She is a fresh young talent with a fresh young look.

Adeline Yeo, a 21-year-old freelance artist, stole the show at the regional finals of the Shu Uemura Beauty Art Make-up Competition 2009 with her bright and colourful look.

She did have a little help along the way from her mate from secondary school days, Alicia Lee, who often doubles as her “practice model”.

Says Yeo of her best friend Lee, 21, an editorial intern at fashion magazine Catalog: “Alicia’s Lolita-like features inspired me to create a look reminiscent of a nymph of the sea.”

The vivid blues and reds of her graphic creation captivated the judging panel.

“Adeline’s look made an impact on the audience and judges,” says Kakuyasu Uchiide, Shu Uemura’s international artistic director and the lead judge.

“She also showcased her full range of make-up skills through her creation.”

A relative newcomer to the scene, Yeo, an art director at a home-grown design consultancy, has not had formal training in make-up.

The visual communications graduate from Temasek Polytechnic began dabbling in it two years ago when she enrolled in a fashion photography module.

“I started out by doing the make-up for my own shoots and when my friends found out, they began asking me to help them out,” she says.

She intends to use the win as a stepping stone to break into the make-up industry.

While she is sticking to her day job, she says she will actively market herself as a freelance make-up artist through her website and by making more contacts with fashion magazines.

Nowadays, she works on shoots about once or twice a month and earns about $400 a month from her freelance work.

Her work has appeared in foodie magazine Appetite and can also be seen in the latest Red Cross Society of Singapore’s ad campaign.

For winning the regional finals, she received a diamond-encrusted Botan brush – Shu Uemura’s most valuable brush, worth RM20,000 (S$8,250) – and RM10,000 worth of Shu Uemura products.

Earlier, as runner-up in the Singapore finals, she won $2,000 worth of Shu Uemura products and $800 cash.

For the moment, it seems as if reality is still sinking in for the young make-up artist.

She has a few bridal make-up jobs lined up but has not been flooded with make-up requests yet.

Her Botan brush occupies a place of honour on a shelf in her bedroom where she can “admire it every now and then”.

The best part of her win, she says, are the Shu Uemura products, which range from skincare products like cleansing oils to make-up such as foundations, eyeshadows and blushes.

“The full range of products has pretty much completed my make-up kit,” she says.

“I don’t have to buy products for the next two years.”

YEO’S MAKE-UP TIPS