Another year of The Makeup Show LA has come and gone, and as always it was an exciting and busy weekend. The keynotes were the highlights of the show for me, with Fiona Stiles being my favorite of the weekend. She was super down to earth and no nonsense, and took a lot away with me at the end of her talk. She did a demo of a red carpet makeup, inspired by a look she did for Gabrielle Union during award season. She made it look so effortless and the end result was stunning. I love watching other makeup artists work.
Ellis Faas also spoke on Saturday and afterwards she did a demo in front of her gallery, which was a cool sight to see. Her approach to makeup is so interesting, she is a true artist. One of the best keynotes of the day on Saturday was Donald Robertson. I didn’t know what to expect from his talk, since Donald is not a makeup artist, but I found it extremely motivating. Daniel discussed thinking outside of the box and how to attract attention to your art. He’s all about making a statement and hearing stories of his past successes in this area proved that he definitely knows what he’s talking about. Most recently, Robertson and Smashbox gained an ton of attention by driving around Art Basil in a Cadillac that he had painted red lips on. Everyone from Miley Cyrus (who was attending the show to promote MAC) to the NY Times was talking and posting about it.
On Sunday, I briefly sat in on the Ruby Makeup Academy talk because it was supposed to be about marketing yourself in the social media age, and who better to talk about that than popular social media artists? Unfortunately, they didn’t touch much on the topic and instead, were talking about their backgrounds and their artistry. Personally, it wasn’t for me so I decided to do some shopping instead.
The Makeup Forever panel was the main reason I stopped by the show on Sunday. I am a huge fan of Melanie Inglessis’ work and wanted to hear what she had to say. She was joined on stage by William Lemon III and James Vincent. It was an interesting keynote but I wish it could have been a little longer, so we could’ve heard more from the artists. When 3 people are answering a question, it took up a lot of time and I wished they would’ve been able to speak more on different subjects.
The last keynote of the weekend was by Ashunta Sheriff, and it was one of the most energetic, passionate talks of the entire weekend. Ashunta’s energy was contagious and I loved hearing about her journey working with everyone from P. Diddy to Alicia Keys, and Taraji P. Henson. She is definitely a presence and her story gave me even more respect for her work and what she’s accomplished in her career.
I didn’t do much shopping this weekend as it was pretty busy on the showroom floor. My favorite purchase was 2 new Viseart palettes: the cool mattes and the brights. I also grabbed up a Smashbox/Donald Robertson lipstick because Donald was signing them and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.