About

A working school, not a showroom

VERMILLA has taught in the same Clerkenwell building since 2011. It was set up by artists who were tired of assisting people who had paid a great deal for training that never put them in front of a live face.

The building

Three studios over two floors, twenty-four stations in total, each with a mirror, its own power and a light that can be switched between tungsten, daylight-balanced LED and ring. A fourth room holds the kit store and the sanitising bench, which is where the hygiene module is taught.

How teaching is staffed

Tutors are working artists. They teach in blocks between bookings and every practical session is staffed by a tutor and an assistant, which is what makes a cap of twelve workable. We publish term dates a year ahead precisely because tutors' diaries have to be committed that far out.

We do not name individual tutors on this site. Teams change between intakes, and a school that sells a course on one artist's name tends to disappoint when that artist is on a job.

What we teach that most schools skip

  • Hygiene and record keeping to the standard an insurer expects, not a paragraph about washing brushes.
  • Pricing and contracts, taught with real numbers for the London market.
  • Continuity, because a shoot that runs over two days will otherwise catch you out.
  • Reading skin under three colour temperatures, which is the whole of tone matching.

Accreditation, honestly stated

Makeup artistry is not licensed in the United Kingdom. Our certificates are school certificates. The school is a registered company, is inspected for health and safety, and carries public liability cover for teaching. That is the full extent of it and any school claiming more is stretching.

Access

The building has step-free access to the ground-floor studio and an accessible toilet. The two upper studios are reached by stairs only; where a student needs the ground floor, we timetable their cohort there for the whole term rather than moving them room to room.

A tutor working with a student at a mirror

Studio one

Ten stations, ring-lit, used for the diploma's first eight weeks.

An artist applying colour in a studio

Studio two

Eight stations with switchable colour temperature for camera work.

Close work on a model in monochrome

Studio three

Six stations and the shoot corner used in the portfolio block.