The National Student Make-up Competition is held annually at the Professional Beauty trade show at Olympia in London. As this competition is only open to students, I could not enter it as a body painter.

However, it has been a long-standing ambition of mine to model at a body painting competition, so I asked Malcolm Terry at South Kent College if any of his students needed a model for the competition.

Although both students from South Kent College entering the body painting competition already had models, one of the students entering the head and neck make-up competition did need a model, so I arranged to model for her.

I travelled up to visit Jackie Brisley in Folkestone the night before the competition. Jackie was one of the students entering the body painting competition, and she used me as a model that evening to try out the face for her design, "Peter Rabbit's Mum".

The next morning, I travelled to Olympia by coach from Folkestone with the other students from South Kent College. This was the first time I met up with my artist for the competition, Vincc Mead, who had been practising her design on her husband.

Practice session where I modelled for Jackie Brisley's design, "Peter Rabbit's Mum".

Vincc Mead's entry, where I modelled as
"Baloo the Bear".

Owing to delays in London traffic, we were very short of time when we got to Olympia, and the entrants for the body painting competition had to get off the coach early and go on in while we found somewhere to park and set down.

All three categories in the competition were running in parallel in a sectioned-off area at one end of the gallery at Olympia. The body painting competition began first, at 11.30 - the theme for which was "Beatrix Potter". Next to start was the head and neck make-up competition (which I was modelling in), which began at 12.00 and had a "Jungle Book" theme. Finally, the "New Romantics" catwalk make-up competition began at 12.30.

Vincc had chosen to transform me into "Baloo the Bear" for the "Jungle Book" competition. The first thing she did was to style my hair, using gel to turn my pony tail back on itself into a fringe. Next, she applied a latex nose and ears using spirit gum. This was my first experience of latex prosthetics, and it did feel quite strange with the latex nose on. Luckily, Vincc had cut a hole in the nose for me to breathe through, although every few minutes the judges kept coming round saying "Is he breathing all right in that thing?" as I had my eyes closed for some of the time. I was breathing fine though.

"Peter Rabbit's Mum"
Artist - Jackie Brisley.

"The Story of Miss Moppet"
Artist - Chantal Jackman,
Model - Nick Woonton.

For the rest of the time, Vincc painted my face, hair and neck, and finally attached some whiskers onto the latex nose using spirit gum.

The "New Romantics" competition was first to finish, at 1.30, and the competitors gave a short catwalk presentation in front of the judges whilst the "Jungle Book" and "Beatrix Potter" competitors were still working. Vincc and I and the rest of the "Jungle Book" competitors were finished at 2.00, and the body painters did not finish until 2.30.

Before the final results were announced, I had time to look around at what the other competitors had been doing.

There was another entry from South Kent College in the "Jungle Book" competition - Sue West-Ginesi's design, "King Louis" on model Jane Amos.

In the "Beatrix Potter" body painting competition, there was Jackie's entry, "Peter Rabbit's Mum", and a design by Chantal Jackman, "The Story of Miss Moppet" on model Nick Woonton.

There was also an entry from South Kent College in the "New Romantics" competition.

"King Louis"
Artist - Sue West-Ginesi, Model - Jane Amos.

Sadly, when the final results were announced, there were no prizes for South Kent College. Only one prize was awarded per category here, unlike at Birmingham last year, where there were second and third prizes as well. Unfortunately, due to her model being taken ill during the competition, Jackie lost quite a bit of time, and did not have enough time to add all the detail that she had planned. Even so, I was still really impressed with her entry.

There was quite a different feel compared to last year's competition at Birmingham - the Olympia competition all seemed rather low key by comparison. There was no big stage or music for the catwalk presentation at the end, and the public were not invited to come and watch the awards presentation. Even so, it was great to take part. Hopefully next time, I'll achieve my ambition of modelling for a body painting competition as well.

The Professional Beauty 2002 exhibition.