ITM Paris École du Maquillage（ITM巴黎化妆学校）European Study Guide: Programs, Entry Requirements, Costs and Student Planning

ITM Paris École du Maquillage is a private higher-education institution for professional makeup and the cosmetics-and-luxury business, based in central Paris. Its full French name is Institut Technique du Maquillage and its official site is itmparis.com. This guide is built entirely from the school’s own pages, accessed on 5 August 2026. Fees, intake dates and program details at a private school change quickly, so the school’s current official pages remain the reference for any decision.

ITM Paris École du Maquillage: a private makeup school in central Paris

ITM Paris École du Maquillage describes itself as a private technical higher-education institution founded in 1985 by Aïda Carange, a well-known French film makeup artist, and as one of the first schools in France to build professional makeup training around multi-year programs. The school has been a member of the Galileo Global Education group since 2017 and holds the French Qualiopi quality certification. Its campus sits in the 5th arrondissement of Paris at 9, rue des Arènes, about 50 metres from the Place Monge metro station; the two-level building of roughly 680 m² holds four makeup studios, a photo studio, a traditional classroom and an art workshop, directly opposite the Arènes de Lutèce, one of the oldest historic sites in Paris.

The school’s own figures say it has trained makeup professionals for more than 40 years and maintains a network of over 700 partner organisations, with workshops and masterclasses run with brands such as Ben Nye, Bobbi Brown, Kryolan and MAC. Its positioning is practical: students are trained for cinema, television, fashion, live performance, advertising and the beauty industry, and the school describes Paris as central to that world — according to its own pages, around 95% of French film and TV production companies and artist agencies are based in Paris, and more than 70% of advertising agencies are concentrated in the Paris region. These are the school’s self-descriptions, useful as context rather than as a comparison against other schools.

Programs at ITM Paris: from professional certificate to master’s

ITM Paris École du Maquillage runs two program families. The makeup-technique line starts with the Formation Maquilleur Professionnel, a 12-month full-time course (including 2 to 3 months of internship) that leads to a level-4 professional title registered in the French RNCP directory (number 41323). Its curriculum combines makeup foundations, cinema and television makeup, fashion makeup, artistic and body painting, special-effects makeup, hairdressing and nails, plus dermatology and cosmetology — and, notably for students who want to work independently, business management, marketing, social-media promotion and client development. Entry requires a French CAP-level qualification (ideally in hairdressing, aesthetics or commerce) or the equivalent.

Above that sits the Formation Make-up Artist, a two-year course for students with a high-school level (bac) that ends with a school certificate rather than a state-registered title; in the second year students pick a specialisation of roughly 90 hours among sales and marketing techniques, special-effects and prosthetics, or fashion-trend makeup. The three-year bachelors — Bachelor Maquilleur Cinéma & Effets Spéciaux and Bachelor Maquilleur Mode & Beauté — also require bac level; the cinema and special-effects bachelor focuses its third year on advanced effects and prosthetic design. On the business side, the Bachelor Cosmétiques & Luxe is a three-year program in cosmetics and luxury sales and marketing whose third year runs in alternance (work-study) and leads to a level-6 RNCP title (number 41114), while the Mastère Marketing des Cosmétiques et du Luxe is a two-year master’s delivered mostly online — about 75% e-learning and 25% on-site in Paris — with a second-year choice between business development and digital strategy, leading to a level-7 RNCP title (number 36015). For international students, the two families demand different skills: the technique line is judged on hands-on ability, the business line on marketing and management thinking.

Entry requirements for international applicants

ITM Paris École du Maquillage does not use the French Parcoursup platform. Admission is interview-based: after an online request, the admissions team typically proposes an appointment within 48 hours, the interview result is given at the end of the meeting, and admitted students confirm by returning their registration file within one month. Academic prerequisites depend on the program: CAP level or equivalent for the one-year professional makeup course; bac level or an aesthetics diploma, or a preparatory year for art schools, for the two-year course and the bachelors; bac+2 for third-year entry into a bachelor; and bac+3 (180 ECTS) for the master’s. Students must be 18 by the first day of the course; 16- and 17-year-olds need parental authorisation.

For foreign applicants the school has a dedicated page: you need at least baccalauréat level or the equivalent in your own country, and you apply by email with an application file, a passport copy, your diplomas, an assessment of your French level, a motivation letter and an artistic portfolio. The admissions interview for international applicants is held online on the Blackboard Collaborate platform; if it goes well, the school proceeds with pre-registration, which is what you use to start the student-visa process in your home country. The school says it welcomes students of Chinese, Korean, Russian, Polish, American, Belgian, Moroccan and other nationalities, and that they study directly alongside French students — which is why it stresses that a solid command of French beforehand is required. No single French-test minimum is published on the pages we checked; language readiness is assessed from the documents you submit and the interview.

Costs: tuition, deposits and the equipment budget

ITM Paris École du Maquillage publishes separate price lists for EU and non-EU students for the 2026-2027 academic year. For the one-year professional makeup course: 10,150 euros for EU students (including 200 euros of registration fees) and 12,500 euros for non-EU students entering in September 2026 (including a 3,000-euro deposit paid on registration day). For the other makeup and bachelor programs: tuition starts at 8,550 euros for EU students and is 9,990 euros for non-EU students, in both cases with a 3,000-euro deposit due on registration day; the third year of the cinema and special-effects bachelor adds 800 euros of FX technical fees. The master’s costs 7,650 euros per year (including 450 euros of registration fees). Registration fees are non-refundable even if you withdraw, and the school notes that a professional makeup and hairdressing kit costs roughly 2,200 euros on top of tuition.

Payment terms differ: EU students can pay in one instalment or spread over three or six automatic debits, while non-EU students must settle in a single payment by 31 August of the enrolment year, net of the deposit already paid. On the business line, alternance tracks are paid by the employing company through the French OPCO system. The school also lists a partnership with the Caisse d’Épargne d’Île-de-France offering student loans of up to 60,000 euros at preferential rates, with a dedicated agency that lets foreign students open an account remotely. In addition, students in initial training must pay the French CVEC student contribution before registration and hand the receipt to the school before classes start. These figures come from the tariff page as accessed on 5 August 2026 and are subject to change.

Planning your year in Paris: schedule, internships and daily life

The academic calendar at ITM Paris École du Maquillage follows the school’s FAQ and student-services pages: the year generally starts in the first week of October — although most program pages advertise a September 2026 intake, so both official statements exist and the exact date should be confirmed each year — the first year ends in late May and is followed by a six-week internship, the second year runs from early October to the end of June, and the third year alternates coursework and internships all year round. Attendance is compulsory: 20 hours per week of classes and tutorials in the first two years, plus personal studio and research time. Students hold student status with a student card; those in alternance in the third year switch to employee status. Internships are covered by a three-party agreement and by Urssaf workplace-accident insurance whose cost is included in tuition.

For housing, the school’s service logement centralises requests from out-of-town and foreign students, connects them with alumni and landlords, and enrolled students get privileged access to the Cloé student-housing platform for the region. The school gives no unified cost-of-living figure, so rent, transport and daily expenses in Paris should be budgeted separately. For a student weighing this option, the practical picture is: a compact, professionally connected school in the Latin Quarter, intensive hands-on training, and a curriculum that treats Paris itself — film sets, fashion weeks, advertising and the cosmetics industry — as part of the education. The conditions to accept in advance are French-language instruction and a private-school fee structure. Every figure in this guide corresponds to itmparis.com as accessed on 5 August 2026; for mapping your own program direction, French level and budget onto a concrete application plan, our advisers can talk it through with you.