Art Stories: The Official Podcast
Aug 17, 2026 · 1 hr 10 min · 12 segments
In this episode of the Art Stories Podcast, hosted by Sky Lilah (@skylilah), we sit down with Ciara Allen, an Emmy-nominated makeup artist, painter, musician, and author who has spent 17 years…
Ciara AllenGuest
Sky LilahHost
So it, yeah, it's called How to Succeed in the Beauty Business, and I just had this idea, and I guess if we bounce back a bit, like, when kind of internet and online stuff kinda started, I was kinda part of that first wave that we had blogs.
You know, there was before social media, we, I think we had MySpace at the time, but it was just-
I, I had, I had a blog that I'd kinda worked on for makeup artists and, and just kinda over the years of doing that, I kinda just built up a following of, you know, students, makeup artists, people who kinda knew that I was happy to kinda share information and, and, and I guess that's another thing that I'm kinda interested in.
I, what inspired me to write that book was I was like, there's so much that people will struggle with the first two or three years.
Say you go to makeup school, whatever, you have some of the technique stuff, but, but there's just so many things that you can only learn when you're actually out doing it.
So I was like, what if we try and make it a little bit easier for the people coming behind?
You know, why not? 'Cause I remember someone being like, "Oh, well, you know, they'll figure it out." And I was like, I kinda like this idea that we try and just make the road a bit smoother for those coming behind us, you know?
And mistakes that I made, I don't necessarily feel everyone else has to make those mistakes.
If I can kind of be like, "Hey, heads up, try not to do this, maybe it won't work out great," you know?
Apart from, I suppose, the blog, that did count, 'cause it was, you know, it was kinda quite popular in Ireland and, and I used to kinda write articles for kinda magazines and things and, but I was like, oh, with online culture being kinda like transient in terms of like, are mediums changing, like blogs become Instagram or whatever, I wanted to just put something together that was like a physical, tangible thing-
So it, yeah, it's called How to Succeed in the Beauty Business, and I just had this idea, and I guess if we bounce back a bit, like, when kind of internet and online stuff kinda started, I was kinda part of that first wave that we had blogs.
You know, there was before social media, we, I think we had MySpace at the time, but it was just-
I, I had, I had a blog that I'd kinda worked on for makeup artists and, and just kinda over the years of doing that, I kinda just built up a following of, you know, students, makeup artists, people who kinda knew that I was happy to kinda share information and, and, and I guess that's another thing that I'm kinda interested in.
I, what inspired me to write that book was I was like, there's so much that people will struggle with the first two or three years.
Say you go to makeup school, whatever, you have some of the technique stuff, but, but there's just so many things that you can only learn when you're actually out doing it.
So I was like, what if we try and make it a little bit easier for the people coming behind?
You know, why not? 'Cause I remember someone being like, "Oh, well, you know, they'll figure it out." And I was like, I kinda like this idea that we try and just make the road a bit smoother for those coming behind us, you know?
And mistakes that I made, I don't necessarily feel everyone else has to make those mistakes.
If I can kind of be like, "Hey, heads up, try not to do this, maybe it won't work out great," you know?
Apart from, I suppose, the blog, that did count, 'cause it was, you know, it was kinda quite popular in Ireland and, and I used to kinda write articles for kinda magazines and things and, but I was like, oh, with online culture being kinda like transient in terms of like, are mediums changing, like blogs become Instagram or whatever, I wanted to just put something together that was like a physical, tangible thing-
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