We were lucky to catch up with Stephanie Luxton Photographer & Makeup Artist recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Stephanie Luxton, thanks for joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

A lot of creative people define success as making their living solely doing their creative pursuits and/or having a large online following. This seems to go for basically all creatives regardly of specific craft. I very strongly disagree with this. I respect people who pour everything they have into the hustle and the grind, but as an artistic person, you don’t have to dump everything into your craft to have a great life.

I was always artsy and saw myself pursuing a creative career where everyday I’d be doing what I loved. I went to college first for esthetics and it lead to a very disappointing lifestyle in which I worked all the time at a high end spa and made very little money. There was no work life balance and I was depressed. I went back to school for graphic design and poured everything I had into it. Some people can turn their creativity on like a faucet. I am unfortunely not that type of person and I got burnt out.

There’s always an upside to your perceived failures. Going to beauty school lead me to start doing wedding makeup on the side. Graphic design school introduced me to portrait and wedding photography which breathed new life into my creative soul. I studied these crafts independently, practicing and exploring, and focusing on self improvement. It was incredibly time-consuming, but it was a fun thing to pursue while I was working part time at a cosmetics retail job.

Then covid hit and and everything got put on hold. I decided that a practical use of my time during lockdown would be going back to school for another career that could better support my desired lifestyle – I wanted to be a homeowner and have a husband and family. Wedding makeup and photography are quite seasonal so trading in my part time cosmetics job for something else to do alongside my creative endeavors felt responsible. I thought about what did and didn’t work for me in previous careers. I like people, working with my hands, and daytime hours. I needed a job that wouldn’t follow me home everyday and that paid a liveable wage. So I became a dental hygienist. Working in the wedding industry got me through dental hygiene school.

Now I work full time as a dental hygienist and I do both wedding makeup and photography on the side and I have never been happier. I’ve had creative friends tell me that it’s a shame I’m not doing photography full time and that they’re sad that I gave up on my dreams, when in reality, I feel like my life is a dream. I am now a homeowner and I’m getting married soon. I don’t experience creative burnout because I am able to let that part of my brain rest. I work 10-15 weddings per year, usually I feel that I am able to pour my heart and soul into my work because I’m not spread thin by the constant pressure I used to feel to constantly create content and share on social media.

To me, creative success isn’t about followers. It isn’t about hustling until you’re a husk of your former self. It isn’t about working full time doing your craft. It isn’t about staying on a linear path. It’s about balance. I am so grateful that I gave myself permission to allow my creative endeavors to be part of my life instead of taking over my life. I’ve never been more happy.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Stephanie. I am located in Port Hope, ON, and I am a freelance wedding makeup artist and photographer.
I started doing wedding makeup in 2016 when one of my sisters friends was getting married and asked me to do her makeup. I remember being terrified at the time, but I agreed, then seriously studied everything I could find on the internet about wedding makeup. It went well and then I started doing it more regularly based on word-of-mouth, at first. I found myself really enjoying it so I kept doing it. I think that I’m a great bridal makeup artist because I truly listen to what my clients want and I genuinely value their opinions. I like to involve them in the process as much as possible when it comes to choosing things like lipstick and eyeshadow colours. I also understand deeply that most of my brides don’t wear a full glam face of makeup on a normal day, so I work meticulously to make sure they still feel like themselves. There’s a lot of trust involved in this.

I got into photography in 2017 after one of my graphic design teachers told me my assignment would be better if I learned to use a camera properly. So I decided I was going to learn everything I could about cameras. I dove deep into youtube, online courses, and reading physical books about portraiture. The more I learned, the more I realized that I’d never be able to learn everything, but that only fueled my interest. I bought a higher end camera and a couple amazing lenses. I would do my friends makeup, dress them on, and practice on them for an entire year until I got more comfortable with my skills. After that, I explored different genres such as couples, cosplay, boudoir, and composite photography. I loved capturing beauty and creating stories. I loved romance and horror. I photographed my first wedding in 2018. It was one of the scariest and most rewarding things I’d done. During the past few years, I’ve found myself niching down towards shooting mainly couples and weddings. I’m at a stage in my life where I love photographing couples. So many couples don’t have any photos together except for phone pictures. Most of the time when you point a camera at someone, they have zero idea what to do. After years of studying and honing my craft, I have become quite good at guiding my clients through their photoshoots in a way that lets me capture their connection in a way that is beautiful. I am a great photographer for people or couples who want these tender and quiet moments to be created and captured, but feel super awkward about it. It’s my goal to help you shine as bright as you can in your photos.

