January 29, 2020 • 40 mins
You might know him as Makeup by Mario. Mario Dedivanovic got a job as a teenager as a fragrance consultant at Sephora—and the beauty industry was never the same since. He’s now best-known as “The Contour King,” and as Kim Kardashian’s makeup artist. Thousands have taken his Master Class and millions follow him on Instagram. In this intimate conversation, Bobbi and Mario share what it was like to break into the beauty world and how they each became known for their (very different) signature makeup styles.
Follow Mario on Instagram and Twitter @makeupbymario and visit TheMasterClass.com
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Beyond the Beauty is a production of I Heart Radio.
I'm your host, Bobby Brown. I really wanted to interview
Makeup by Mario because he's a force. He's so different
than me, my style, everything. I'm fascinated by his master classes.
(00:26):
I'm fascinated by his talent. I'm fascinated by really his
story because I've read a lot of stories of where
he came from, and I'm fascinated of his incredible rise
to the top of this field. We have a mutual
friend and she said, dude, you would love him, and
you know what, She's right. I love this guy. So
(00:46):
Mario is Kim Kardashian's makeup artist. He has done every
celebrity from Katie Perry to Jennifer Lopez to Prianca Chobra.
I can go on. He's gotten a war. He is
the genius behind Kim's look for every red carpet, every
met ball. I'm fascinated by the fact that he has
(01:07):
seven million followers and that he still talks to them.
People love him. People just love him, and they know
him not just from being Kim's makeup artists, but from
being on the show. Mario has this incredible network of
people that either want to be makeup artist, want to
be better makeup artists, and just want a piece of
what he's doing. Everyone wants to look better and feel better.
When you're a makeup artist, do you understand other makeup artists?
(01:30):
Here's my conversation with Mario. So I am here today
with my I'm going to say new friend because I've
always admired him so much. But first of all, I
want to make sure I say the last name correct.
So it's Mario. You all know him by makeup by Mario.
(01:50):
His last name is, go ahead, Mario. Ahey, okay, all right,
I will try one dead of an okay, dead no Vic?
Oh my god, yeah, Dad Ivanovich? And I didn't you
did it? You spelled it out. I don't think anyone
ever says that name. I always just say married makeup
at Mary or Mario, dr or just Mario. Where is
(02:12):
that name from? I am Albanian. Well, it's born in America,
but I still consider myself Albanian first because I was
I was raised with the Albanian culture. But my parents
are from Montenegro. That a beautiful place. It is a
beautiful place, beaches and they have beaches from where my
dad's side is like the Adriatic Sea, and then where
my mom's from it's like farm and more farm and country.
So it's like the best of both. And you grew
(02:33):
up where in the Bronx, in the Bronx New York.
And yeah, I'm a Bronx boy. I'm a Bronx Albanian boy. Well,
and how many siblings do you have. I'm the youngest
of four, youngest of four. Okay, so you're the baby,
all right, we'll now be calling him baby Mario. I
was always the baby. It's so from funny. I feel
like I'm not anymore. But I was always the baby.
And I know from things I've read, because there's so
(02:54):
many awesome articles on you, how close you are to
your family. Yes, you all work together, well, not all
of us. So my sister Marina, who's right after me,
she's the one that's one that's right after me an age,
she is sort of the organizer for the master class.
So she kind of came in and took over my
master classes when it was a very small thing. You
know that I had sort of I had never allowed
(03:14):
anyone into it, and I had never allowed any press
or cameras or anything, photographers videos. I mean, I kept
it so sheltered and protected. You know. When I had
discovered the teaching it, it added something so substantial to
my life and that I can't even explain. And the
master classes are going to be ten years I think, yeah,
and how did you even come up with the idea?
What happened was after I started working with Kim Kardashian.
(03:37):
For you guys that have been under a rock, Yes,
after I met Kim and I started working with her,
something sort of naturally happened that and that she began
to post these photos online behind the scenes, like completely innocent,
like ten years ago, yeah, or well almost twelve years ago,
and something happened in that people really resonated with it,
and people were so inspired by like her glam and
(03:59):
and the fact that she was showing all these like
cool things like you know, the baking in the powder
and all those tips and tricks that she loved. She
wanted to just genuinely show them because she thought it
was so cool. And was she Kim Kardashian twelve years ago?
Like did not not not like she she was just
I think when I met her, she was season season
one of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, I barely knew
who she was. I had known the name, but I
really didn't even fully know what she had looked like
(04:20):
the first day that I agreed to do the job
with her. Like for the for this cover in New York,
we kind of skipped from growing up in the Bronx
to your master classes. So fill in between. How did
you even get to meet Kim? Because I know you're
not classically trained makeup artists. You learned everything on your own? Yeah, well,
I assisted as well. After high school, I wanted to
go to college, but basically my dad was like, what
(04:40):
are you gonna do? I said, well, I want to
go to Miami because I just felt like I wanted
to go away from the family. And he said, well,
absolutely not. He said, we don't have the money for that,
and and so kind of like to Rebel, I was
almost now as an adult that when I when I
look back, I almost feel like I was happy. Even
though I was mad, I was almost happy because I
was like, Okay, well now I can go find the
job and like, you know, find something and do something.
(05:01):
I didn't know at that time what I wanted to do.
I was almost like creatively frustrated because I was so
inspired by certain things like symmetry and art and design
and all the things I didn't have as a child
growing up. You know, I grew up in a basement apartment.
There was no beauty, you know what I mean. There
was no decor, There was none of that stuff, you know,
there was no beautiful landscaping, nothing, and so all of
(05:21):
those things. Since I was a little child, I would
seek that stuff and I would ask my dad to
drive me to Westchester, you know, because I wanted to
see the lawns and the flowers. And I would beg
my mom to take me with her to to clean
apartments because she did that as a second job. She
she cleaned the building for Loreal for many many years,
and then she also did side jobs cleaning people's homes,
(05:42):
and so nothing excited me more because I wanted to
go into their homes and I would see all of
the beauty and the artwork and the design, and I
would see all of that stuff that was just to
me was like wow, like you know, one day I'm
going to have this to mom. You know. After high school,
I went and with my mom to look for a job,
and I had gone to all these places like our Mind,
Next Change, just all the retail stores, thinking I'm just
(06:04):
going to find a job and I'm gonna have some
freedom now and you know, no more school. And I
walked into Sephora. It was a brand new Sephora was
like the first store I think it is. This was,
you know, almost twenty years ago. It was two thousand
and I remember it had revolving doors and it was
in Rockefeller Center, and you know, we were walking by.
I don't know what lured me, and it was almost
like a force, because I don't remember. At that time,
(06:24):
I didn't know what Sepphor was. The windows were tinted,
so I didn't know what was inside. But I went
through the revolving doors and we went in and there
was this music and then everyone was wearing these black
suits with these black gloves, and it smelled so delicious
to me because I always loved fragrance and wanted fragrance.
You know, we couldn't really buy and they couldn't buy
me fragrances, but like, I loved it and I wanted
it always. And my mom the first thing she said
(06:46):
when we walked in is no, no, no, no, mommy.
She goes, no, no, this is not for your mommy,
she goes, and she turns me around, revolving door to
pull me, and I said no. I said, I want
to go in here, and I want to look. I
want to see you were eighteen at the time. I
went and I looked around and I went upstairs, I remember,
and I saw the skincare, and then I saw the fragrances,
and then I saw the makeup. But really it was
more initially the fragrance. I think that was sort of
(07:09):
and the smell of the place, and also how she
everyone looked in those black suits. I just thought, like,
I want to be in here. And I applied for
a job. They never called me back, and so of
course I was adamant that I had to work there
and that these people had to give me a chance
because they don't know, like how you know I'm a
good person, like they're gonna love me. I'm a hard
worker because I had been working since I was twelve,
literally since I was twelve, packing bags and Bronx su
(07:30):
and restaurants. Basically was financially independent from the age of twelve,
and I somehow I think I went to the library
and I found I researched the company Sophora, because I
kept calling and they wouldn't answer my calls. And I
found there was a woman named Marie Christine I believe
her name was. She had blonde hair, and she was
in France, and somehow I got in touch with her
and she picked up the phone and I said, my
(07:50):
name is Mario blah blah and I and I really
want to work at this store. And I went and
no one's calling me back, and I just want them
to give me a chance whatever. And I don't know
what the hell I said to her, but maybe she's
it was cute, I don't know. And she said, yeah,
I'm going to be in New York next week. And
she said, we're hiring for a new store. She said,
maybe you would, You would be good for one of
the locations. And I went in and never forget it
was such a big deal. So did you meet her?
(08:12):
Do you know where she is now? Yes, I asked, recently.
She still works for the company, but she's in France. Now.
Does she know that that young boy that she helped
is now you I'm looking forward to seeing. At that time,
she was so I mean, she was the epitome to
me of French glamor and power, and she was you know,
I remember that when she would come to the stores,
everyone you know, would be on their best behavior and
(08:33):
everything had to be perfect and sharp and clean. And
so to me, she was that figure or intimidating and
I'd love to see her right now. I went into
the interview and I put all this cologne on her
car for our car New York, because that was what
my dad used. And I had like I opened shirt,
remember the buttons down like a little Guido, you know,
because that's what I sort of saw and that's what
I knew in the bronx, and my hair had a
(08:53):
lot of gel in it and the eyebrows, and again
she sort of looked at me, I remember, like kind
of like a little smirk, and she said, Okay, she said,
gonna hire you as a fragrance consultant and you're gonna
go to a training that's gonna be a few days
in a hotel, blah blah blah. So I went. I
did that. I was so excited and the first day
of work that I was on the floor, you know,
excited to sell my fragrance now and thinking, you know,
(09:13):
because I wanted to learn everything about fragrance. I wanted
to know what I was talking about, what, you know,
to know what I was telling the customers. And but
really what they did was they put me at the
front door too, with the basket and to say welcome
to this four a hundred times a day to every
person that walked through me and me and this girl Careina,
who actually is one of the only ones I'm still
really close with. And one day, you know, actually the
first day they had at that time, Sappore Collection used
(09:35):
to have like five hundred different colors of lipstick, and
they had a specific packaging that all of the colors
were like so unique. There was yellows and greens and
blues and everything. And a woman was sort of in
an end cap because I could pictured exactly where she was,
right near the entrance, and she said, excuse me, can
you please help me choose a color? And for one
second I hesitated, but then I was like no, and
(09:56):
I went and I went right to her, and I
was like sure, I think I just like picked the
color I thought was you know, not obviously not crazy,
and that I thought was pretty and she tried it
on and she goes, I love it, she goes things.
