---
title: "Bridal Makeup Artist"
description: "Does makeup, and often hair, for brides and wedding parties on location, designing looks that last through the day and photograph well."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/bridal-makeup-artist"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Bridal Makeup Artist

**Category:** Personal Care and Service · **SOC code:** 39-5012 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 39-5012.00

Does makeup, and often hair, for brides and wedding parties on location, designing looks that last through the day and photograph well.

Also advertised as: Wedding Makeup Artist; Bridal Hair and Makeup Artist; Bridal Beauty Artist; Freelance Makeup Artist; On-Location Makeup Artist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $35,790 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $17.21/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $27,040 to $71,190, with the middle half between $30,120 and $48,830
- **Total US employment:** 305,710
- **Typical entry education:** Certificate
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +7.7% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 73,400 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 64/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 305,710 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $27,040 |
| 25th | $30,120 |
| 50th (median) | $35,790 |
| 75th | $48,830 |
| 90th | $71,190 |
| Mean (average) | $43,960 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $59,510 | $55,610 | 6,930 |
| OR | $57,580 | $55,708 | 1,860 |
| DC | $54,570 | $49,654 | 870 |
| SD | $49,800 | $56,217 | 690 |
| VT | $48,650 | $49,664 | 440 |
| CT | $44,620 | $43,065 | 4,090 |
| ME | $44,000 | $45,337 | 970 |
| MN | $39,170 | $39,718 | 5,320 |
| CA | $38,660 | $34,917 | 27,080 |
| NC | $38,410 | $40,720 | 8,490 |
| MT | $38,000 | $40,150 | 690 |
| NM | $37,750 | $40,938 | 1,230 |
| CO | $37,690 | $36,574 | 6,820 |
| MA | $37,290 | $35,260 | 9,600 |
| AZ | $36,810 | $36,562 | 7,840 |

37 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 52 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/bridal-makeup-artist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/bridal-makeup-artist.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 595,000 in the 2025–2035 base year to 640,900 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 45,900 jobs, or +7.7%. Much faster than average: 7.7% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 73,400 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Postsecondary nondegree award (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

## What the work involves

- Consult with brides on style, skin, and the wedding plan
- Run makeup trials and refine the look
- Apply long-wearing makeup for the bride and wedding party
- Style hair or lead a team of hair and makeup artists
- Build day-of schedules that keep the wedding on time
- Sanitize tools and maintain a professional kit
- Manage bookings, contracts, and deposits
- Network with wedding planners, photographers, and venues

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Service Orientation — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 2.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Customer and Personal Service — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sales and Marketing — importance 4.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.2 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Public Safety and Security — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Near Vision — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Arm-Hand Steadiness — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Manual Dexterity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Finger Dexterity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Social (S), Artistic (A).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 5.07 |
| S — Social | 4.22 |
| A — Artistic | 4.07 |
| C — Conventional | 3.92 |
| E — Enterprising | 3.72 |
| I — Investigative | 1.54 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ESFJ | 72.3 |
| ESFP | 66.4 |
| ISFJ | 66.2 |
| ESTJ | 60.0 |
| ISFP | 56.6 |

Best-fitting types: ESFJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Hairstylist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/hairstylist) — median $35,790
- [Barber](https://nuecareer.com/careers/barber) — median $38,210
- [Skincare Specialist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/skincare-specialist) — median $45,330
- [Shampooer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/shampooer) — median $32,600
- [Makeup Artist, Theatrical and Performance](https://nuecareer.com/careers/makeup-artist-theatrical-and-performance) — median $97,150
- [Manicurist and Pedicurist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/manicurist-and-pedicurist) — median $35,760
- [Tailor, Dressmaker, and Custom Sewer](https://nuecareer.com/careers/tailor-dressmaker-and-custom-sewer) — median $41,640
- [Sewer, Hand](https://nuecareer.com/careers/sewer-hand) — median $36,480
- [Retail Salesperson](https://nuecareer.com/careers/retail-salesperson) — median $35,410
- [Spa Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/spa-manager) — median $69,770

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/bridal-makeup-artist