Makeup Beat

After graduating from a British art school, and then doing test photos for several years, Pat McGrath became a professional makeup artist in the mid-’90s, advancing a minimalist no-makeup look in avant-garde music and fashion publications like i-D and later in mainstream periodicals such as Vogue U.S. and Italian Vogue.

McGrath’s range is as varied as the colors she uses. Giorgio Armani, the master of understated elegance, tapped McGrath to help create his namesake cosmetics line, which is totality different from her runway work, particularly with designer John Galliano. Galliano creates an outrageous, exuberant circus with models in sky-high headdresses and 6-in. platform heels. McGrath may use deep pigments associated with India, covering models’ faces—and any body part not concealed by clothing—in opaque washes of cobalt blue or marigold yellow with red glitter forming exaggeratedly large lips, Or inspired by a recent trip to China and Japan, McGrath took Kabuki to its outer reaches painting faces white, blue and pink. “Every designer takes you on a different journey,” she says. “It’s great when they let you into their fantasy.”

Currently Pat brings her global genius and couture-seasoned eye to the New Max Factor as the Global Color Cosmetics Creative Design Director for Procter & Gamble. Read the Max Factor details here. Also check out her MySpace.

Now that Vogue has called her “The Most Powerful Woman in Beauty”
It’s only a matter of time before Pat comes out with her own collection.