Production Beauty · Tampa Bay & Chicago
Complete beauty support on set: makeup, hair, men’s grooming and touch-up continuity through the day, for commercial, corporate, editorial, broadcast and brand production in Tampa Bay, Chicago and 22 cities. Since 2006. Licensed, insured, and comfortable with whatever your procurement team is about to send us.
Quotes within one business day · Short-notice calls welcome · FL Talent Agency License TA1765
Who We Work With
Most of the production work we book comes from someone who has been handed a shoot, a budget, and a date, and now needs the beauty department to stop being a variable.
Complete Beauty Support
Most productions end up hiring these separately and then spend the day mediating between three freelancers who have never worked together. We staff all of it as one department, with one key artist answering to your producer.
Production Types
On-set hair and makeup for broadcast spots, digital campaigns, and branded content. Key artist plus additional artists staffed to your talent count, with continuity held across setups and shoot days.
Headshot days, executive portraits, conference and keynote prep, panel and press readiness. The work that has to look effortless because the person in the chair is not a model and does not want to look made up.
Magazine, lookbook, e-commerce, and campaign imagery. Artists who can build a concept from a reference deck and hold it across an entire run without drift.
Anchor and guest makeup, livestream, press conference, and media tour support. Built for hot lights, long sits, and the reality that there is no second take.
Glam bars, pop-ups, product launches, convention booths, and influencer events. Throughput and brand discipline under a queue, which is a different skill than a quiet shoot day.
Credits & Credentials
Brands, networks, and publications have put our work in front of a camera since 2006 — including American Girl, Radio Flyer, and Fortune 500 clients, alongside national broadcast and editorial features.
How Booking Works
A call sheet if you have one. If not, the date, location, call time, talent count, and what the footage is for.
Within one business day: recommended artist count, artist day or half-day rate, travel, and a kit fee only if your brief needs specialty product.
A key artist owns the look and is your single contact. Additional artists staff to headcount.
First looks, continuity notes, touch-up coverage across setups, and a clean load-out.
How We Quote
We quote to your budget and your schedule rather than publishing a number that ignores both. What we can do is show you every component that goes into the estimate, so you can build a realistic line item before you speak to anyone — including us.
Quoted per artist. A half day covers up to five hours on location; a full day covers up to ten, inclusive of prep and load-out. Overtime is billed hourly beyond that and is written into your estimate before you sign, never discovered on the invoice.
Standard production days do not carry a separate kit fee — the artist’s working kit rides inside the artist day. A kit fee only shows up when your brief needs items we do not stock every day: SFX and prosthetics, character or period looks, bald caps and lace, unusual skin-tone ranges, airbrush body coverage, or anything we have to buy in for your shoot. When it applies, it is on the estimate with a reason.
The key artist owns the look and continuity and carries a higher rate. Additional artists execute to the key’s direction. We recommend the split; you approve it before booking.
Stated up front for anything outside the Tampa Bay or Chicago metro. No surprise mileage lines after the fact.
Makeup, hair and men’s grooming are quoted by the coverage you need, not bundled blindly. Some days need one artist who does all three; some need a dedicated groomer for the male talent and a key for the women. We will tell you which, and it is usually cheaper than you assumed.
A two-hour minimum applies per artist on short calls; activations and volume days are quoted as packages rather than per head. Contract and itemised invoice on every booking. W-9s, certificates of insurance and vendor onboarding portals are routine here.
Service Areas
Tampa Bay and Chicago are our two full-bench markets. For everything else we source, vet and stand behind local artists on your behalf, so you get one point of contact and one accountable team wherever the shoot is — effectively an in-house beauty arm for your production.
Tampa, St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Sarasota, Ybor City, Channelside, Water Street, and the surrounding Gulf coast. We work regularly with regional production companies, agencies, and studios across the Bay area, and travel statewide for location work.
Also serving Bradenton, Lakeland, and Orlando on travel terms.
The Loop, Fulton Market, River North, Gold Coast, Lincoln Park, and the greater Chicagoland production corridor. Our Chicago bench is deep enough to staff volume days and multi-artist activations without borrowing from outside the market.
Also serving Evanston, Oak Park, and the North Shore.
Everywhere Else
We have trusted artists strewn about the country and full-service sourcing for the rest. Send us a call sheet in New York, Los Angeles, Texas, Miami or a location we have never shot in, and we go find the right people, vet their book, insurance and reliability, and put our name on them — the City Lights stamp of approval. You do not run a search; we become your in-house beauty arm for that production.