I don't know exactly how to explain it, but I
had found in that moment that oh my god, this
is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna I'm gonna do makeup.
There was also a thing with like all the makeup
(10:16):
artis in that store. I sort of looked up to
them in a way that I you know, I knew
that they made a little more money than everyone else,
and I knew that they were so cool, and I
knew that they were fashionable and that, and so I
wanted to kind of in a sense, be like them.
But really what it was was me sort of finding
the my creative outlet of what I didn't know my
entire life. You know, I thought I was going to
be a teacher, and that's what all I wanted to be.
You are a teacher, Mark I am, I know, I know,
(10:39):
and the makeup artist and an educator. Yeah. I feel
like I can't say I'm officially a teacher until I
you know, obviously that's something that would make you feel
good getting a degree. Yeah, yeah, I did go to college,
by the way, I went after I want to say
four or five years of working once I had sort
of moved out of my my parents house and you
were still so for at the time. No, how long
did you work, so, Sophora was I want to say
(11:01):
like a year and a half, two years maybe two years,
and because I went to another store and then officially
as a makeup artist once I had been front to
a makeup artists and then you know, the brands started
to come to me and recruit me. And Carol shawl
Rock of Rock Cosmetic. It was not her herself, but
it was a Pamela who worked with her for years.
It was one of the early makeup artist founders. Really,
(11:22):
Carol Shaw was. She was pretty up there in the store, remember,
because when I think back of like where all the
brands were positioned, I don't think you were in the
source were department stores. Pamela sort of recruited me and
I became, i guess unofficially a regional makeup artists for
the Rock where I went to all of the Sephoras
in New York City mostly a few days a week,
and I loved sort of selling makeup as well. I
(11:45):
never looked at that part as as bad because I
looked at it as you know, I was helping someone.
You're a guy that has such passion for what you do,
whatever you do that has to do with makeup. Yeah,
and I remember when I looked back, there were moments,
like moments that I can really clearly remember of me
sort of sell or moments where I got compliments, let's say,
from the store managers and they be like, whoa this kid,
Like his sales are insane, you know, because I I
(12:06):
think I raised the sales for for that company in
New York by a massive percentage. For me that I
loved that whole part of it, to the business side
of it because I knew I was helping people, and
then also the art side of it as well. Well,
how did you get to California? Well, I live in
New York. So oh, you never lived in California. No,
I did. I lived in California for three years and
that was after I met Kim. Like you, so, tell
me how you met Kim. After retail, I used I
(12:27):
went sort of fully freelance. I had assisted Billy b
you know, you know, I assisted Isabel Perez, who is
the assistant of Frank Cooper and Frank Cooper was like
to me, like, I mean her work was so amazing,
you know that that sort of porcelain doll. She's still around. Yeah, yeah,
she's still working too. She's incredible. So I only met her,
I think once or twice, but Isabel so much of
(12:47):
the stuff that I still do today is is was
what I learned with Isabel, and she was so open.
And Isabel Perez she's just she's She's a Dominican makeup
artist and she was the first make words to take
it under her wing. So I met him because of
a talk for a friend of mine and called me
and said, hey, can you do this girl named Kim Kardashian.
I really need you for this. You'll be perfect for it.
Um for a magazine called Social Life. It was like
Hampton's Magazine or something like that. And I almost said no.
(13:10):
I had I think. I was working at that time
two days a week at Fox News doing the anchors
there for for income, just so like I didn't have
to stress and worry that I had to pay my bills.
I was still building my portfolio and I had just
joined with a new agency who were sort of grooming
me to become a very elitist makeup. I got with
this sort of more more I guess fashion agent who
you know, was sort of trying to groom me and
(13:32):
and positioned me with very high end photographers. And I
had started doing some celebrities at that time, Gina Grashaan
I remember I was working with and and Natasha Beddingfield
and you know, like artists and actors and and I
met Kim and what was your style At the time,
I had assisted Kabuki, who was a very high fashion,
very very high fashion, and we were on the set
of like all the big fashion campaigns for like every day,
(13:53):
and I assisted. He was the last person I assisted,
very critical point in my career, I think, because I
had been yearning and searching from that no one gave
me a chance in the fashion world because I was
this little kid from the Bronx, you know. And I
would go to the agency's desperately trying to assist one
of the fashion makeup artists, one of the big ones.
And finally, like Kabuki's agent called me, and it was
the nontraditional way. I didn't go to an agency. I
(14:16):
had just sent a cold email. Several months later, I
was standing in a store and his his agent Chuck
called me and said, Hi, I'm calling for Kabuki. We'd
like to know if you're available for Italian Vogue tomorrow,
and I pooped my pants. Basically, my friend Ralphaiel was
there and I started screaming when I got off the
phone because I'm like, oh my god, oh my god.
He finally called. And I did that for two years,
not full time, just whenever he needed, which was quite often. Now,
(14:39):
what I learned from him, he couldn't be any more
different of a make artist. But what I learned from
him when I took from him, first of all, was
that he felt He made me feel validated in a
way that that industry in that world never did. I
felt a disconnection with that world always and it bothered me.
And he made me feel accepted in that world and
valued because I was like, I was a damn good assistant.
(15:00):
Be like, yeah, I'm sure I was really good. I
learned the things that I still think about today every
single day. One of the things that I saw him
do in products, I saw him use that like, what
are some of the things you learned, you know, the
theatrical products, how to cut a crease, like all the
kids are doing today. And I actually just spoke to
him recently for the first time in you know, I
don't know what it was, fifteen years or so, and
we had a really great conversation. And is he aware
(15:23):
of what you've become and your successes? I think so
and asked him that, but you know, he said, he
said that he was really proud of me. And you know,
we weren't sure why we had left it off where
we just stopped talking and stopped working together, but it
provided me like tremendous closure, you know, and it really
I never really needed that. It's good to keep your
mentors in your life. Teachers. Isabelle just we've just recently
(15:48):
and everything's been changing. It I told you, everything's been
changing my life recently. And and Isabelle I just recently
reunited with. I was at my master class of New
York and I walked on stage and I locked eyes
with her the second that I to the front of
the stage and I lost in front of everyone and
she started crying. And that's so sweet. Well, before I
go into now, I want to still you know, what
is it like working with the Kardashians, Because how many
(16:11):
years have you been with her twelve years. You are
so well known, you are so well loved, so well respected,
and you can you know, you're known for creating the
Kim Kardashian look an empire. So what is it like?
I mean, I can only imagine. I've met her once
briefly at a fashion show. I don't know her. I
never met Chris, I don't know any of them. She's
(16:32):
almost like my little secret guardian angel. I think had
I not had her, and had had she not come
into my life, and had there not been that connection
where she loved my makeup so much for me, Kim
is let's put it this way, because I've been trying
to figure this out myself for years exactly and how
to word it properly and how to put it this
feeling that I have. And I think that now as
I'm older and I'm starting to realize everything and how
(16:55):
you know, I suppressed a lot of stuff my whole
life because of my culture, and I have held things
inside and not allowed my real sort of feelings and
also my real purpose and stuff to to to come out.
I've just been very guarded and extremely professional too, and
just always so careful to not be in drama and
to not you know, Kim Is, we have such a
(17:16):
similar soul, but she is so the opposite of me
in the sense that she is so not suppressed, you
know what I means. She's so comfortable, and she's saying
she owns her power, and she owns her beauty, and
she all of those things. But her soul as a
person is what I connect with, right. She's such a
good human being and she's such a sweet person. And
our start in the industry and what sort of she
(17:37):
did for me was so authentic, and so it was
literally just her being excited, like, oh my god, I
love this kid's makeup, and I wanted to put pictures
on my blog and show all my followers, you know
what I mean, Because she did have a following back
then that just was growing day by day that girls
were obsessed with her body. Had I not had Kim
to to to have someone so close that you touched
(17:57):
their face and who doesn't care about the hater, she
must care about them. But she deals with it. I mean,
I don't know, I don't really talk to her about it,
but she's not one that's going to be phased by
comments or like care that people are like making negative
because she's controversial, right, people don't know the real Kim
obviously to me, you know, and so I'm protective over
her to a fault and that I don't. I get
(18:17):
so upset when people say things about her because I
know the true her. And so it's almost like I
feel this pressure always too to prove to people that
I gotta I gotta prove to people. I gotta show
them somehow that you feel protective of her like her brother,
incredibly protective. Yeah, are you as close to the other
girls or is it really chimis I love? I mean,
Kim is my girl obviously, but like for me, it's
(18:38):
it's I'm not close with Kylie and Kendall because they
were a different generation. They were really really young when
I started with the family. But like with Courtney, Chloe,
Kim and the mother, I'm you know Chris, I there's
a certain sort of love there that is really extremely strong. Well,
I'm I'm going to ask you about Chris and either
an how or after, because I'm obsessed with her. I
just think as a businesswoman, which she has done, is
(19:00):
I think short of epic? Yeah, you know, it's amazing.
So and Cam and all of them, to be honest
with you, are such I've never seen. I don't think
I'll ever meet people that are more mentally strong and
stable than them. It showed me in a way that
it's things are possible, and that things that you maybe
have never dreamed of are possible. What does your kid
(19:26):
look like? I've never actually is it changed constantly? How
do you store your makeup? How much makeup do you have?
My kids? About pounds is what's what I travel around with.
And it's heavy the kit, you know. But I am
a creature of habit and I know what I like
and I go back always to what I like right.
