Makeup by Alex Box
When I saw this in the papers at the weekend, I couldn’t resist – Georgia May Jagger looking like an otherworldly creature (literally), as a dragon princess at her 21st birthday. Makeup by the uber-talented Alex Box using Illamasqua, and hair by James Rowe. Dragon princesses never looked so good.
From Alex Box’s instagram
Let’s get this year started right with a lovely video from the amazing makeup artist Alex Box, who I used to assist in London and Paris. I love this video of her as it shows her extraordinary talent as a painter of faces and presents her as the calm and gorgeous presence that she is. I love being on her team for shows as even under the greatest pressure she never seems anything but unflappable, and is always kind and happy to explain the fine points of a makeup. In fact I’m lucky in that everyone I have assisted has been like that! Watch the magic unfold…
Illamasqua are a makeup company dear to my heart – not just because I assisted their Creative Director, Alex Box, for many years, or because I was there back even before the launch and Alex would give me their first prototype products to try (I still have these, don’t you know). But I absolutely love what Illamasqua stand for which is true originality, and expression of the self through makeup, no matter how daring, bold or wild that self might be. The more daring the better! They see beauty in everything and everywhere, as I do, and constantly push the boundaries in their campaign images and product development, and for that I will always love them.
I can really get behind their latest campaign as well, which is Beauty Before Age. They are looking for people of any vintage who don’t let this define them, and also pairs – so nieces and aunties, mothers and daughters, grandmothers and grandsons, or any combination you can think of, to shoot in their upcoming Autumn/Winter campaign. It’s so wonderful they have planned a whole campaign around beauty being ageless. Age is literally just a number and it’s time we started to appreciate a more diverse range of beauty, instead of whippet thin teenage girls and the army of Kim Kardashian clones coming out of Hollywood. In your 50’s, 60’s 70’s 80’s and beyond you can still look and feel beautiful – and Illamasqua’s new campaign is about celebrating that.
Find out more on the Illamasqua website
Make Up Director Alex Box | Report by Celine Bopp
Supremely chic, as the girls walked round the fluorescent light filled room, it had a sporty feel to the collection. The girls’ foundation was kept super minimal using a little MAC Studio Sculpt, and then the fun began! Using MAC Lip Mix in Yellow we blended a tiny bit on areas such as the creases of the arms and back of knees to give a bruise like feel. Then using a special effects’ product that was melted down in hot water, we created oblong shapes on parts of the body. Each girl had an individual look, so some had shapes on their face and some on their legs and arms. Once it set on their skin we dusted MAC pigment in Reflects Teal, a pearly white, which was barely visible until they hit the fluorescent lights on the catwalk, giving flashes of light. Gorgeous girls, perfectly suited to Tait’s wonderful collection.
By now you’d have to have been living in a yurt in Outer Mongolia to have missed seeing the incredible campaign images from Illamasqua’s newest collection, Toxic Nature (Creative Director Alex Box in Uber box Mode on this one!)
Check out what went on behind the scenes..
Report by Celine Bopp | Makeup Director – Alex Box | Sponsor – MAC
As Alex’s assistant, Celine Bopp, so rightly says “The girls at Gareth Pugh… well, well, well! Another extravaganza from the Box.” Alex describes the look of the show as “religious iconography”.
Celine says “The girls and boys in the show this season were sensational, along with those clothes and the colour that Pugh sneaked into his collection this year was fab – black, gold and blue… beautiful.”
Foundation: The models’ base was kept minimal using MAC Studio Sculpt foundation to match the girls’ skin tone, and the cheeks were left relatively sheer and fresh so to see the natural skin flesh tone.
Eyes: The eye pads were stuck underneath the models’ eye, with either a gold or a blue winged out shape, using ‘secret material’.
Face Gloss: MAC Lipglass in Clear, and Gloss Brilliance was placed on the cheekbones and cupid’s bow.
The boys didn’t wear the mystery winged out shape under their eyes but they had amazing highlights and textures on their skin which looked gorgeous. We used MAC Studio Sculpt foundation, MAC Lipglass, Strobe Cream, and a few different MAC Reflecting Pigments to get the effect that Alex wanted.