I think my skill sets work well together because there’s beauty in everyone. Not only do I get to bring out the beauty in my clients and capture it, but I get to show it to them. To be able to do that for people, is a such a gift and there’s nothing more rewarding

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I’ve had to pivot a lot. As I mentioned before, I went through multiple career changes throughout my 20’s until I could figure out how to create a balanced lifestyle. One thing I didn’t mention is that for a few years, one of my favourite genres of photography was cosplay and composite photography. I spent a long time learning photograph elements into my photos that weren’t there or edit the subjects of my photos to suit whatever story I was trying to tell. This was incredibly time consuming and was something I did for the creative passion rather than for profits. It involved planning, problems solving, strategic lighting, and guiding my subjects to act in a certain way so that everything would come together at the end to be amazing. I love horror so I took halloween pretty seriously too. These projects felt so special.

And then AI generated art became a thing. Now I feel like that entire genre is ruined. I have totally pivoted away from it. With AI, something that used to take hours can be created by typing a sentence into a textbox. That might sound convenient, and I am sure it is for a lot of people, but I feel like the time I spent learning and nurturing this craft is all for nothing now. Most artists don’t respect AI generated art, especially when people lie and say they created it themselves – the problem is that it’s getting harder to tell the difference.

I’ve totally abandoned composite work since then. I’ve been focusing more on things that are real because it seems like the world is starting to need more of that.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I think this is a really great question! Firstly, I have always been a saver. I am not the type of person who spends a bit everyday to buy coffee or lunch out, etc. I like to save up to get things that mean more to me. Photography and makeup artistry are both quite expensive to get started in. I am a strong believer that it’s important to have another job while trying to get started as a freelance creative. You don’t need to have a huge lump sum of money to get started – buy things as you go.

I’m going to start by talking about getting started in makeup.

I worked in cosmetics at a Shoppers Drug Mart. This was fantastic when building a wedding makeup kit, because you get 30% off everything, and if you are strategic with your optimum points, you can get a lot of things incredibly discounted. Some of the beauty boutiques have fantastic pro brands like NARS, Smashbox, Urban Decay, Pur Minerals, Stila, etc. You don’t need super high end everything to start. Some drug store brands like NYX, L’Oreal, Marcelle, Milani, and GOSH have some really great products that work on a variety of different skin types. Practice on other people and learn independently until you have a certain level of confidence and then reach out to other photographers and models to see if they’re open to doing any collaborations. This way you can build a portfolio and begin creating a solid network on social media. Once you have a bit of a portfolio, make a professional website – you can do this easily with Wix. Then you’ll be able to start signing up for PRO beauty discounts. A few that exist for Canadians include Sigma, Coverfx, Makeup Forever, MAC, Makeup by Mario, Nudestyx, etc.
You can go to school for this but I wouldn’t recommend it to most people. You’re better off taking that money and investing in your products. It may also beneficial to take an in person masterclass that can qualify you for makeup discounts or that includes a pro kit.

For Photography:

Start with what you can afford or what’s available to you. I’d recommend getting a mirrorless camera. It doesn’t matter which one. If you want to do weddings, you’ll want dual card slots because sd cards can fail. It happened to me once but luckily it wasn’t during a wedding. Your lenses are the thing that will make the biggest difference in your photos. You need to do research on what kind of style and look you like. I started off with an 85mm 1.2 lens because I liked the creamy bokeh. I bought my first nice camera and lenses off facebook marketplace and saved a lot of money that way. I also re-sold some lenses later on marketplace to get different gear without taking a financial loss. Once you start making more money, you can upgrade your gear. Just keep learning so that you get the most out of every piece of equipment you have. I wouldn’t go to school for photography either, unless you’re taking an online or in person school/masterclass that’s run by photographers you seriously look up to. There’s so many free resources online so start there. Your gear is important but not more important that understanding light, posing, and editing.

When you’re offering a service, there’s a lot of trust involved. Make sure you have a certain level of confidence in your abilities so that you don’t disappoint your clients. This is true for everything, but especially if you’re going to be working in the wedding field as it’s one of the most important milestones in your clients lives. And for the love of god, NEVER use other people’s work to advertise your services. You’re setting yourself and everyone else up for failure if you do that.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.stephanieluxton.ca
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephanieluxtonphoto
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stephanieluxtonphotography

Image Credits

All photos taken by me.