How much do you mix and how much do you
just use it right out of the palette? I mix
(19:46):
almost everything, almost everything, you know, there's a color that
in my head or a texture that I'm that I'm envisioning,
and so I Over the years, obviously with experience, you know,
I've become better because and and by no means I
think I'm extremely talented makeup or us by no mo
for me, it didn't come that quickly, the talent like
I had to. You know, I grasped really well when
I was assisting, and I could watch them and I
(20:06):
could almost I knew what it was they were doing
and have to tell me. I understood why they moved
the hand a certain way and understood why the brush
went on with a certain pressure. And that's why I
become a better educator, I think as well, and a
better makeup artist. And how much of your day to
day is hired makeup artist and how much is it
on business? Like, how do you kind of split it up?
That's hard for me. It's a balance that I'm trying
(20:29):
to still figure out because I don't ever want to
lose the part of me that is the makeup artists
that does clients and that makes these women feel beautiful.
But what has happened over the years with the emergence
of social media. Initially I I shied away from it.
I didn't want attention. I didn't want I felt uncomfortable,
I was insecure, I felt weird speaking in public. I
didn't want any of that stuff. And with the emergence
(20:52):
of what we're talking before, with those photos and the
contouring and all that stuff, you know, something happened and
it was all of a sudden. I feel like I
woke up one day. I remember the first day that
I posted a photo and I was nervous. It was
just a picture of my face, you know. But um,
I just remember one day sitting in one of my
apartments when I was on seventies six Street, and my
agent calling from the Wall Group and just something about
(21:13):
the contour Consort King or some brand wanting to hire
me to fly somewhere to do this event, you know
where I would be contouring and teaching contour. And I
started to rebel and I started to tell them like,
I don't want to hear the word contour. Don't ever
call me consort king. Do not allow them to call
me consoort king. I don't want to be known for that.
I'm going to be it's going to ruin my career.
It's gonna you know what I mean. And it wasn't
(21:34):
until something clicked and I said, well, wait, they're all
calling me contort king, so it's out of my control. Now,
do you contour contour when it's appropriate to do? You
ever do someone's makeup and not contour all the time?
You do? So I have certain clients where I would
never even think about it, you know what I mean?
So what makes you want to contour when someone has
what it is that type of makeup that inspired me?
(21:56):
You know that I that was my first look into
the makeup where all that when I assisted is a
bell the process of the transformation for me. But also
you know, there is a time and a place for that.
There's a there's a need for that type of makeup.
Do you think contouring works on day to day makeup
like walking around the streets? No? Not fully, No, if
you're not Kim. If you're not, But Kim wouldn't do
(22:17):
it for that either. I mean, Kim is a celebrity.
She's she's the most like, heavily full photographed woman in
the world. And so we're talking about you know, when
I do Kim's makeup, it is done so precisely. How
long does it take you to do makeup? They always
a lot, like two to three hours. But it's not
just makeup, you know, like you know, she has kids,
and you know there's things going on and business and
you know she's getting the hair blown out and so
(22:38):
all together, it takes like two hours, maybe a little more.
My team gives me thirty minutes. Okay, guys, for hair,
for makeup, I'm like, guys, I can't do it. No,
you can do it for hair and makeup, and you're
not for hair. Maybe there's a time and a place
for it. Not everyone knows how to do that makeup.
And I know how to do that makeup really really well.
You know, I have to say I never say stuff
(22:58):
like that, but like I know how to do lamb makeup,
the chisel, the the transforming makeup. I always tell my
students it's hard to explain, Bobby, but I always tell
my students I show them the whole thing, the whole
entire transformation. I let them allow them into my head,
almost almost like giving them a piece of my soul
because everything that every time I pick up a brush
or do something, I make sure that they fully understand.
(23:19):
And I'm very sensitive to energy. I can almost understand.
I can almost feel if someone in the room doesn't understand,
and so I explain it another way until they get that.
And how many people are in this room when you
teach your master classes? A lot? But what started with
sixteen and you know now it's gone up to over
two thousand per class? But how do how do you
please two thousand people? Learning? And and your things sell
(23:42):
out as quickly as you put them out. It's something
that grew naturally and authentically, something that I even tried
to hinder the growth of that. I tried to stop,
you know, I would kind of cap it at you know.
I remember at one point before my sister came along,
I was capping it at one people Big because I
get a venue from one hundred seats, and I'd say,
that's it. I was doing it all myself, the sponsors
and getting the gift bags and the you know, going
(24:03):
crazy basically, And why wouldn't you do a digital masterclass.
I haven't figured out yet the way to do that.
And to be honest, Bobby, I could do that, and
I could probably take a break for a little while
because it would it would reach a lot of people
that are not able to come to these classes. And
there have been investment firms and people for years trying
to get me to do this, and I just won't
because I haven't figured out a way that I could
truly teach right now. I can only do it fully
(24:28):
to know that they actually have understood it in person,
because I feel it. I don't think I've ever heard
a bad word about you I have to say, like
from industry sources, not a not a bad word, you know,
and trust me, when people are Prima Donna's, you know,
it's easy to get caught up in this in this world, Bobby.
I almost thought today when I was in the gym,
I was wondering, like, have I ever gotten caught up?
(24:48):
Like had I ever actually gotten caught up? Where I
lost sight of what the purposes in life? And I
think I did at one point. I when I I
thought about this time when I I did that show
Glam Masters with with Kim you know, she was the
executive producer and she put me on it, so I
felt totally confident going on it because it was her show.
I just remember like stressing and and and and being
(25:10):
so insane and crazy about having a spray tan and
having the hair without one hair out of place, and
losing weight and making sure my clothes were perfect. And
I was so stiff on that show. When I think
now and I look at it, it's almost comical of
like what a disaster to me? When I look at it,
I mean, people loved it because they were like, oh
my god, I think I got caught up maybe around
that time and that I was like thinking too much
(25:30):
about all these things that right now, this moment sitting
here with you, like I don't give a ship about
There's something really amazing that happens when a person becomes
comfortable in their own skin. Every single person out there.
At some point hopefully we'll figure that out. What is
(25:55):
it about that whole glam makeup and the contouring and
all that stuff. It's always help make ports. Is important
to know how to do it, and it's gonna make
you a stronger artist. You know how to do it, more,
more strong. But what is it with you that you
I feel like you have a change. Oh I do?
I do? And I've been very vocal about you know,
you don't need to contour. I mean, my audience are
real women. My audience are not the people going on
(26:16):
the red carpet. My audience has always been, you know,
the woman that gets up in the morning's got kids
and has to get to work, and maybe she has
a party at night, and she takes good care of herself.
She has really good skin, doesn't That's like always been
the Bobby person. So no, when they're like should I contour? Well,
if you're going to contour, you're gonna look like give
dirt on your face because it's not gonna look good.
(26:37):
And also, I'm you know, my thing has always been
like when I was in middle school, I never thought
I was pretty. I never thought it was smart. I
never thought I was all of these things that my
friends were, and I really had bad self esteem about
the way I looked. So when I would do my makeup,
and my first time I ever had my makeup done,
someone did my makeup and they said, let me show
you how I can contour your nose because your nose
(26:58):
is too big, and I had brown lines down my
nose and I felt bad about my nose. Let me
show you how to play up your eyes because your
eyes are really small, and she did that not very well.
I felt, my eyes are bad and your skin is
too yellow, so let me show you your cheeks are
to this your lips, and I literally was made up
and I looked awful and not myself. The fact that
(27:21):
someone was telling me what was wrong with me. When
when I washed my face, I was like, I was
pretty cute, you know, seventh grade or whatever, high school,
whatever I was. I'm like, I looked like Ally McGraw.
You know it wasn't my look. My mission in life
is to help people feel good about who they are.
It's not an anti contour the way you contour your women.
(27:43):
It's an anti contour the way I was contoured, in
the way that I see other women feeling bad about themselves,
the way I approach it, I mean, that's interesting and
and but I love that you you know, you're stuck
to that and you and that is your philosophy and
that is your and I respect that you are adamant
about it. I don't know any better. I would love
you to teach me how to contour. Honestly. I would
literally love to come as a guest to your master. Seriously.
(28:07):
I mean, you know, a one on one wouldn't be
bad either, But I would love I mean, I'm a
makeup artist about this. If I launched the YouTube, then
we have to do a video. Now, I would love
my channel. I would love to. So when I approach
it is this is how I approach it. In the class,
is that I always tell them right before I begin, because,
to be honest with you, when I started being called
the contaking and all that stuff, I only really contract
(28:27):
with the bronze at that time, it was just to
add warm, but I do that anyways. I do that
when I do makeup. I take my which is kind
of a pinky tone bronzer on me because I have
very yellow skin, and I use it and I kind
of gently put it everywhere and put a little bit
more uncertain. I'm not contouring, but I'm kind of creating
how the skin should look. And it's hard to teach
(28:48):
other makeup artists how to do that. I've not been successful. Yeah,
it is hard. It's hard, but it's important for you,
for all of you artists to know how to contour
and to know how to do it correctly. But it's
more important. I always say that you know when not
to contour. And this I also started to realize recently
because when I think back on my career and how
(29:08):
everything happened, I guess I feel a little responsibility with
you know, with Kim that we put this look out there, right,
But what happened after that was it quickly took its
a life of its own, and you know, the brands
and the retailers and everyone started to you know, it
literally created like probably a billion dollar categories, you know
what I mean. The second I left the brand, they
started putting contour on every single palette because I wouldn't
(29:30):
let it happen when I was there. I loved that.
I got talked to you about all that stuff. Yeah,
So I think what happened was it started to have
a life of its own and people almost started to
do it for like a shock factor, and people started
to do it. It's so extreme to where it was,
you know, a lot of times a lot of times comical.
You know, her look has evolved and your makeup is
probably evolved since the beginning. When you saw the line
on the pencil, like I never I never used to
(29:52):
do the line on the lip. Now we actually do it.
