Guest Masterclass – Julia Townend
Initially having worked in London throughout the 90s at London Fashion Week, renowned MUA Julia Townend now mainly works as a freelance hair and makeup artist for film and TV.
Julia’s teaching career began at the prestigious London College of Fashion and later progressed to developing the makeup programmes at West Thames College in West London. Through her vision and leadership, these award-winning higher education courses had students from across the globe gaining scholarships at the National Theatre and BBC Vision Traineeship. Students have also been known to win makeup competitions such as IMATS and the World Body Painting Championships.
Julia is passionate about high quality training, mentoring and supporting new entrants into the makeup industry. She is a qualified teacher, an assessor (PGCert for Higher Education) and actively works as an external consultant on new course validations. In 2010, Julia was awarded the National Training Award (Greater London Region) for her dedication to teaching and the international success of the makeup programmes at West Thames College.
Julia is a firm believer in giving back and has had collaborations with various charities including The Katie Piper Foundation, My Makeover/Lee Pycroft and Batley & Spen Youth Theatre on a production of Les Misérables held in honour of the MP Jo Cox.
Her published editorial collaborations include body art in the “Art of Male Makeup” book and career-based interviews in WarPaint and Two Magazine. Additionally, Julia is a guest speaker at the UMAE, Olympia Beauty & WarPaint events. From 2013-2019 Julia has been joint Head Judge on the Brush Wars Makeup & Body Painting Competition with Nicci Jackson at Olympia Beauty. In 2020, Julia & Nicci announced plans for their own competition named The United Artists Pro Competition – the new competitions will commence in July 2021.
In 2013, Julia launched JT Makeup, a range of products stocked in Screenface London, PAM London, Love Makeup & The Makeup Armoury. After many years of living in London, in 2017 she decided to relocate back to her hometown of Leeds, West Yorkshire. Julia then began her journey of creating the JT Makeup Studio, a creative training hub for the north of England.
