blog

HUXLEY got the opportunity to be live on Sunrise hosted by weather reporter Katie Brown… or should we say Kitty Litter…

Brace your breakfast as we showcase some spooky Special Effects that our current students are working on, alongside some glam and glitter makeup demonstrations by our talented students. We also show Katie how to be fierce and model behind the camera in our fully equipped photography studio. Our HUXLEY graduate drag queens also have a special surprise for Katie…

Watch HUXLEY Live on Sunrise.

When bigger is better..
HUXLEY bridal shoots are a favourite amongst students, models and fans of the school. In true HUXLEY style, our recent bridal collaboration was epic in proportion and magically executed.

THEME, DESIGN AND PRE-PRODUCTION
The original inspiration came from the idea of something beautiful emerging from an ancient structure. An appreciation for architectural structures and brutalist textures were important considerations, heavily influencing the set design. To achieve this look, the creative team at HUXLEY constructed two enormous rolling walls and enlisted the help of local rendering experts Render X to transform the surface of these walls.

Render X aren’t your typical renderers. In fact, throw out what you think you know about render and check out their incredible work. Founder Matt Jamieson and his team work on the most luxurious residential and commercial projects, including the likes of Dior, The Block, Rick Shores, Homebodii and some of Australia’s best architects, builders and interior designers. Recently they broke the internet after a personal renovation project of theirs made a huge profit. Matt and his Partner Emma paid $775,000 for the home at 31 Beaconsfield Drive in December, 2020. They rendered every surface of the home to create a truly unique and sculptural family home. The rendered property was RealEstate.com.au most viewed property in the history of the site. Over 300 people crammed into the property for the auction and it sold under the hammer for an incredible $2,713,888!

So yeah… not your typical render business. It was an absolute pleasure working with Render X to bring our vision to life and as you can see, the results are incredible. For those of you who are interested in the process, rendering these walls took about a week, which included drying time between layers of render and paint. The high grade materials used on the two 3m x 3m high structures, transformed the walls into epic aged concrete plinths with 3 dimensional angulations across the super structure, patina hues and and all the contrasting marbling and porous textures you would expect from real stone structures hundreds of years in age.

To help with manoeuvrability the walls have a hollow core and wheels. The frame was constructed by a professional film set builder so the walls are both functional and look amazing. Now constructed, the walls will continue to be used as backdrops for other projects and no doubt will feature in lots of awesome content that we create in the studio.

For more info about Render X and their incredible projects, go stalk their socials and check out their website. It was an absolute pleasure working with them on this project and we would 100% recommend using them!

This was our original mood board design brief for the monolithic plinths. The image in the top centre featuring the two models was shot at HUXLEY about 8 years ago. It’s so cool to be able to revisit and level up this old set design in a modern and unique way!

MAKEUP AND HAIR DESIGN
For makeup and hair, we didn’t want our students to create typical bridal looks. It might seem a bit strange for a bridal shoot, but we felt they had lots of opportunities to create natural smokey eyes and soft glam. Instead, we got our students to think outside the box to create eye makeup looks that would compliment our modern set design. The brief was to create looks that felt like a ‘bridal dream’ rather than a bridal reality. We gave them this mood board for reference, but left the creative totally up to them.

Here was our mood board reference images for this shoot. As you can see.. not your typical bridal makeup design.

BRIDAL GOWNS
We are blessed to work with some of Australia’s best bridal labels. For this shoot our our beautiful models wore gowns from When Freddie Met Lilly, One Honey and Nicolina Bridal.

TEAM HUXLEY
Let’s be clear, there isn’t a creative arts school quite like HUXLEY! The amount of effort, time and planning that goes into our student collabs and productions is astronomical. Our goal is to simulate real world experiences in a safe and professional environment. This way, when students go out to industry they are prepared.

A big thank you to our trainers, operations manager, office manager, social media and models coordinator, graphic design and marketing coordinator, video team, studio manager, photographer and art director for producing this amazing shoot!

Thank you so much to the agencies and incredible HUXLEY BABES models who participated in this shoot! A special mention to everybody models who inclusively represents a diverse range of models. A full list of credits will appear on this page at a later date.

If you would like to model at HUXLEY – APPLY HERE –

BECOME A PRO MUA WITH HUXLEY!
– APPLY NOW –
Study at Australia’s BEST makeup school to have incredible experiences like this.



A night to remember! Check out awesome pics from our exciting B’day event.

The Huxley School Of Makeup celebrated 10 incredible years of education at our Gold Coast HQ. After natural disasters, crazy weather and of course that Global pandemic (that shall not be mentioned), we felt that it was important to bring people together and celebrate this significant milestone. Noticing a gap in our schedule, team HUXLEY seized the opportunity to throw together this wonder event. In less than 2 weeks, the entire event was orchestrated and pulled off with all the flare and flavour you could expect from a HUXLEY production.