She likes it. Now I use her lip liners. I
like them. Yeah. And I bought the Shimmer palette. I like.
But I have to have the lightest hand because it's
really high intense for real for daylight. But I I
love it. Four colors, yeah, a little with a little
more strug And it's honestly the most fun I'm having
is using everyone's makeup, because for years when I was
(30:12):
at the brand, I only used mine. I always find
that it's so inspiring. When I introduced new makeup into
the kid because I get stuck on the same things
a lot. But like you know, it really inspires me
and I do these different things. I was telling my assistant,
I said, I hired you because I felt that you would,
you know, sort of come in here and put all
this new stuff in my kids. Because I get all
these packages every day. I'm like, I think, I just
want to have bags on the table, but I want
(30:35):
to turn around. I don't want you to hand me things.
I want to turn around. I want to look at
my bag and pick yes, yes, yes, I get it.
Trust me. That was the best thing that happened because
when I used to do shoots, I used to have
like five makeup artists assisting, and now I have sometimes
I have one person. I started doing it even by myself.
So there's Mario the makeup artist, Mario the businessman, Mario
(30:57):
the sun. How does Mario the per person process, Like,
what's your technique when you need to just like take
it down a match. I'm trying to figure that out, Bobby.
I've been very, very bad at that because of the
amount that I travel in my career, because for example,
I live in New York and Kim lives in l A.
And so because I do all these other things and projects,
and I'm and I'm working on all these things for
the future, and I try to be there so much,
(31:21):
you know, as much as I can to be there
for her because I know that I think, I think
in my mind that it provides her some sort of comfort, happiness,
you know, being there for her. And so I get
exhausted because I'm getting old, you know, not old, but
I am getting old. I'm getting old. Yeah, And so
I've been sort of struggling a lot with letting go
a little bit, not being such a control freak and
(31:41):
and delegating more things to people without me having to
be involved. And even on my way here this morning,
it's crazy that we're doing this conversation because it's like
so much happened this morning, you know. I looked at Mitch,
the assistant. I said, you know what, Mitch, I want
to be taking off of all these emails. I said,
just I'm just gonna let it up, to leave it
up to you in Ta Fonda, and I said, I
don't want to have to, you know, oversee every single
(32:02):
thing of the things that I don't need to be
looking at another thing happened today which I would have
never talked about this ever in my life, but I'm
going to just talk about it. I had an appointment
today for scheduled for I think it was two or
three for my you know, basically, they pressed this all
these needles in your face and they puts little tiny
amounts of filler and botox and vitamins and all that stuff.
And I don't know what. It was causing stress because
(32:23):
I couldn't have to I couldn't find the time to
go and to make the appointment. And this morning I
look at the calendar and I'm you know, I see
that appointment and I just like started texting the woman
and I just wrote her this long thing and I
sounded probably like a crazy person, and I said, you
know what, Laura, I said, I don't want to come
in today. I said, I realized it's not going to
make a difference if I do or not. I'm not
sure why I'm trying to go. And oh, because I
(32:45):
received that honor from the influence rewards from her artists achievement,
and so I was thinking like automatically, well I have
to do this and I have to get my face
and I have to my hair. And I realized this morning.
I'm like, I don't give a down no one and
no one's gonna notice that you did it or not.
But and you know what, you just you're overscheduled right now.
I've been there, I've done it. I get it, and
(33:06):
you just need to like nurture yourself. But this is
the start, so you know. I I realized that. I
told her, I said, it looks amazing, though I might
have to ask you for who you see, but she's
amazing Laura Dier and she yeah, And I realized, like,
you know what, I'd rather be home and laying on
the bed at that time because I have I have
like two hours and just sort of like working on
something that I love or or you know, catching up
a little bit eating and not rushing and being in person.
(33:29):
You might feel tired, but you don't look it and
you actually look really healthy. How do you take care
of yourself and what kind of diet and what do
you eat? I have my days that I I give
up and I eat you know, fries and things like that.
But you know, to be honest, I when I'm in
the hotel, I'll order chicken salad you know, when I'm home,
I have my spots that I order from, a creature
of habit if I don't have to be somewhere, I
(33:50):
don't leave within a three block radius of my home. Ever,
I order from a place called Muscle Grill when I'm
feeling like I want to have a wrap. You know,
that's healthy. But I've been more conscious to eat clean.
The only time I really like let loose and eat
whatever is when I go to my mom's home, when
she cooks for me and stuff. That's when I sort
of I don't even question. It's just the culture that
I miss and that I crave, and it's the you know,
(34:11):
the groundedness that I feel about home. None of this
stuff I always referred to as this stuff, you know,
the Instagram, the followers, and the monetary things and all that, like,
none of that exists when I'm in the presence of
my family and my mom. I love that feeling of
just not having to worry about any of it. It's
been the only time that I felt so grounded in
one with the earth itself. Um But I've been again
recently feeling that now, not just at my mom's house
(34:34):
but just in general. I do feel fully like a
fully grown man who knows what he wants and who
knows what he deserves, and you know, who knows what
he stands for. I'm really fascinated about Mario in the
next five years. Do you have any visions because I
kind of do. Here's the deal. I don't talk about
it much, and it's always and I think it comes
from this fear of like, oh my God, is someone
going to mess it up for me. I'll tell you
(34:55):
a story when I went into sepphor Right and I
knew that my mom didn't want me to do that job,
and I knew she was going to be embarrassed to me.
Before I had finally made that decision of like, Okay,
this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna take it seriously.
I'm gonna go to the Library'm gonna research everything I
you know, know everything I need to know, and do
every step that I need to take to be In
my mind, it was just successful. That's all I knew
back then was that it had to be successful to
(35:16):
show mom. And I looked around the store and I
saw the names, you know, Vincent Longo and Steelyn. It
was a moment where I locked eyes and I sort
of had an aha moment that Okay, that is my chance.
That is how I'm going to do it. I'm gonna
show mom by doing that. And so I worked for
twenty years to make sure that that I earned that,
and then I feel deserving to do something like that,
because that's a big deal to me, to put you know,
(35:38):
my my name on product and to put it into
stores around the world and around the country. That to
me is something I do not take lightly. And I
want to make sure that when I do that that
whoever is buying it, or whoever is thinking about buying
it doesn't have to ever question or go to YouTube
to get a review from someone, because I want them
to be ashore and to trust that I did the
(36:00):
work for them and that I'm giving them something that
is the very very very best quality. For me, I
could not do that unless I had at least twenty
years of experience as a working artist. I'm on my
nineteenth year right now. A few years ago I did
begin to slowly learn by myself calling cold calling the
labs and manufacturers and walking in meeting people to learn
(36:21):
everything that there was that I had to learn about
this to make sure I wasn't doing things blindly. I'd
been offered starting seven or eight years ago, really big
deals and really like lots of money to do things,
and you know, I knew in my heart I wasn't
gonna do them, And thank god I didn't, Bobby, because
I wasn't ready. I don't know what I know now.
I didn't know back then. When I know now, what
I'm learning now and what I'm knowing just naturally right
(36:42):
now at this age is life changing for me. And
it's it has given all of this the meaning, like
the pure meaning and purpose and none of it is
really monetary, and none of it is you know, it's
it's about something way deeper than that. But I'm bursting.
I'm bursting inside because I have been planning and I
have been dreaming about, you know, doing something, and it
(37:04):
might happen. We will all stay tuned to that. But
my last thing is, we have a speed round number one,
what's your skincare routine? New Gina face wash, and then
I mixed between Taucha A Supple Supple cream or Dowey
skin cream. I have this new cream Augustine me too.
I bought it's so funny. I brought you on. I
brought you on. I just requested a few of them
because I am me too, and I asked for a
(37:27):
bunch so I can give to my you know, my
friends that I thought I haven't. I I never get
excited up here about packages, But like, if it's something
that's something that I know, what was the last thing
you ate? A protein bar right here in your studio?
What makeup item does everyone need? I have to say
right now because I'm a little biased, but the collap
that is going to be released soon of Kim and
I because I worked so hard on that. What is it?
(37:48):
It's a it's a KKW and Mario part two. It's
called The Artists and Muse and it's a collection of
a palette and some lip and cheek products. Cool. No,
I I have, I have one, so I cannot wait
to see two. Who was the last celebrity that you
did their makeup? Kim? Probably like two or three days
ago when I was in l A. And there is
there any celebrity that you haven't done that you're dying
to do? You know what I always wanted to do
(38:10):
Michelle Obama so badly. I did her I got to
do her makeup a couple of times. Yeah, and I
still seem the coolest. You know. I read her book
a few months ago. And after I read the book
and it just gave me the herd more to want
to do her is. I don't know, I have like
a I'm so proud of her in this weird way,
even though I don't know her. See, I got lucky
once or twice where she needed someone in between something
(38:31):
and it was it was it was petrifying, but it
was really cool, I can imagine. And I had fifteen minutes,
by the way, I didn't I had fifteen minutes. She got.
It was definitely when the last term, when it was
she had something in the city, she was coming in
from d C. She had to get on stage and
twenty minutes I was like sitting and she goes pretty
(38:51):
heavy with the makeup. I mean she's fully contoured. She's
what did you do? I was in a bathroom and
she came in and I said a low because I
had met her before, and she said, I'm really sorry
for the rush, and I just started throwing things on
our face and it was and I asked, you know,
my assistant to take a picture of me in her
and she did and we didn't check the camera and
it didn't it was black. But the best picture ever
(39:12):
taken of me was you. I was at Yahoo Beauty
and you came in and you took a picture of me,
and you, I don't know what you did to that thing.
You're gonna have to teach me how to probably out
of me. I probably put one of the bright filter something.
I was like, I never looked so good in my life.
So wait, you are you still out there doing makeup?
