November 10, 2025 • 29 mins
He's one of Australia's top makeup artists and the trusted hand behind the flawless looks of Mel B, Drew Barrymore, and Bec Judd. This week on The Formula, Kelly McCarren is talking to the master of effortlessly cool beauty, Max May.
Max reveals how he went from defining high-fashion editorial pages for Vogue and Bazaar to mastering digital glam for the iPhone screen. We dive into how beauty accessibility has made people "a little bit lost," the nostalgic beauty relics he still keeps (and why he never got into matte lip kits), and his legendary skin prep obsession—and why he's anti-primer.
Plus, why today's teens are makeup geniuses, his controversial blush obsession that has him saying "I'd rather leave the house without mascara than blush," and the technique he was doing 20 years before Kim Kardashian made it go viral. Get ready for serious insider knowledge and Max's definitive list of five makeup products he can't live without.
PRODUCTS MENTIONED:
Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Concealer $20.99
Urban Decay Naked Eyeshadow Palettes $86.99
Tarte Shape Tape Concealer $50
Becca Champagne Pop Highlighter $72
Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Liquid Blush $45
Dior Backstage Rosey Glow Stick $79
Nude Sticks Multi-Use Colour $63
Armani Luminous Silk Foundation $120
Dermalogica Circular Hydration $108
NARS Laguna Bronzing Cream $72
Make Up Forever Outlining Pencils $37
YSL Lash Clash Mascara in Brown $70
Paula's Choice Liquid Exfoliant $54
One Size Pore Refining Primer $64
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CREDITS:
Hosts: Kelly McCarren
Guest: Max May
Producer: Sophie Campbell
Audio Producer: Tegan Sadler
Video Producer: Artemi Kokkaris
Just so you know — some of the product links in these notes are affiliate links, which means we might earn a small commission if you buy through them. It doesn’t cost you anything extra, and it helps support the show. Happy shopping!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Makeup is my therapy.
I'm obsessed and I don't even feel guilty about it.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hello and welcome to You Beauty, the daily podcast for
your face. I'm Kelly McCarron and you're listening to The Formula.
Today I've got such an incredible guest lined up for you.
I mean, I do every week, but I'm just so
excited to talk makeup with Max May. He's one of
Australia's top makeup artists and has dominated the industry for
(00:39):
over 20 years. He's the master behind some of.
Your favorite red carpet looks and the trusted hand behind
the makeup of some of Australia's biggest influencers. Max has
created looks for all of the high fashion editorials like
Vogue and Bizarre. He's worked with numerous top brands and
held masterclasses that blow attendees' minds. He's worked with much
(01:00):
loved celebs like Mel B, Drew Barrymore, Jodie Gordon, Elle Ferguson,
Beck Judd.
And he is the master of making effortlessly cool look
absolutely flawless. So thank you so much for joining us, Max.
You have such beautiful skin, but how?
OK, Max, you've spent over two decades defining the looks
(01:24):
we rip out of magazines and now screenshot, cause I
don't know, not many people are buying magazines these days.
Sometimes I do, sometimes I'm like, I'm gonna be a
magazine person again, and then I simply just, I do,
I do. I love like, you know, lying on a
beach and reading a magazine. You just feel very chic.
What have you seen change in how people approach beauty
(01:46):
from 20 years ago to now?
Oh my gosh, wow. shift. Yeah, I guess the biggest
shift is like accessibility, like what we have access to.
It's just an abundance of information and knowledge and people
are just really baffled by it because it's just like
(02:06):
coming at them from left, right and center, so I
really feel like people are kind of are a little
bit lost in the sense of like what they really want.
For themselves, they're kind of bamboozled with what everybody else
is doing and wearing, so I do find people are quite,
that would be the biggest thing is people are quite
complex about what they should be doing for themselves. You've
(02:27):
just actually blown my mind, it sounds so simple, but
you know how we always joke or,
We make silly memes and such about how we looked
like trolls growing up when we were teenagers, and the
teens today are like so hot and slaying their makeup routines.
It's because they have access to tutorials and they're watching
influencers and they're watching,
(02:48):
Masterclasses and that sort of thing, that's why we didn't
have access. That's why we were trolls. We didn't we
have magazines and we waited for every month for it
to come out and they were gloss learn too much
from them, like you're not gonna learn techniques from a magazine.
That's the excuse. I also do think that the ugly
stage is character building.
(03:09):
That's why we've all got great senses of humor. Exactly,
and will that next generation, I don't know, maybe they won't.
