Makeup as Art

Linda Mason:
Soho Makeup Guru

If you want to be inspired by makeup as art, you need to visit Linda Mason studio in Soho. Look for the sign with a sketch of a female face.

Approaching the space by a NYC Yellow cab on a recent hot summer day, I saw a figure, on the sidewalk outside of the first story building, bending over white plates with large dollops of bright colors with a paint brush in hand with splashes of color all over her. Remember the feeling in kindergarten, when you got to play with paints while wearing your dad’s discarded white business shirt as a smock? This grown woman was doing just that in the streets of New York. I instantly loved her and the studio that is divided between art and makeup. But can we really separate the two?

The art side came first because I knew I’d spend more time on the makeup side.

Walking through the threshold to the left, I was greeted by large frameless faces peering out from the canvases covered in swatches of bright reds, bold blues, and youthful yellows. Portraits of these female faces were to be spotlighted that night for an art exhibit at her studio off Grand. What wonderful timing I had to see them prepare for the evening.

Next door was the makeup studio. Like a kid in a candy shop, I joyfully made my way in that afternoon. The defused natural light coming in through the glass windows softened the rustic room which had no air conditioning and no visible electrical components. A pan of loose makeup palettes with a wide range of pigments, looking well worn and loved, where sitting on a large tray. Mulling about the studio was the owner’s grandson, just a toddler himself but a boy in full exploration mode. He seemed to delight in the freedom to play with odds and ends with no mind to whether he were in makeup salon instead of a hardware store. Ever so carefully, he took a disposable mascara wand that was within reach under the counter and pretended to brush his hairline.

The setting was ideal to try your hand at art. An intimate space conducive to an exceptional experience to discover colors and play like a kid without the disruption of technology. That same feeling of a safe, happy place for experimentation is what I bring to Suze Makeup studio.

Lindamason.com

An interesting and different approach to selecting personal colors is the astrologically based makeup collection by Linda Mason. Even as a pro makeup artist, I admit to thinking the colors for my sign were way out there. Yet, whenever I use them I get compliments on how nice I look that day! Makeup as art can be fun and free.