I am just out of pure love for me because
that's what I love. Honestly, if you ask me what
(39:33):
I wanted, how I want to spend my day, it's
in a studio. And I own a photo studio by
the way in New Jersey, so we rented out. But
I constantly have I have a table full of makeup,
I have clothes and hashtag goals. One of my future
future goals is that I can do makeup but not
have to not have to rely on it and depend
on it to to live. You know, I see myself
(39:54):
working with Kim forever, but like not for money that
I just want to do it because it feels like
home to me because I love to create. But that's
that's awesome. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit
the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows. M
Beyond the Beauty is a production of I Heart Radio.
I'm your host, Bobby Brown. I really wanted to interview
Makeup by Mario because he's a force. He's so different
than me, my style, everything. I'm fascinated by his master classes.
(00:26):
I'm fascinated by his talent. I'm fascinated by really his
story because I've read a lot of stories of where
he came from, and I'm fascinated of his incredible rise
to the top of this field. We have a mutual
friend and she said, dude, you would love him, and
you know what, She's right. I love this guy. So
(00:46):
Mario is Kim Kardashian's makeup artist. He has done every
celebrity from Katie Perry to Jennifer Lopez to Prianca Chobra.
I can go on. He's gotten a war. He is
the genius behind Kim's look for every red carpet, every
met ball. I'm fascinated by the fact that he has
(01:07):
seven million followers and that he still talks to them.
People love him. People just love him, and they know
him not just from being Kim's makeup artists, but from
being on the show. Mario has this incredible network of
people that either want to be makeup artist, want to
be better makeup artists, and just want a piece of
what he's doing. Everyone wants to look better and feel better.
When you're a makeup artist, do you understand other makeup artists?
(01:30):
Here's my conversation with Mario. So I am here today
with my I'm going to say new friend because I've
always admired him so much. But first of all, I
want to make sure I say the last name correct.
So it's Mario. You all know him by makeup by Mario.
(01:50):
His last name is, go ahead, Mario. Ahey, okay, all right,
I will try one dead of an okay, dead no Vic?
Oh my god, yeah, Dad Ivanovich? And I didn't you
did it? You spelled it out. I don't think anyone
ever says that name. I always just say married makeup
at Mary or Mario, dr or just Mario. Where is
(02:12):
that name from? I am Albanian. Well, it's born in America,
but I still consider myself Albanian first because I was
I was raised with the Albanian culture. But my parents
are from Montenegro. That a beautiful place. It is a
beautiful place, beaches and they have beaches from where my
dad's side is like the Adriatic Sea, and then where
my mom's from it's like farm and more farm and country.
So it's like the best of both. And you grew
(02:33):
up where in the Bronx, in the Bronx New York.
And yeah, I'm a Bronx boy. I'm a Bronx Albanian boy. Well,
and how many siblings do you have. I'm the youngest
of four, youngest of four. Okay, so you're the baby,
all right, we'll now be calling him baby Mario. I
was always the baby. It's so from funny. I feel
like I'm not anymore. But I was always the baby.
And I know from things I've read, because there's so
(02:54):
many awesome articles on you, how close you are to
your family. Yes, you all work together, well, not all
of us. So my sister Marina, who's right after me,
she's the one that's one that's right after me an age,
she is sort of the organizer for the master class.
So she kind of came in and took over my
master classes when it was a very small thing. You
know that I had sort of I had never allowed
(03:14):
anyone into it, and I had never allowed any press
or cameras or anything, photographers videos. I mean, I kept
it so sheltered and protected. You know. When I had
discovered the teaching it, it added something so substantial to
my life and that I can't even explain. And the
master classes are going to be ten years I think, yeah,
and how did you even come up with the idea?
What happened was after I started working with Kim Kardashian.
(03:37):
For you guys that have been under a rock, Yes,
after I met Kim and I started working with her,
something sort of naturally happened that and that she began
to post these photos online behind the scenes, like completely innocent,
like ten years ago, yeah, or well almost twelve years ago,
and something happened in that people really resonated with it,
and people were so inspired by like her glam and
(03:59):
and the fact that she was showing all these like
cool things like you know, the baking in the powder
and all those tips and tricks that she loved. She
wanted to just genuinely show them because she thought it
was so cool. And was she Kim Kardashian twelve years ago?
Like did not not not like she she was just
I think when I met her, she was season season
one of Keeping Up with the Kardashians, I barely knew
who she was. I had known the name, but I
really didn't even fully know what she had looked like
(04:20):
the first day that I agreed to do the job
with her. Like for the for this cover in New York,
we kind of skipped from growing up in the Bronx
to your master classes. So fill in between. How did
you even get to meet Kim? Because I know you're
not classically trained makeup artists. You learned everything on your own? Yeah, well,
I assisted as well. After high school, I wanted to
go to college, but basically my dad was like, what
(04:40):
are you gonna do? I said, well, I want to
go to Miami because I just felt like I wanted
to go away from the family. And he said, well,
absolutely not. He said, we don't have the money for that,
and and so kind of like to Rebel, I was
almost now as an adult that when I when I
look back, I almost feel like I was happy. Even
though I was mad, I was almost happy because I
was like, Okay, well now I can go find the
job and like, you know, find something and do something.
(05:01):
I didn't know at that time what I wanted to do.
I was almost like creatively frustrated because I was so
inspired by certain things like symmetry and art and design
and all the things I didn't have as a child
growing up. You know, I grew up in a basement apartment.
There was no beauty, you know what I mean. There
was no decor, There was none of that stuff, you know,
there was no beautiful landscaping, nothing, and so all of
(05:21):
those things. Since I was a little child, I would
seek that stuff and I would ask my dad to
drive me to Westchester, you know, because I wanted to
see the lawns and the flowers. And I would beg
my mom to take me with her to to clean
apartments because she did that as a second job. She
she cleaned the building for Loreal for many many years,
and then she also did side jobs cleaning people's homes,
(05:42):
and so nothing excited me more because I wanted to
go into their homes and I would see all of
the beauty and the artwork and the design, and I
would see all of that stuff that was just to
me was like wow, like you know, one day I'm
going to have this to mom. You know. After high school,
I went and with my mom to look for a job,
and I had gone to all these places like our Mind,
Next Change, just all the retail stores, thinking I'm just
(06:04):
going to find a job and I'm gonna have some
freedom now and you know, no more school. And I
walked into Sephora. It was a brand new Sephora was
like the first store I think it is. This was,
you know, almost twenty years ago. It was two thousand
and I remember it had revolving doors and it was
in Rockefeller Center, and you know, we were walking by.
I don't know what lured me, and it was almost
like a force, because I don't remember. At that time,
(06:24):
I didn't know what Sepphor was. The windows were tinted,
so I didn't know what was inside. But I went
through the revolving doors and we went in and there
was this music and then everyone was wearing these black
suits with these black gloves, and it smelled so delicious
to me because I always loved fragrance and wanted fragrance.
You know, we couldn't really buy and they couldn't buy
me fragrances, but like, I loved it and I wanted
it always. And my mom the first thing she said
(06:46):
when we walked in is no, no, no, no, mommy.
She goes, no, no, this is not for your mommy,
she goes, and she turns me around, revolving door to
pull me, and I said no. I said, I want
to go in here, and I want to look. I
want to see you were eighteen at the time. I
went and I looked around and I went upstairs, I remember,
and I saw the skincare, and then I saw the fragrances,
and then I saw the makeup. But really it was
more initially the fragrance. I think that was sort of
(07:09):
and the smell of the place, and also how she
everyone looked in those black suits. I just thought, like,
I want to be in here. And I applied for
a job. They never called me back, and so of
course I was adamant that I had to work there
and that these people had to give me a chance
because they don't know, like how you know I'm a
good person, like they're gonna love me. I'm a hard
worker because I had been working since I was twelve,
literally since I was twelve, packing bags and Bronx su
(07:30):
and restaurants. Basically was financially independent from the age of twelve,
and I somehow I think I went to the library
and I found I researched the company Sophora, because I
kept calling and they wouldn't answer my calls. And I
found there was a woman named Marie Christine I believe
her name was. She had blonde hair, and she was
in France, and somehow I got in touch with her
and she picked up the phone and I said, my
(07:50):
name is Mario blah blah and I and I really
want to work at this store. And I went and
no one's calling me back, and I just want them
to give me a chance whatever. And I don't know
what the hell I said to her, but maybe she's
it was cute, I don't know. And she said, yeah,
I'm going to be in New York next week. And
she said, we're hiring for a new store. She said,
maybe you would, You would be good for one of
the locations. And I went in and never forget it
was such a big deal. So did you meet her?
(08:12):
Do you know where she is now? Yes, I asked, recently.
She still works for the company, but she's in France. Now.
Does she know that that young boy that she helped
is now you I'm looking forward to seeing. At that time,
she was so I mean, she was the epitome to
me of French glamor and power, and she was you know,
I remember that when she would come to the stores,
everyone you know, would be on their best behavior and
(08:33):
everything had to be perfect and sharp and clean. And
so to me, she was that figure or intimidating and
I'd love to see her right now. I went into
the interview and I put all this cologne on her
car for our car New York, because that was what
my dad used. And I had like I opened shirt,
remember the buttons down like a little Guido, you know,
because that's what I sort of saw and that's what
I knew in the bronx, and my hair had a
(08:53):
lot of gel in it and the eyebrows, and again
she sort of looked at me, I remember, like kind
of like a little smirk, and she said, Okay, she said,
gonna hire you as a fragrance consultant and you're gonna
go to a training that's gonna be a few days
in a hotel, blah blah blah. So I went. I
did that. I was so excited and the first day
of work that I was on the floor, you know,
excited to sell my fragrance now and thinking, you know,
(09:13):
because I wanted to learn everything about fragrance. I wanted
to know what I was talking about, what, you know,
to know what I was telling the customers. And but
really what they did was they put me at the
front door too, with the basket and to say welcome
to this four a hundred times a day to every
person that walked through me and me and this girl Careina,
who actually is one of the only ones I'm still
really close with. And one day, you know, actually the
first day they had at that time, Sappore Collection used
(09:35):
to have like five hundred different colors of lipstick, and
they had a specific packaging that all of the colors
were like so unique. There was yellows and greens and
blues and everything. And a woman was sort of in
an end cap because I could pictured exactly where she was,
right near the entrance, and she said, excuse me, can
you please help me choose a color? And for one
second I hesitated, but then I was like no, and
(09:56):
I went and I went right to her, and I
was like sure, I think I just like picked the
color I thought was you know, not obviously not crazy,
and that I thought was pretty and she tried it
on and she goes, I love it, she goes things.
