Amid social distancing, bare-faced days have become the norm as the only face-to-face interactions taking place these days happen mostly via Zoom. While it’s been great to give our skin a break, the novelty is starting to wear off.
Inspired by self-isolating makeup artists around the world, we’re turning to experimental makeup as a form of quarantine self-care to stay creative and healthily distracted. What better way to make use of this prolonged indoors time than to nurture our imaginations and take our makeup further than it has ever gone before?
Dubbed by Euphoria makeup artist Danielle Davy as ‘makeup free-styling‘, getting a little wild and free with our faces during this time can help break the monotony of our new ‘normal’ by opening up a creative channel for self-expression while providing some much-needed empowerment.
Whether its a David Bowie-inspired group makeup live or challenges to recreate iconic looks, makeup artists turning their brushes onto themselves during quarantine are showing us that there’s nothing wrong with going makeup-creative to get a little mental and emotional boost.
After all, beauty is what you make of it and there’s something joyfully therapeutic about the act of turning your lips into abstract art with that shade of rouge or covering those dark circles with a mosaic of glitter and maximalist colours.
In the words of Marc Jacobs who’s also happily indulging in the practice of getting all glammed up with nowhere to go: “Why not paint your face? Why not get dressed? Why not parade around in your underwear, why not dance naked, why not enjoy this time that I have and why not be me and be unafraid to be me and be unashamed and excited about being me?”
Break the beauty freeze and unleash your inner Picasso. Below, we’ve compiled a list of some of the most creative makeup artists in the game to help inspire your next facial masterpiece.
@donni.davy
Best known for her inventive makeup looks on HBO’s Euphoria, Danielle Davy sparked an online Gen-Z beauty revolution by inspiring an entire generation of young fans to turn to makeup with unbridled experimentation. Through glitter tears and technicolour gazes, Davy is consistently uncompromising when it comes to using the power of makeup for self-expression.
@beasweetbeauty
Bea Sweet breaks the MUA mould by creating literal face art, using intricate techniques to transport traditional paintings seen in fine art galleries onto the canvas of our skin. She intentionally places colours and textures in order to transform facial features, creating glossy highlights, playful strokes and splashes of lacquer-esque colour, inspiring us to colour outside the lines and reach a newfound makeup renaissance.
@samvissermakeup
Born in the 2000s, Sam Visser may be the youngest on the list but his age doesn’t take away from his makeup prowess. With a vintage-tinged touch, his beauty looks draw from the decadent, dramatic glamour of the ’80s and ’90s and have marked the faces of Bella Hadid, Lily Rose-Depp, Ariana Grande and the Kardashians.
@lynskiii
London-based Lynski is fearless in her use of colour and evokes us to dream in pigments through her ethereal, futuristic beauty looks. Alongside virtual reality creations and colourful accents of linear rainbows swirling across faces, the makeup artist’s Instagram has even inspired a social media challenge, #lynskidare in which people try out her lipstick-swirled creations.
@minah9022
The mastermind behind the makeup of HyunA, Min Ah Park is responsible for the singer’s bold makeup transformations, from her translucent ‘glass skin’ to her asymmetrically bejewelled cheeks and sultry-meets-grungy liner looks. Park’s creations are a good place to start if you’ve been meaning to try out a K-beauty makeup trend.
@isamayaffrench
Self-made artist Isamaya Ffrench is unparalleled when it comes to using a makeup brush. One of the pioneers of new-age makeup, she’s constantly pushing beauty boundaries for her metamorphic looks, whether it’s creating futurist face etchings in Rihanna’s Sledgehammer music video, debuting an entirely edible cosmetic line or turning out punk-inspired beauties for Junya Watanabe‘s shows. Elevate yourself into the future by following her at-home Vivienne Westwood makeup how-to.
@anatakonyourface
Makeup artist Ana Takahashi draws inspiration from a diverse roster of things, including the Met Gala, an AW16 Alexander McQueen dress, a graphic poster from Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet and even Mount Fuji, to create fantastical looks of floral embroidery, dripping pearls and three-dimensional illusions. Not the easiest to replicate, her full facial creations encourages out-of-the-box thinking when it comes to DIY entertainment.
@urgalsal_
Muslim makeup artist Salwa Rahman is well-versed in the language of beauty, letting her imagination run free to create scintillating styles, ranging from crystal embedded swirls to meticulously drawn patterns in bold colours. Like the British-Bangladeshi creative, end your cat-eye purgatory and free-fall into a colourful cosmetic eclecticism.
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