Recent out-of-market work: New York, Los Angeles, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Miami, Nashville, Atlanta, Las Vegas.
Questions Producers Ask
Production work is quoted per job, not per person, because the variables that actually drive cost are talent count, call time, shoot length, and whether you need continuity coverage through the day. We quote a day rate or half-day rate per artist, plus a kit fee, with overtime and travel stated in the estimate rather than discovered on the invoice. Send us a call sheet or even a rough schedule and you will have real numbers within one business day.
Kit fees are not automatic. Standard production days do not carry one — the artist’s working kit is included in the artist day. A kit fee only appears on the estimate when your brief needs product or equipment we do not carry every day: specialty prosthetics and SFX, character or period looks, unusual skin-tone ranges beyond a normal multi-tone kit, bald caps and lace, airbrush body coverage, or anything we have to buy in specifically for your shoot. When it applies, it is stated up front on your estimate with a reason, never discovered on the invoice.
The working rule for a standard corporate or commercial shoot is one artist per three to four talent for first looks, assuming a normal call-to-camera window. Tighter turnarounds, wardrobe changes, character looks, or grooming-plus-beauty splits change that math. Tell us your call time and your first shot time and we will tell you the staffing that actually fits — including when you need fewer artists than you think.
The key artist owns the look. They build it, approve it, maintain continuity across setups, and are your single point of contact on the floor. Additional artists execute against the key's direction to keep the day on schedule. On a one-talent shoot you may only need a key. On a twelve-person campaign day you need a key plus a team, and the key is what keeps face nine looking like face one.
Yes. City Lights Beauty Agency holds Florida Talent Agency License TA1765, carries liability coverage, and works to a documented sanitation standard. We provide certificates of insurance on request, and we are used to the vendor onboarding, W-9, and procurement paperwork that larger brands and networks require. This is the part most beauty vendors cannot clear.
Yes. Tampa Bay and Chicago are our two full-bench markets — standing rosters of artists we have worked with for years, not a booking-app pool assembled the week of your shoot — which matters for national campaigns in either city. For a call that lands anywhere else, we source and vet local artists on your behalf and put our name on them. We have trusted artists strewn about the country and full-service sourcing everywhere else, including New York, Los Angeles, Texas, Miami, Atlanta, Nashville, Las Vegas and beyond. We remove the search from your plate and become your in-house beauty arm for that production — one point of contact, one accountable team, wherever the shoot is.
Two to four weeks is comfortable for most corporate and commercial work, and we regularly clear short-notice and next-day requests when the bench allows. Multi-day campaigns, large talent counts, and activations during convention weeks should be locked earlier. If your date is tight, call rather than email.
We staff both union and non-union productions and will tell you plainly which of our artists carry which status before you book, so your production manager is not resolving it on the day. If your project has specific local requirements, raise it in your first message and we will confirm compliance before quoting.
A call sheet if you have one. If you do not, we need five things: date, location, call time, talent count, and what the footage is for. That is enough to quote accurately. Wardrobe direction, references, and shot lists help us prep, but they are not required to get you a number.
Yes, and it is a distinct discipline. Activation beauty is a throughput problem as much as a beauty problem: you are serving a queue of guests on a clock in a public-facing branded environment. We staff glam bars, pop-ups, product launches, convention booths, and influencer events with artists who can hold quality at volume and stay on brand while doing it.
Local Pages
Deeper detail on the studios, venues and crews we work with in each of our two staffed markets. Everywhere else, brief us directly and we source.
Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater — Westshore, Water Street, the EDGE District and the Tampa Convention Center, plus Sarasota and Orlando for location work.
The Loop, Fulton Market, River North and the Gold Coast, plus stage work, McCormick Place activations and the collar suburbs.
For Repeat Buyers
Producers, creative directors and agencies who use us more than once can prepay a block of four, six or twelve day rates — or half day rates — and hold a preferred rate across the whole block. Priority on the calendar, one contract, one PO, and no re-quoting every time a project lands.
Request a Quote
A call sheet is the fastest way, but you do not need one. Five things will do: date, location, call time, talent count, and what the footage is for. You will have recommended staffing and real numbers within one business day, with no obligation attached.
Short notice? Call (888) 619-0628 rather than emailing.