I don't know exactly how to explain it, but I
had found in that moment that oh my god, this
is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna I'm gonna do makeup.
There was also a thing with like all the makeup
(10:16):
artis in that store. I sort of looked up to
them in a way that I you know, I knew
that they made a little more money than everyone else,
and I knew that they were so cool, and I
knew that they were fashionable and that, and so I
wanted to kind of in a sense, be like them.
But really what it was was me sort of finding
the my creative outlet of what I didn't know my
entire life. You know, I thought I was going to
be a teacher, and that's what all I wanted to be.
You are a teacher, Mark I am, I know, I know,
(10:39):
and the makeup artist and an educator. Yeah. I feel
like I can't say I'm officially a teacher until I
you know, obviously that's something that would make you feel
good getting a degree. Yeah, yeah, I did go to college,
by the way, I went after I want to say
four or five years of working once I had sort
of moved out of my my parents house and you
were still so for at the time. No, how long
did you work, so, Sophora was I want to say
(11:01):
like a year and a half, two years maybe two years,
and because I went to another store and then officially
as a makeup artist once I had been front to
a makeup artists and then you know, the brands started
to come to me and recruit me. And Carol shawl
Rock of Rock Cosmetic. It was not her herself, but
it was a Pamela who worked with her for years.
It was one of the early makeup artist founders. Really,
(11:22):
Carol Shaw was. She was pretty up there in the store, remember,
because when I think back of like where all the
brands were positioned, I don't think you were in the
source were department stores. Pamela sort of recruited me and
I became, i guess unofficially a regional makeup artists for
the Rock where I went to all of the Sephoras
in New York City mostly a few days a week,
and I loved sort of selling makeup as well. I
(11:45):
never looked at that part as as bad because I
looked at it as you know, I was helping someone.
You're a guy that has such passion for what you do,
whatever you do that has to do with makeup. Yeah,
and I remember when I looked back, there were moments,
like moments that I can really clearly remember of me
sort of sell or moments where I got compliments, let's say,
from the store managers and they be like, whoa this kid,
Like his sales are insane, you know, because I I
(12:06):
think I raised the sales for for that company in
New York by a massive percentage. For me that I
loved that whole part of it, to the business side
of it because I knew I was helping people, and
then also the art side of it as well. Well,
how did you get to California? Well, I live in
New York. So oh, you never lived in California. No,
I did. I lived in California for three years and
that was after I met Kim. Like you, so, tell
me how you met Kim. After retail, I used I
(12:27):
went sort of fully freelance. I had assisted Billy b
you know, you know, I assisted Isabel Perez, who is
the assistant of Frank Cooper and Frank Cooper was like
to me, like, I mean her work was so amazing,
you know that that sort of porcelain doll. She's still around. Yeah, yeah,
she's still working too. She's incredible. So I only met her,
I think once or twice, but Isabel so much of
(12:47):
the stuff that I still do today is is was
what I learned with Isabel, and she was so open.
And Isabel Perez she's just she's She's a Dominican makeup
artist and she was the first make words to take
it under her wing. So I met him because of
a talk for a friend of mine and called me
and said, hey, can you do this girl named Kim Kardashian.
I really need you for this. You'll be perfect for it.
Um for a magazine called Social Life. It was like
Hampton's Magazine or something like that. And I almost said no.
(13:10):
I had I think. I was working at that time
two days a week at Fox News doing the anchors
there for for income, just so like I didn't have
to stress and worry that I had to pay my bills.
I was still building my portfolio and I had just
joined with a new agency who were sort of grooming
me to become a very elitist makeup. I got with
this sort of more more I guess fashion agent who
you know, was sort of trying to groom me and
(13:32):
and positioned me with very high end photographers. And I
had started doing some celebrities at that time, Gina Grashaan
I remember I was working with and and Natasha Beddingfield
and you know, like artists and actors and and I
met Kim and what was your style At the time,
I had assisted Kabuki, who was a very high fashion,
very very high fashion, and we were on the set
of like all the big fashion campaigns for like every day,
(13:53):
and I assisted. He was the last person I assisted,
very critical point in my career, I think, because I
had been yearning and searching from that no one gave
me a chance in the fashion world because I was
this little kid from the Bronx, you know. And I
would go to the agency's desperately trying to assist one
of the fashion makeup artists, one of the big ones.
And finally, like Kabuki's agent called me, and it was
the nontraditional way. I didn't go to an agency. I
(14:16):
had just sent a cold email. Several months later, I
was standing in a store and his his agent Chuck
called me and said, Hi, I'm calling for Kabuki. We'd
like to know if you're available for Italian Vogue tomorrow,
and I pooped my pants. Basically, my friend Ralphaiel was
there and I started screaming when I got off the
phone because I'm like, oh my god, oh my god.
He finally called. And I did that for two years,
not full time, just whenever he needed, which was quite often. Now,
(14:39):
what I learned from him, he couldn't be any more
different of a make artist. But what I learned from
him when I took from him, first of all, was
that he felt He made me feel validated in a
way that that industry in that world never did. I
felt a disconnection with that world always and it bothered me.
And he made me feel accepted in that world and
valued because I was like, I was a damn good assistant.
(15:00):
Be like, yeah, I'm sure I was really good. I
learned the things that I still think about today every
single day. One of the things that I saw him
do in products, I saw him use that like, what
are some of the things you learned, you know, the
theatrical products, how to cut a crease, like all the
kids are doing today. And I actually just spoke to
him recently for the first time in you know, I
don't know what it was, fifteen years or so, and
we had a really great conversation. And is he aware
(15:23):
of what you've become and your successes? I think so
and asked him that, but you know, he said, he
said that he was really proud of me. And you know,
we weren't sure why we had left it off where
we just stopped talking and stopped working together, but it
provided me like tremendous closure, you know, and it really
I never really needed that. It's good to keep your
mentors in your life. Teachers. Isabelle just we've just recently
(15:48):
and everything's been changing. It I told you, everything's been
changing my life recently. And and Isabelle I just recently
reunited with. I was at my master class of New
York and I walked on stage and I locked eyes
with her the second that I to the front of
the stage and I lost in front of everyone and
she started crying. And that's so sweet. Well, before I
go into now, I want to still you know, what
is it like working with the Kardashians, Because how many
(16:11):
years have you been with her twelve years. You are
so well known, you are so well loved, so well respected,
and you can you know, you're known for creating the
Kim Kardashian look an empire. So what is it like?
I mean, I can only imagine. I've met her once
briefly at a fashion show. I don't know her. I
never met Chris, I don't know any of them. She's
(16:32):
almost like my little secret guardian angel. I think had
I not had her, and had had she not come
into my life, and had there not been that connection
where she loved my makeup so much for me, Kim
is let's put it this way, because I've been trying
to figure this out myself for years exactly and how
to word it properly and how to put it this
feeling that I have. And I think that now as
I'm older and I'm starting to realize everything and how
(16:55):
you know, I suppressed a lot of stuff my whole
life because of my culture, and I have held things
inside and not allowed my real sort of feelings and
also my real purpose and stuff to to to come out.
I've just been very guarded and extremely professional too, and
just always so careful to not be in drama and
to not you know, Kim Is, we have such a
(17:16):
similar soul, but she is so the opposite of me
in the sense that she is so not suppressed, you
know what I means. She's so comfortable, and she's saying
she owns her power, and she owns her beauty, and
she all of those things. But her soul as a
person is what I connect with, right. She's such a
good human being and she's such a sweet person. And
our start in the industry and what sort of she
(17:37):
did for me was so authentic, and so it was
literally just her being excited, like, oh my god, I
love this kid's makeup, and I wanted to put pictures
on my blog and show all my followers, you know
what I mean, Because she did have a following back
then that just was growing day by day that girls
were obsessed with her body. Had I not had Kim
to to to have someone so close that you touched
(17:57):
their face and who doesn't care about the hater, she
must care about them. But she deals with it. I mean,
I don't know, I don't really talk to her about it,
but she's not one that's going to be phased by
comments or like care that people are like making negative
because she's controversial, right, people don't know the real Kim
obviously to me, you know, and so I'm protective over
her to a fault and that I don't. I get
(18:17):
so upset when people say things about her because I
know the true her. And so it's almost like I
feel this pressure always too to prove to people that
I gotta I gotta prove to people. I gotta show
them somehow that you feel protective of her like her brother,
incredibly protective. Yeah, are you as close to the other
girls or is it really chimis I love? I mean,
Kim is my girl obviously, but like for me, it's
(18:38):
it's I'm not close with Kylie and Kendall because they
were a different generation. They were really really young when
I started with the family. But like with Courtney, Chloe,
Kim and the mother, I'm you know Chris, I there's
a certain sort of love there that is really extremely strong. Well,
I'm I'm going to ask you about Chris and either
an how or after, because I'm obsessed with her. I
just think as a businesswoman, which she has done, is
(19:00):
I think short of epic? Yeah, you know, it's amazing.
So and Cam and all of them, to be honest
with you, are such I've never seen. I don't think
I'll ever meet people that are more mentally strong and
stable than them. It showed me in a way that
it's things are possible, and that things that you maybe
have never dreamed of are possible. What does your kid
(19:26):
look like? I've never actually is it changed constantly? How
do you store your makeup? How much makeup do you have?
My kids? About pounds is what's what I travel around with.
And it's heavy the kit, you know. But I am
a creature of habit and I know what I like
and I go back always to what I like right.