They're just gonna be flops, just flops. I'm gonna run
you through, remind you of some really popular products over
the last 20 years that I'm sure you've used and
maybe you still do. I wanna know if you loved
them at the time and if you still use them
(03:29):
today or would if they still existed. Maybelline Instant Age.
Wind razor. Oh, did I get into it? No, I didn't.
It was a little bit like no, and I don't
know if I would. Well, also it's not very, like
I guess the ease of use at home, but you're
not gonna use it on a set. No, not for me. Yeah,
not for you, not for me, but I can see
(03:49):
where like it kind of connected with people for sure. Why?
I still use it. Do you? Yeah, it'd be top
like 10 products in my kit, I still use it.
Nobody has replicated that product other than, I mean, by
Terry tried to because she actually invented it and so
she came out with that whole range, but I still
use it, particularly on set when I'm shooting beauty cos
(04:11):
it's just so sheer and it's so responsive with it
being undetectable. Would you say it's better for young people though?
Used in the right way, it can be used for everybody,
like I love using it if, if I've done a
bold lip and I wanna clean up the edges.
And I'll use it because it just brightens those edges
and brings the lip forward. If I wanna clean up
a liquid liner, I'll use it to pop in there,
but then I'll go in and I'll mix it in
(04:32):
with my concealers when I'm laying them down to give
a little bit of brightness, or if there's a little
bit of darkness in the inner corner, I'll pop it
in there, if I want like that no makeup look,
which when I'm shooting editorial, generally we don't want to
see anything on the skin. For me, I love it,
still use it. The OG naked eyeshadow palettes.
(04:52):
Still got it, don't use it, just kept it because
it was such an iconic moment. nostalgic, right? I finally
bit cos I was just like, I simply do not
have the room to store these and I'm not gonna
use them, but I did keep them for ages because
I was like, I feel a connection with them. There's
so much nostalgia. That tin case of mine is, it
literally looks like people have driven over it, it's banged
(05:15):
and scratched, but.
I converted my garage into a makeup studio, so I
have wall units and I keep all my eye shadows
all stacked and it's in the kit with a few
other like old school Dior palettes and things that I
just think one day I'm gonna need that for something
or would you use it like if you were desperate
for a shade. Probably wouldn't use it, but as a
(05:36):
reference I could pull it out because it's like it's
a color.
In there that was just really iconic to that moment
or like I work with a lot of makeup brands,
so maybe I would need to draw on the particular
colors and why those colors worked. I just think also
as well, it was just one of those palettes that
I was just like, every day, on set, celebrity clients,
I was ripping out that palette and everyone was just like,
(05:59):
how did you get that palette, like where did you
get that palette? I feel like that palette to me.
Was the start of the general public getting obsessed with
makeup products, like that's the product that I think of, yes, yes, exactly,
not just like putting one thing, you know those tiny
little quads that our mums used back in the day.
(06:20):
Kylie lip kits, like the original matte. Yeah, never got
into them. I've got one Kylie pencil, I never got
into those lip kits. I'm not into those matte lipsticks,
it's not my vibe. So no. No. Maybelline Dream Matte
Mousse Foundation.
My aunt still uses, I'm pretty sure, a replica or
(06:42):
a version that they relaunched of that, and she reminded
me very similar to, I don't know if you remember
when Estee Lauder changed their iconic foundation recipe and all
the old ladies went.
Absolutely nuts. My aunt was losing it when they discontinued.
She was the mousse. Loved that mousse. Does she have
oily skin? Oh, loved it. So she's still on board, OK,
(07:06):
but you were not. Never. Very thick. Yeah.
Tarte Shape Tape. That's the concealer, right? Yeah, and people
in the 2016 YouTube era were doing like the huge
triangles under their eyes and don't mind it. I have
a couple of colors that I use as highlighters, and
in fact, they just launched a cream stick version.
(07:28):
The blur. I am using that on my mature girls,
and let me tell you, I'm loving it and they
are loving it as well. I have lost many of
those sticks since purchasing them because the girls are swiping them.
They're really good. I agree, and I, I've seen a
couple of reviews, people don't like them and I agree
with you. I love it. Oh, tap it on the
finger and just tap it on the face and let
it out, it's so smoothing, it's blurring heaven.
(07:50):
A little bit of oil in there if you want
to thin it out and then paint it on your
whole face and it just sets down. Gorgeous. The Becca
champagne pop. My like love for Becca like is just,
it's so iconic in. Were you so happy last year
when they brought back with Smashbox. Yeah, and so I
shot some Becca campaigns back in the day and.
