just to show that a little foundation can take you from looking tired to looking sharp. His eyes went wide, and he turned to a colleague and said, "On the break, let's run over to the Walgreens down the street and pick up makeup. This is a must-have in my bag from now on."
While many women are already comfortable with makeup, many more of my clients have gotten comfortable with it after watching me apply it in sixty seconds.
Apply it evenly, and check both sides
Work across the whole face rather than only the spots that bother you. Doing half a face and stopping is exactly how one side of your head ends up reading differently on camera, which is more noticeable than the problem you were fixing.
Use a mirror or a monitor while you apply it. Trying to do it while looking into a camera lens is harder than it sounds.
Zoom back out
One last thing worth knowing. Most interviews are not framed as tightly as a test shot. When you pull back to a normal interview frame, the makeup should be invisible and the only thing you notice is that you look rested and even.
That is the standard. Not made up. Just not fighting the lights.
This is the easy half of being ready
Appearance is the fastest thing to fix before an interview and the least important once the questions start. If you want the other half handled, the message and the answers, get a quick quote. In the meantime, read where to look during a media interview and how to prepare for a media interview.