How much do you mix and how much do you
just use it right out of the palette? I mix
(19:46):
almost everything, almost everything, you know, there's a color that
in my head or a texture that I'm that I'm envisioning,
and so I Over the years, obviously with experience, you know,
I've become better because and and by no means I
think I'm extremely talented makeup or us by no mo
for me, it didn't come that quickly, the talent like
I had to. You know, I grasped really well when
I was assisting, and I could watch them and I
(20:06):
could almost I knew what it was they were doing
and have to tell me. I understood why they moved
the hand a certain way and understood why the brush
went on with a certain pressure. And that's why I
become a better educator, I think as well, and a
better makeup artist. And how much of your day to
day is hired makeup artist and how much is it
on business? Like, how do you kind of split it up?
That's hard for me. It's a balance that I'm trying
(20:29):
to still figure out because I don't ever want to
lose the part of me that is the makeup artists
that does clients and that makes these women feel beautiful.
But what has happened over the years with the emergence
of social media. Initially I I shied away from it.
I didn't want attention. I didn't want I felt uncomfortable,
I was insecure, I felt weird speaking in public. I
didn't want any of that stuff. And with the emergence
(20:52):
of what we're talking before, with those photos and the
contouring and all that stuff, you know, something happened and
it was all of a sudden. I feel like I
woke up one day. I remember the first day that
I posted a photo and I was nervous. It was
just a picture of my face, you know. But um,
I just remember one day sitting in one of my
apartments when I was on seventies six Street, and my
agent calling from the Wall Group and just something about
(21:13):
the contour Consort King or some brand wanting to hire
me to fly somewhere to do this event, you know
where I would be contouring and teaching contour. And I
started to rebel and I started to tell them like,
I don't want to hear the word contour. Don't ever
call me consort king. Do not allow them to call
me consoort king. I don't want to be known for that.
I'm going to be it's going to ruin my career.
It's gonna you know what I mean. And it wasn't
(21:34):
until something clicked and I said, well, wait, they're all
calling me contort king, so it's out of my control. Now,
do you contour contour when it's appropriate to do? You
ever do someone's makeup and not contour all the time?
You do? So I have certain clients where I would
never even think about it, you know what I mean?
So what makes you want to contour when someone has
what it is that type of makeup that inspired me?
(21:56):
You know that I that was my first look into
the makeup where all that when I assisted is a
bell the process of the transformation for me. But also
you know, there is a time and a place for that.
There's a there's a need for that type of makeup.
Do you think contouring works on day to day makeup
like walking around the streets? No? Not fully, No, if
you're not Kim. If you're not, But Kim wouldn't do
(22:17):
it for that either. I mean, Kim is a celebrity.
She's she's the most like, heavily full photographed woman in
the world. And so we're talking about you know, when
I do Kim's makeup, it is done so precisely. How
long does it take you to do makeup? They always
a lot, like two to three hours. But it's not
just makeup, you know, like you know, she has kids,
and you know there's things going on and business and
you know she's getting the hair blown out and so
(22:38):
all together, it takes like two hours, maybe a little more.
My team gives me thirty minutes. Okay, guys, for hair,
for makeup, I'm like, guys, I can't do it. No,
you can do it for hair and makeup, and you're
not for hair. Maybe there's a time and a place
for it. Not everyone knows how to do that makeup.
And I know how to do that makeup really really well.
You know, I have to say I never say stuff
(22:58):
like that, but like I know how to do lamb makeup,
the chisel, the the transforming makeup. I always tell my
students it's hard to explain, Bobby, but I always tell
my students I show them the whole thing, the whole
entire transformation. I let them allow them into my head,
almost almost like giving them a piece of my soul
because everything that every time I pick up a brush
or do something, I make sure that they fully understand.
(23:19):
And I'm very sensitive to energy. I can almost understand.
I can almost feel if someone in the room doesn't understand,
and so I explain it another way until they get that.
And how many people are in this room when you
teach your master classes? A lot? But what started with
sixteen and you know now it's gone up to over
two thousand per class? But how do how do you
please two thousand people? Learning? And and your things sell
(23:42):
out as quickly as you put them out. It's something
that grew naturally and authentically, something that I even tried
to hinder the growth of that. I tried to stop,
you know, I would kind of cap it at you know.
I remember at one point before my sister came along,
I was capping it at one people Big because I
get a venue from one hundred seats, and I'd say,
that's it. I was doing it all myself, the sponsors
and getting the gift bags and the you know, going
(24:03):
crazy basically, And why wouldn't you do a digital masterclass.
I haven't figured out yet the way to do that.
And to be honest, Bobby, I could do that, and
I could probably take a break for a little while
because it would it would reach a lot of people
that are not able to come to these classes. And
there have been investment firms and people for years trying
to get me to do this, and I just won't
because I haven't figured out a way that I could
truly teach right now. I can only do it fully
(24:28):
to know that they actually have understood it in person,
because I feel it. I don't think I've ever heard
a bad word about you I have to say, like
from industry sources, not a not a bad word, you know,
and trust me, when people are Prima Donna's, you know,
it's easy to get caught up in this in this world, Bobby.
I almost thought today when I was in the gym,
I was wondering, like, have I ever gotten caught up?
(24:48):
Like had I ever actually gotten caught up? Where I
lost sight of what the purposes in life? And I
think I did at one point. I when I I
thought about this time when I I did that show
Glam Masters with with Kim you know, she was the
executive producer and she put me on it, so I
felt totally confident going on it because it was her show.
I just remember like stressing and and and and being
(25:10):
so insane and crazy about having a spray tan and
having the hair without one hair out of place, and
losing weight and making sure my clothes were perfect. And
I was so stiff on that show. When I think
now and I look at it, it's almost comical of
like what a disaster to me? When I look at it,
I mean, people loved it because they were like, oh
my god, I think I got caught up maybe around
that time and that I was like thinking too much
(25:30):
about all these things that right now, this moment sitting
here with you, like I don't give a ship about
There's something really amazing that happens when a person becomes
comfortable in their own skin. Every single person out there.
At some point hopefully we'll figure that out. What is
(25:55):
it about that whole glam makeup and the contouring and
all that stuff. It's always help make ports. Is important
to know how to do it, and it's gonna make
you a stronger artist. You know how to do it, more,
more strong. But what is it with you that you
I feel like you have a change. Oh I do?
I do? And I've been very vocal about you know,
you don't need to contour. I mean, my audience are
real women. My audience are not the people going on
(26:16):
the red carpet. My audience has always been, you know,
the woman that gets up in the morning's got kids
and has to get to work, and maybe she has
a party at night, and she takes good care of herself.
She has really good skin, doesn't That's like always been
the Bobby person. So no, when they're like should I contour? Well,
if you're going to contour, you're gonna look like give
dirt on your face because it's not gonna look good.
(26:37):
And also, I'm you know, my thing has always been
like when I was in middle school, I never thought
I was pretty. I never thought it was smart. I
never thought I was all of these things that my
friends were, and I really had bad self esteem about
the way I looked. So when I would do my makeup,
and my first time I ever had my makeup done,
someone did my makeup and they said, let me show
you how I can contour your nose because your nose
(26:58):
is too big, and I had brown lines down my
nose and I felt bad about my nose. Let me
show you how to play up your eyes because your
eyes are really small, and she did that not very well.
I felt, my eyes are bad and your skin is
too yellow, so let me show you your cheeks are
to this your lips, and I literally was made up
and I looked awful and not myself. The fact that
(27:21):
someone was telling me what was wrong with me. When
when I washed my face, I was like, I was
pretty cute, you know, seventh grade or whatever, high school,
whatever I was. I'm like, I looked like Ally McGraw.
You know it wasn't my look. My mission in life
is to help people feel good about who they are.
It's not an anti contour the way you contour your women.
(27:43):
It's an anti contour the way I was contoured, in
the way that I see other women feeling bad about themselves,
the way I approach it, I mean, that's interesting and
and but I love that you you know, you're stuck
to that and you and that is your philosophy and
that is your and I respect that you are adamant
about it. I don't know any better. I would love
you to teach me how to contour. Honestly. I would
literally love to come as a guest to your master. Seriously.
(28:07):
I mean, you know, a one on one wouldn't be
bad either, But I would love I mean, I'm a
makeup artist about this. If I launched the YouTube, then
we have to do a video. Now, I would love
my channel. I would love to. So when I approach
it is this is how I approach it. In the class,
is that I always tell them right before I begin, because,
to be honest with you, when I started being called
the contaking and all that stuff, I only really contract
(28:27):
with the bronze at that time, it was just to
add warm, but I do that anyways. I do that
when I do makeup. I take my which is kind
of a pinky tone bronzer on me because I have
very yellow skin, and I use it and I kind
of gently put it everywhere and put a little bit
more uncertain. I'm not contouring, but I'm kind of creating
how the skin should look. And it's hard to teach
(28:48):
other makeup artists how to do that. I've not been successful. Yeah,
it is hard. It's hard, but it's important for you,
for all of you artists to know how to contour
and to know how to do it correctly. But it's
more important. I always say that you know when not
to contour. And this I also started to realize recently
because when I think back on my career and how
(29:08):
everything happened, I guess I feel a little responsibility with
you know, with Kim that we put this look out there, right,
But what happened after that was it quickly took its
a life of its own, and you know, the brands
and the retailers and everyone started to you know, it
literally created like probably a billion dollar categories, you know
what I mean. The second I left the brand, they
started putting contour on every single palette because I wouldn't
(29:30):
let it happen when I was there. I loved that.
I got talked to you about all that stuff. Yeah,
So I think what happened was it started to have
a life of its own and people almost started to
do it for like a shock factor, and people started
to do it. It's so extreme to where it was,
you know, a lot of times a lot of times comical.
You know, her look has evolved and your makeup is
probably evolved since the beginning. When you saw the line
on the pencil, like I never I never used to
(29:52):
do the line on the lip. Now we actually do it.
She likes it. Now I use her lip liners. I
like them. Yeah. And I bought the Shimmer palette. I like.
