Also don’t bother with disabling right-clicking (again, doesn’t work). Even if you get someone to build you a portfolio website, and they choose to use Flash to do so, someone can still find a way to take your work.

I’m a supporter of Creative Commons Licensing. You can set the terms regarding how someone can use your work. The license I would select for a makeup portfolio is “Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative”: if someone displays your photo on their website, they have to credit you; they’re not allowed to use it for commercial purposes, and they can’t create a derivative work based on it. (It’s not fool-proof, either, but I prefer this over watermarking.)

The point is to know who did the makeup not in protecting your pictures. Who wants to steal will steal it. Photoshop does wonders today.

But how can one focus on the makeup if there’s a watermark distracting from the look?

You can create a text caption under the photograph, or even on top of it. CSS does wonders today, too.