Makeup inspiration: Dick Page for Mehron
It’s coming from talking to the guys. Black lip was like the single thing that was first proposed. And then, a version of where it came from the idea of what the black lip was. The reference pictures actually sent by an agency was from a show I did a long time ago, that they didn’t know it was a show I did, I don’t think. And, I did the makeup so I thought if I can remember I can do that. So, the picture was more about the feeling of seeing a lot of skin, seeing the girls with freckles and seeing a little shadow in the eye and just looking very, very natural.
And the collection, it’s quite rocky, some of it’s quite tough, some of it’s sort of more diaphanous and simple, so, the girl has to live in all these worlds, so they all have the stick straight, super, super ironed hair. The black lip is a very aggressive kind of thing that you usually puts when you think about goth and like, that hard rock, kind of, death metal kind of thing, but then in this context with the fresh skin and the very, very clean looking … it just gives it a kind of a different edge.
Okay, are you not going to be doing anything with the brows?
Sure, I mean you have a beautiful natural brow. The basic idea is as little as possible. This is the kind of make up that has a lot to do with not getting in the way. We just clean up the skin, little bits, not too much. We put a little bit of tone through here, there’s a little bit of grease that has a very slight tonal stain. Little dob of black in there as well.
The lip is the black lip with a black pencil that’s applied, then it’s reapplied, sketch in a bit more of the corners and then we kind of pull focus on it, take a clean brush and just blend out the edges so it’s soft focus a little bit, a bit like the lip’s worn off, slightly
So the whole point of this is really to be … invisibility. You want to be able to read make up. Its got a little bit more in common maybe with film, or theater make up.
You don’t see the whole big fashion image going on. So it’s a lot about what doesn’t happen.
If you have thinner lips, you don’t want to look like there are two black lines.
Why not? Lets have the eternal “What’s wrong with the thin lips” question. Everyone says … I can show you the girl we did the make up test on. It’s a small mouth. It looks good on everybody.
When someone says anything about like, the thin lip “Oh my lips are too thin for…” That comes into my category of questions, which allow make up things where people say they can’t, which just means they won’t. If anyone says anything about thin lips or red lipstick you say “Okay, Sean Young, Sigourney Weaver. End of story.”
Of course it’s just about to point out on your skin tone, because it isn’t transparent. And the woman who wouldn’t or couldn’t wear the black lip, you wear black stain. You put like a … The Black Lip thing is really useful to have in a kit anyway. A little blob of black into any red, or rose or brown or blonde, is going to deepen it down. Quite often I will say like “I love the red tone but it doesn’t look quite deep enough or rich enough,” drop a little black in.