This is a lady who really needs no introduction, and I am very proud to include her in my Interviews. She is the most creative of makeup artists, the Creative Director of Illamasqua Cosmetics and a regular contributor to Italian Vogue, I-D, Numero and Harper’s Bazaar, to name but a few. She works with photographers like Nick Knight and Karl Lagerfeld and her work is renowned across the world for it’s completely iconoclastic and other-worldly approach to beauty. It’s makeup, but not as we know it.
On a personal level I have assisted Alex for over six years now in London, Paris (and even Sydney!) and she really is magic with a brush. Her makeup truly is art, and she is still one of the most wonderful, down to earth (and hilarious!) people I know. Without further ado, I give you The Interview:
1) What are you working on at the moment?
MY DRAWINGS. RESEARCHING AND COLLECTING MY THOUGHTS TOGETHER FOR ILLAMASQUA’S SPRING SUMMER COLLECTION AND TOP SECRET PROJECT THAT COMES OUT NEXT YEAR, BOTH INCREDIBLY EXCITING. I’M ALWAYS JOTTING DOWN IDEAS OR DRAWING LOOKS ON THE BACK OF SOMETHING OR IN MY SKETCH BOOK, I’VE ALWAYS WRITTEN INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES OR WORDS TO PROMPT ALTERNATIVE AVENUES OF THOUGHT, INSTEAD OFJUST CUTTING OUT PICTURES ALL THE TIME, BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE IT ALLOWS YOU TO GO OFF IN YOUR OWN WORLD MORE. MY HOUSE LOOKS LIKE A CRAFT SHOP AT THE MOMENT AND I KEEP FINDING DOUBLE SIDED GLITTER TAPE IN THE MOST UNUSUAL PLACES!
2) Favourite makeup job ever?
THATS EXTREMELY HARD, I ALWAYS LIKE TO SAY ‘THE BEST ONE IS THE NEXT ONE’, I DONT LOOK BACK MUCH, I’M ALWAYS THINKING ABOUT HOW MY OWN PRACTICE COULD EVOLVE AND BE IMPROVED OR FIND A NEW TECHNIQUE , THE HOLY GRAIL OF MAKEUP, THE PERFECT MOMENT. AS A BODY OF WORK DOING THE BOOK WAS DEFINITELY A FAVOURITE, IT WAS AN OPEN SKETCH BOOK, I TURNED UP AND WHATEVER WAS IN MY HEAD THAT DAY, THAT’S WHAT WE SHOT…THEN I WOULD GO HOME AND WORK ON THE DRAWINGS. I THINK ALONE DRAWING AND BEING ALONE PAINTING ON A MODEL AND BEING INSPIRED BY HER FACE AND ENERGY IS MY FAVOURITE…
3) Top 5 products?
THAT QUESTION ALWAYS FREAKS ME OUT BECAUSE I NEVER USE THE SAME THINGS OVER AND OVER, I’M A MAGPIE AND A HOARDER AND WILL USE BEAUTIFUL PIGMENTED LUXURY MAKEUP AT THE SAME TIME AS CHEAP HORROR KIDS FACE PAINTS…FORCED TO CHOSE I’D SAY…..
4) Best makeup tip ever?
BOLDNESS OF ATTACK, LET YOUR MIND AND SPIRIT BE FREE, THERE ARE ‘NO RULES’, YOU ARE YOUR OWN CREATION.
5) How did you get started in the business?
I WAS AN ARTIST WORKING PRIMARILY ON INSTALLATIONS USING THE BODY AS THE CENTER OF THE ART, AND MY FRIEND INTRODUCED ME TO A FASHION DESIGNER WHO USED DANCERS INSTEAD OF MODELS MUCH LIKE LEIGH BOWERY AND MICHEL CLARK. I DESIGNED THE MAKEUP LOOK FOR THE SHOW AND THROUGH OTHER PEOPLE SEEING MY WORK IN THAT CONTEXT I BECAME A MAKEUP ARTIST. MY ART WORK IN THE FRAME OF FASHION BECAME ‘MAKEUP’.
6) How is it different to when you started?
YOU ARE MUCH MORE VISIBLE NOW, THE BUSINESS IS ALMOST TRANSPARENT, THE RISE OF BACK STAGE FILMING ETC AND NEED FOR CONTENT HAS MADE AN UNSEEN WORD PERMEABLE. I DO LAMENT THIS BECAUSE THE WORLD OF FASHION NEEDS IT SECRETS, THAT’S WHAT MAKES IT ALLURING, WITHOUT MYSTERY YOU HAVE NO MAGIC WITHOUT MAGIC YOU HAVE NO BELIEF.