Click download to see all high res images from the night. Feel free to share them to your socials tagging @huxleyschoolofmakeup

Over the weekend our team celebrated 10 years of Huxley School of Makeup. But not only this, we also launched a brand new website alongside an exciting announcement – we now have an exclusive range of HUXLEY cosmetic accessories that are available from our shop! We are so excited to be featured on Business News Australia. Check out what they had to say!

After 10 years of laying the foundations of makeup education leadership, Gold Coast-based entrepreneur Michael Huxley is applying his personal brand to the cosmetics retail space with the launch of a direct-to-consumer (D2C) site.

The e-commerce platform, to be launched this month, will host top shelf professional-grade makeup products, as well as Huxley’s own range that will initially include a mini cosmetics fridge and a line of biodegradable applicators called Smoosh – named after the cute sound they make when used.

For Huxley, founder of internationally renowned makeup academy Huxley School of Makeup, the move into retail is a decade in the making, during which the school has built a reputation nationwide as the go-to institution for makeup training for film, TV, editorial, runway, advertising and more.

“It certainly feels like a pivot, but I’m excited about it,” Huxley tells Business News Australia.

“I’ve done so much production work with different cosmetics companies – even before starting the school I’ve been working with some crazy brands, and it feels cool to be able to start developing one myself.”

Alongside established brands like Kroylan, the ‘Huxley Online’ store will stock Michael’s very own range of accessories exclusively.

“It’s quite exciting – we’ll have our own range of products, starting with a cosmetics fridge that you can put in your bathroom, and then we’ve also got these makeup applicators which are called Smoosh – they’re so cute and they’re biodegradable,” said Huxley, a five-time Gold Coast Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award winner in the Arts & Culture category.

“We’ll have those two products and then we’re also going to retail other specialty makeup products – things you can’t always access at Mecca and Sephora, so more for makeup professionals or makeup enthusiasts.”

blank
The Huxley cosmetics fridge

blank
Huxley’s ‘Smoosh’ – named after the sound it makes

From there, Huxley said he hoped to focus on other ‘non-perishable’ products and things that can be reused. Where that’s not possible, the founder says all single-use products will be biodegradable.

“We want things to be a treasured item that people want to hang on to, rather than something they’ll use and then dump,” Huxley said.

“We’ll try to make every new product as special as the next – but we’re just starting off with these two products. It’s a nice way to say that we’re entering this industry without trying to jump the gun.”

In addition, the entrepreneur is launching not one, but two websites in April, with the second an update for the company’s existing HUXLEY SCHOOL platform.

That will enable prospective students to book into workshops online, and will integrate the company’s existing learning management system (LMS).

blank
Some examples of the work achieved by students at Huxley School of Makeup

 

A DECADE IN THE BUSINESS OF HUXLEY SCHOOL OF MAKEUP

Though Michael’s career in the world of makeup began well before he launched his eponymous academy, this year the entrepreneur is celebrating 10 years at the helm of Huxley School of Makeup.

The entrepreneur, who got his big break travelling as a makeup artist for luxury fashion house Yves Saint Laurent, has since built his company into what it is today – one of the world’s top ranked makeup schools where students learn the ropes on how to do makeup for film, television, fashion and more.

As a queer entrepreneur, Huxley said he initially wanted to build a business as a way of creating a legacy for himself considering having a child could prove difficult.

“When I first started the school, I wanted to develop a legacy – something that was bigger than me, something that would live beyond me and carry my name on,” he said.

“As a queer person, back then I didn’t think that I could have a family. I wanted to create that feeling of family, and a legacy that lives on through the business.

“So much has changed since then – we’ve seen gay marriage become legal and I have a dog and a partner, and even the likelihood that I might have children is on the cards. I could have never expected that my life would turn out like this, but that made me super proactive.”

blank
Right: Michael Huxley on set

The Burleigh Heads-based company, which offers nationally accredited diplomas as well as unaccredited short courses, prides itself on student outcomes – something Michael says is most important to him.

“Watching our students go on to do some really amazing things is so rewarding. We’ve had students work on pretty much every big blockbuster film recently – we sent 12 students to Elvis and eight of them got jobs,” Huxley said.

“The industry has grown a lot in the last five years with social media, and people have been able to create careers online; we’ve got a student who lives in Far North Queensland and she has worked with Rihanna, as well as Mecca and Sephora.

“At the moment what we find is that there are not enough skilled and qualified people to fill [makeup industry] jobs. They want really high-quality people and HUXLEY is in a powerful position as an educator because we educate to the highest standards, and we get exceptional results.”

Apply online

Your journey begins here!

Do you have what it takes to become a HUXLEY student? Apply for a position in one of our famous courses for your chance to be amoungst the carefully selected applicants on their way to becoming a Professional MUA!

WE ARE more than a makeup school!

Get the latest Workshops, Courses & Products from Australia’s #1.