But I have to have the lightest hand because it's
really high intense for real for daylight. But I I
love it. Four colors, yeah, a little with a little
more strug And it's honestly the most fun I'm having
is using everyone's makeup, because for years when I was
(30:12):
at the brand, I only used mine. I always find
that it's so inspiring. When I introduced new makeup into
the kid because I get stuck on the same things
a lot. But like you know, it really inspires me
and I do these different things. I was telling my assistant,
I said, I hired you because I felt that you would,
you know, sort of come in here and put all
this new stuff in my kids. Because I get all
these packages every day. I'm like, I think, I just
want to have bags on the table, but I want
(30:35):
to turn around. I don't want you to hand me things.
I want to turn around. I want to look at
my bag and pick yes, yes, yes, I get it.
Trust me. That was the best thing that happened because
when I used to do shoots, I used to have
like five makeup artists assisting, and now I have sometimes
I have one person. I started doing it even by myself.
So there's Mario the makeup artist, Mario the businessman, Mario
(30:57):
the sun. How does Mario the per person process, Like,
what's your technique when you need to just like take
it down a match. I'm trying to figure that out, Bobby.
I've been very, very bad at that because of the
amount that I travel in my career, because for example,
I live in New York and Kim lives in l A.
And so because I do all these other things and projects,
and I'm and I'm working on all these things for
the future, and I try to be there so much,
(31:21):
you know, as much as I can to be there
for her because I know that I think, I think
in my mind that it provides her some sort of comfort, happiness,
you know, being there for her. And so I get
exhausted because I'm getting old, you know, not old, but
I am getting old. I'm getting old. Yeah, And so
I've been sort of struggling a lot with letting go
a little bit, not being such a control freak and
(31:41):
and delegating more things to people without me having to
be involved. And even on my way here this morning,
it's crazy that we're doing this conversation because it's like
so much happened this morning, you know. I looked at Mitch,
the assistant. I said, you know what, Mitch, I want
to be taking off of all these emails. I said,
just I'm just gonna let it up, to leave it
up to you in Ta Fonda, and I said, I
don't want to have to, you know, oversee every single
(32:02):
thing of the things that I don't need to be
looking at another thing happened today which I would have
never talked about this ever in my life, but I'm
going to just talk about it. I had an appointment
today for scheduled for I think it was two or
three for my you know, basically, they pressed this all
these needles in your face and they puts little tiny
amounts of filler and botox and vitamins and all that stuff.
And I don't know what. It was causing stress because
(32:23):
I couldn't have to I couldn't find the time to
go and to make the appointment. And this morning I
look at the calendar and I'm you know, I see
that appointment and I just like started texting the woman
and I just wrote her this long thing and I
sounded probably like a crazy person, and I said, you
know what, Laura, I said, I don't want to come
in today. I said, I realized it's not going to
make a difference if I do or not. I'm not
sure why I'm trying to go. And oh, because I
(32:45):
received that honor from the influence rewards from her artists achievement,
and so I was thinking like automatically, well I have
to do this and I have to get my face
and I have to my hair. And I realized this morning.
I'm like, I don't give a down no one and
no one's gonna notice that you did it or not.
But and you know what, you just you're overscheduled right now.
I've been there, I've done it. I get it, and
(33:06):
you just need to like nurture yourself. But this is
the start, so you know. I I realized that. I
told her, I said, it looks amazing, though I might
have to ask you for who you see, but she's
amazing Laura Dier and she yeah, And I realized, like,
you know what, I'd rather be home and laying on
the bed at that time because I have I have
like two hours and just sort of like working on
something that I love or or you know, catching up
a little bit eating and not rushing and being in person.
(33:29):
You might feel tired, but you don't look it and
you actually look really healthy. How do you take care
of yourself and what kind of diet and what do
you eat? I have my days that I I give
up and I eat you know, fries and things like that.
But you know, to be honest, I when I'm in
the hotel, I'll order chicken salad you know, when I'm home,
I have my spots that I order from, a creature
of habit if I don't have to be somewhere, I
(33:50):
don't leave within a three block radius of my home. Ever,
I order from a place called Muscle Grill when I'm
feeling like I want to have a wrap. You know,
that's healthy. But I've been more conscious to eat clean.
The only time I really like let loose and eat
whatever is when I go to my mom's home, when
she cooks for me and stuff. That's when I sort
of I don't even question. It's just the culture that
I miss and that I crave, and it's the you know,
(34:11):
the groundedness that I feel about home. None of this
stuff I always referred to as this stuff, you know,
the Instagram, the followers, and the monetary things and all that, like,
none of that exists when I'm in the presence of
my family and my mom. I love that feeling of
just not having to worry about any of it. It's
been the only time that I felt so grounded in
one with the earth itself. Um But I've been again
recently feeling that now, not just at my mom's house
(34:34):
but just in general. I do feel fully like a
fully grown man who knows what he wants and who
knows what he deserves, and you know, who knows what
he stands for. I'm really fascinated about Mario in the
next five years. Do you have any visions because I
kind of do. Here's the deal. I don't talk about
it much, and it's always and I think it comes
from this fear of like, oh my God, is someone
going to mess it up for me. I'll tell you
(34:55):
a story when I went into sepphor Right and I
knew that my mom didn't want me to do that job,
and I knew she was going to be embarrassed to me.
Before I had finally made that decision of like, Okay,
this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna take it seriously.
I'm gonna go to the Library'm gonna research everything I
you know, know everything I need to know, and do
every step that I need to take to be In
my mind, it was just successful. That's all I knew
back then was that it had to be successful to
(35:16):
show mom. And I looked around the store and I
saw the names, you know, Vincent Longo and Steelyn. It
was a moment where I locked eyes and I sort
of had an aha moment that Okay, that is my chance.
That is how I'm going to do it. I'm gonna
show mom by doing that. And so I worked for
twenty years to make sure that that I earned that,
and then I feel deserving to do something like that,
because that's a big deal to me, to put you know,
(35:38):
my my name on product and to put it into
stores around the world and around the country. That to
me is something I do not take lightly. And I
want to make sure that when I do that that
whoever is buying it, or whoever is thinking about buying
it doesn't have to ever question or go to YouTube
to get a review from someone, because I want them
to be ashore and to trust that I did the
(36:00):
work for them and that I'm giving them something that
is the very very very best quality. For me, I
could not do that unless I had at least twenty
years of experience as a working artist. I'm on my
nineteenth year right now. A few years ago I did
begin to slowly learn by myself calling cold calling the
labs and manufacturers and walking in meeting people to learn
(36:21):
everything that there was that I had to learn about
this to make sure I wasn't doing things blindly. I'd
been offered starting seven or eight years ago, really big
deals and really like lots of money to do things,
and you know, I knew in my heart I wasn't
gonna do them, And thank god I didn't, Bobby, because
I wasn't ready. I don't know what I know now.
I didn't know back then. When I know now, what
I'm learning now and what I'm knowing just naturally right
(36:42):
now at this age is life changing for me. And
it's it has given all of this the meaning, like
the pure meaning and purpose and none of it is
really monetary, and none of it is you know, it's
it's about something way deeper than that. But I'm bursting.
I'm bursting inside because I have been planning and I
have been dreaming about, you know, doing something, and it
(37:04):
might happen. We will all stay tuned to that. But
my last thing is, we have a speed round number one,
what's your skincare routine? New Gina face wash, and then
I mixed between Taucha A Supple Supple cream or Dowey
skin cream. I have this new cream Augustine me too.
I bought it's so funny. I brought you on. I
brought you on. I just requested a few of them
because I am me too, and I asked for a
(37:27):
bunch so I can give to my you know, my
friends that I thought I haven't. I I never get
excited up here about packages, But like, if it's something
that's something that I know, what was the last thing
you ate? A protein bar right here in your studio?
What makeup item does everyone need? I have to say
right now because I'm a little biased, but the collap
that is going to be released soon of Kim and
I because I worked so hard on that. What is it?
(37:48):
It's a it's a KKW and Mario part two. It's
called The Artists and Muse and it's a collection of
a palette and some lip and cheek products. Cool. No,
I I have, I have one, so I cannot wait
to see two. Who was the last celebrity that you
did their makeup? Kim? Probably like two or three days
ago when I was in l A. And there is
there any celebrity that you haven't done that you're dying
to do? You know what I always wanted to do
(38:10):
Michelle Obama so badly. I did her I got to
do her makeup a couple of times. Yeah, and I
still seem the coolest. You know. I read her book
a few months ago. And after I read the book
and it just gave me the herd more to want
to do her is. I don't know, I have like
a I'm so proud of her in this weird way,
even though I don't know her. See, I got lucky
once or twice where she needed someone in between something
(38:31):
and it was it was it was petrifying, but it
was really cool, I can imagine. And I had fifteen minutes,
by the way, I didn't I had fifteen minutes. She got.
It was definitely when the last term, when it was
she had something in the city, she was coming in
from d C. She had to get on stage and
twenty minutes I was like sitting and she goes pretty
(38:51):
heavy with the makeup. I mean she's fully contoured. She's
what did you do? I was in a bathroom and
she came in and I said a low because I
had met her before, and she said, I'm really sorry
for the rush, and I just started throwing things on
our face and it was and I asked, you know,
my assistant to take a picture of me in her
and she did and we didn't check the camera and
it didn't it was black. But the best picture ever
(39:12):
taken of me was you. I was at Yahoo Beauty
and you came in and you took a picture of me,
and you, I don't know what you did to that thing.
You're gonna have to teach me how to probably out
of me. I probably put one of the bright filter something.
I was like, I never looked so good in my life.
So wait, you are you still out there doing makeup?
I am just out of pure love for me because
that's what I love. Honestly, if you ask me what
(39:33):
I wanted, how I want to spend my day, it's
in a studio. And I own a photo studio by
the way in New Jersey, so we rented out. But
I constantly have I have a table full of makeup,
I have clothes and hashtag goals. One of my future
future goals is that I can do makeup but not
have to not have to rely on it and depend
on it to to live. You know, I see myself
(39:54):
working with Kim forever, but like not for money that
I just want to do it because it feels like
home to me because I love to create. But that's
that's awesome. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit
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