Charlotte Tilbury might not be a name one associates with fashion weeks around the globe, overshadowed perhaps by the likes of Kate Moss, Gisele, and John Galliano, and yet she is probably the busiest woman in each city during their respective seven days of fame, running from show to show, model to model. Without doubt the most talented makeup artist of our time, Tilbury combines unparalleled technical ability, with the eye of an artist.
Tilbury’s name rarely leaves the pages of the post-show makeup rundowns, as she has so often been the genius behind the latest trend-setting beauty look, or has brilliantly inspired some new shade of lipstick with one of her trademark back-of-hand blends of different berry shades. Currently the most sought-after makeup artist around, she is called to work on countless shows each week, and must create a look that will enhance the vision of each wildly different designer, without confusing or overpowering each piece.
Rushing from one location to the next, she performs her alchemy by blending and smudging colours onto her own hand before applying them to a test model, while assistants obediently copy down the components for each part of the finished picture. This organic approach seems more fitting to a painter creating a masterpiece in a studio, complete with easel and endless hours to muse, but is in fact one that Tilbury has accelerated to make it a flurry of colours and shimmers, punctuated by instructions over her shoulder to the eager onlookers.
It is the transformative effect of Tilbury’s skill that is often commented upon by designers and models, and she herself extols the virtues of wearing makeup and its ability to enhance even the rarest of beauties. It is this brazen acceptance of the place of makeup in our society that makes Charlotte Tilbury so appealing, as she appears as content producing a slightly dishevelled girl-next-door, as she does a glam-rock vixen, and is only too willing to reveal the artifice behind these creations. As the artist herself said, “to achieve the power of beauty, sometimes you need a little makeup, darling…”
Angharad Jones
photo credit: teenvogue.com
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