7) What do you love doing in your spare time?
RUNNING, DRAWING, STARING INTO SPACE, TAKING CLOSE UP MICRO PHOTOS OF NATURE. MAKING SURE I TAKE IN THE ‘DETAILS OF LIFE’…
8) What are your favourite looks for the coming Autumn/Winter season?
I DONT REALLY PAY MUCH ATTENTION TO LOOKS…I NEVER KNOW WHAT TO SAY HERE….I JUST WANT TO SEE THE ‘LOOK’ OF CONVICTION AND CONFIDENCE REGARDLESS HOW YOU CHOSE TO PAINT YOUR FACE.
Here is Illamasqua’s new Brand Film as well, explaining their roots in sub-culture and pre-war Berlin. And frankly any makeup film that references Fritz Lang’s Metropolis – well I’m in!
When Alex Box was in Sydney a couple of months ago, she first told me about the new collection and I was hooked from her description – graphic gold liquid eyeliner, jewel toned pigments and BLUE LIPSTICK! Oh sweet heaven I have been looking for a great blue lipstick for years, never being able to find one that actually felt like a lipstick (not a gloss or a sheer lipstick, but a straight up out of the bullet, true blue colour). When I saw some of the pre-release imagery I nearly passed out as it was like some mad makeup World of Warcraft, a world that I never knew could exist, but the world of Illamasqua and their creative director, Ms Box, made reality.
Here are some of the campaign images and the film – enter a world where makeup has never gone before…
Thursday’s fashion parade for Myer’s Spring/Summer collections was all glitter and mayhem backstage, with 22 makeup artists, 75 models, 7 manicurists and a veritable fleet of hairdressers all working their creative magic to make the girls look breathtaking.
New makeup kid on the block, Illamasqua, just arrived from the UK and selling like the proverbial hotcakes at Myer, was sponsoring the show so we were using all of their products to create the looks. We were also fortunate enough to have the Illamasqua creative director, Alex Box, here to direct the show, which is a rare treat.
I’ve assisted Alex in London and Paris for a long time so I was heading up the Ready to Wear section of the parade whilst she was looking after the Avant Garde Gold section. Dressed in the season’s hottest trend of nude dresses the models literally looked like they’d swum out of a golden, glittery sea. Genius hairdresser Brad Ngata did an amazing job on the hair, which was either loose, gorgeous and sexy hair for the Ready to Wear models, or for the golden girls slicked back with gold leaf through it.
We were lucky to get some of Sydney’s top makeup artists to work on the show as many of them are fans of Alex’s editorial work, so backstage it was lovely to see some of our major makeup stars working side by side.
Illamasqua very kindly gave every artist a full set of Illamasqua brushes so we were all getting into those, particularly the Contour and Buffing Brushes. I love the feel as they are made of synthetic fibres so they are cruelty free, super soft and easy to clean. This was big makeup so we put those bad boys to work!
Both the looks were heavily contoured so we used cream foundation to perfect their skin, and then spent quite a bit of time buffing in contouring and highlighting powders (key to both looks was the layering of products). Here is a breakdown for Alex Box’s Gold Avant Garde Goddesses.
Illamasqua Avant Garde Gold
All products are by Illamasqua
Face
Eyes
Lips
Alex Box's beauty shoot - Japanese Vogue
Most of you will no doubt know by now that makeup master Alex Box is in Sydney this week for the launch of her makeup brand, Illamasqua, at the upcoming Myer show. It’s been a pretty action-packed few days but yesterday’s Hair and Makeup trial for the show was an amazing experience – the glitter came out and Alex put her brushes and the full Illamasqua palette to work.
A very rare opportunity has come up as part of this visit – Alex will be conducting Master Classes this Saturday, 31st of July at the Myer store in Sydney, so if you want to learn makeup from one of the world’s best makeup artists, this is your chance. The cost is $95, redeemable in Illamasqua product, and after yesterday’s makeup fun-fest I can tell you I have a wish-list as long as my right arm! I found out today there are only a couple of spaces left, so for bookings call 1800 661 210.