During the Halloween season, where incredible makeup skills are showcased almost everyday, the internet was full of tutorial videos featuring the impressive makeup effects that capture many Internet users. Though the season has now long past, there are makeup artists who continue working on their trade. Among them is Neuqua Valley freshman Shea Maloney.

Maloney began learning about her favorite hobby in seventh grade and has since gotten into special effects makeup even further. From individual facial work to other body part projects, her trade covers almost everything one can think of. Her love for makeup is clearly evident in the effort and detail she puts into each and every one of her clients. This year, some students may have seen her hard work on the  Naper Settlement zombies and maybe herself. Though the Naper Settlement job was completely volunteer work, she decided to perform her favorite hobby on many people with very little help just for the fun of it all. She says the most rewarding part of learning about and practicing special effects makeup is “doing it for somebody else and seeing how happy they are at the result.”

Maloney explains that she “enjoys coming up with ideas” and she finds it “fun to be creative and see the finished product.” Though completely in love with the entire process of doing the special effects makeup, she admits she was not this well-skilled in the beginning, and it did take her numerous days of unsuccessful results to improve to where she is now as a makeup artist.  Originally, she was inspired to start learning special effects makeup by the different pictures of people who posted their work on the internet. Now as someone who is capable of posting pictures of her work along with everyone else, she hopes to be as inspiring to other people as they were for her.

For people who are just starting out with the practice, Maloney shares the advice she would like to give: it is easy to be discouraged, especially in the beginning, but people  should continue to try new things and master their skills. In just a short period of almost three years, she has improved drastically and will continue to improve over time as she continues to hone her many skills. Right now, Maloney has not decided whether or not she plans to go into this field as a career; however, she may pursue special effects makeup professionally if the opportunity ever arises.