Good evening, readers! For today’s post, Chris and I have put together a little something special with the help of our wonderful friend and freelance makeup artist, Julian. We have wanted to do a shoot centered around makeup for a long time and Julian finally turned our dream into a reality. However, this became so much more than just a shoot. Julian shared a lot about his makeup journey and helpful tips.
How did you get into makeup: I think I started in fashion. I had a mentor in fashion, he’s a stylist. So I did some stuff like, I designed a dress when I was ten and it was worn to the Grammys. And then from there I just started playing with makeup. Makeup had been put on me for shows and stuff since I was like three because I did ballet. And after that, there was just a peak of like everything merging together and my interest was just kind of sparked. And so I went down to Sephora, bought two shades of purple lipstick and my life began.
What are some of your favorite products: My favorite eyeshadows are probably from Anastasia like the Modern Renaissance palette. The packaging is terrible it gets on everything, but these are some of the softest shadows ever. For highlighters, I actually met this woman, Danessa Myricks, and she’s just a powerhouse makeup artist and really paved the way for a lot of colored women in cosmetics. Anyways, she’s amazing and has loose highlighters. They are the most blinding and buttery things. Another one I really like is Dior show mascara. And then everything Kat Von D makes.
What are your opinions on current makeup trends: Ew. Yeah no, but I think a big problem is that girls see other girls on social media, like those makeup videos literally have face filters on them. It’s so unrealistic and awful. Also, the products they use are all sponsored everything is sponsored and it’s things that won’t look good in real life. If you’re going to be doing tutorials it should be for the betterment of peoples confidence which I don’t think is happening on social media.
What is the best advice to give to someone who is just getting into makeup: Do it for yourself. Always. Too many times I’ve not followed that advice. The minute you don’t like it, stop it. Don’t think you’re going to make any money on social media. And again stay true to yourself. The minute you start to gain a tiny following you are going to be asked a bunch of questions that you do not need to say yes to. This is going to sound dumb, but I’ve been asked to do things from reality TV to sponsored posts and I say no to all of them. If I’m going to be real, people can send you things but it should never compromise your dignity and it should always be to make up happy and a better person. Like at one point Instagram was too much for my health, it’s stupid, but why should a social media site be doing that to you? It should be just fun. If it’s for art go for it.
What is the hardest part of doing other peoples makeup: Them. *laughs* You always have a second opinion, a second person watching you, a second person who is skeptical. I started out when I was like what, 12 or something. And I had to convince people that I wasn’t just playing with paint, you know? So it’s like a lot of just working with the person, but it helps me a lot with business skills, finances, communications, and reassurance. I think in any field freelancing is always a good thing to practice and it has taught me so much and really bettered my skills.
Do you think it’s hard to gain credibility as a makeup artist at such a young age: Oh my god yeah. Like again I used to have to convenience people that I wasn’t playing around. People who took a chance on my made the biggest difference. And that comes from having parents that are awesome and being very proud and showing your work off. I started just sketching because I was like who cares that I’m like 10? If I want to do it I’m going to be doing it. And it happens, people give you respect and you can say fuck you to the people who didn’t. It was really really hard but for a while what I had was my age. People are fascinated and that’s what I had for a while was like “I’m young and doing this”. So you really want to capitalize on that and anyone who doesn’t want to believe in you for your age isn’t evolving as a person in their thought process.
Where/how can people reach you: My email is on my Instagram if you want to find me (@julianwolfstoller) I hate people treating me like anything else besides a kid on the internet so literally DM me.
After the interview, we jumped right into doing my makeup
The set up!
Started by doing my eyebrows.
Then he put some concealer under my brows and on my lids.
He then applied a light brown to my corners and crease.
Then went back into the corners with a darker color.
After that, he put more concealer on my lid to mark where the next color would go.
Sparkles !
Once my lids were complete, he applied some foundation and concealer.
Next, he did my contour and put on highlighter.
The final steps included mascara, fake lashes on the outsides of my eyes, and a nice glossy finish on my lips.
before after
Once again, huge thank you to Julian!! He is a truly talented makeup artist and fun person to work with.
HIGHSTRUNG 