(08:13):
It's just like a ride or die product for me,
the highlighters, the liquid highlighters, they were the first to
do that, those foundations were amazing, the eye greases, like,
loved it all, use it all, still have some like
little skerricks of eye glosses and things still in my
drawers that I've just kept because I love. And they're irreplaceable, irreplaceable. Finally,
(08:34):
Jeffree Star skin Frost.
Do you remember these? They were literal frosts, like the
most tacky. It's almost like crystals on your skin highlight,
like really thick frosting. Oh gosh, you didn't never tried
it probably for the best. I used to.
(08:55):
Did you whip it out on the top of the cheeks,
on the eyebrow? I was very into my 2016 YouTube era,
look real good in real life. So your work has
graced every Vogue and Bizarre page globally. How do you
adapt that high gloss editorial artistry for an iPhone screen,
and what's the biggest difference between setting a magazine standard.
(09:19):
Then moving on to like digital storytelling. OK, very, very different. Yeah,
like less is more when I worked in fashion and
when I still work in fashion, when I go there,
it's very minimal, it's very intentional, and then, you know,
when I go into my digital persona because I do
have two very different portfolios and two very different styles
(09:40):
of work.
It is a little bit more kind of polished and
glossy and a little bit more kind of glam and
obvious and I layer a lot more products and things
like that when I'm working in that digital space, which
I think kind of more translates more into girls doing
their own makeup and getting longevity and things like that.
When I'm creating a picture and I'm on set doing that,
(10:03):
it's for that moment.
You know, so I'm looking at getting the perfect finish
rather than saying that this is going to last. And
I guess that digital kind of makeup also translates over
into my very much my celebrity kind of glams, red
carpet where I need things to kind of last a
little bit longer or they're going to go off on
their day. So two very different styles. Yeah, that makes
(10:26):
sense and.
I guess with all of the looks that you do though,
skin prep, and your skin prep and your love of
it is very iconic. So break it down for us, like,
do you have a secret to really plumping skin and
making foundation stay all day? Do you use primers, like
I'm anti-primer. Really? I don't like primers unless the primer.
(10:49):
is like a pore refiner, like one size has a
pore refining silicon moment, which I'll use a lot around
the nose and these kind of pore areas and stuff,
and I'll put it on, but generally primers, nah, not
into it, don't believe in it. I believe in skincare.
I believe in good skin prep, so you know, like
I will do everything from doing like a Paula's Choice
liquid exfoliating and then.
(11:10):
You know, I'll go in and do a moisture mask
and then I put my hyaluronics on, and then I
put my moistures on, and then I put my sunscreen on,
and then maybe I'll kind of come in and, you know,
do a little bit of a, of a, of a
primer if I absolutely need it in a patch. So yeah,
skincare's a major part of what I do. I think
I really built my style off that.
(11:31):
Because you were doing it rather than saying come with
your skincare. Yeah, like I was into the massages, I
was really into products, and I worked out really early
in my career that,
It was important for makeup not only to look good
in the picture, but also to look good in real life,
because we were moving kind of into that digital moment,
so I kind of started to foresee that, so I
(11:53):
really worked on skin and I also noticed that girls
were like, oh my God, my skin looks amazing. But also,
I was just able to manipulate makeup a lot better
when I put that time in,
To the skincare, I could see the result a lot more,
so for me it's a huge part of my career,
I love it. It's crazy what a different your makeup
will look just from a few minutes massaging.
(12:16):
Yeah, like a nice little face massage. It changes everything,
the way it goes down, the way it blends, the
way it lasts, just your finish, like, I'm constantly, I
feel like a broken record, I'm always like, guys, you
want your foundation to look like that, it's not about
the foundation, like it's about your skincare, it's about your skin.
Look after your skin, like you have to take that
(12:37):
step really seriously because you will not get,
The finish that I have got without doing that. Exactly,
and I just got a flashback to the troll era,
where I would put the Maybelline Mousse on unmoisturized acneic skin. Oh,
that would have been a a real treat to the
(12:58):
eyes of anyone walking past like concrete d bad, bad.
You love blush. Yeah, I've got a blush obsession. So
do I. I love blush. People who don't like blush,
I'm like, why? It makes you look youthful, it makes
you look healthy, like I'm obsessed.
You know, we're entering summer here in Australia, how can
(13:20):
people easily start incorporating it into their beauty routine? Do
you have any faves that you think are universally flattering,
or methods of application, because people go, oh where should
I put it? I'm like, I don't know, wherever suits you. Yeah,
definitely wear blush, blush is for everybody. People who don't
like blush, I mean I put them in the same
category as people who don't like.
Agree, agree, because also maybe you just used a Barbie
(13:44):
one that looks awful on you or like an orange one. Well,
I think that people are quite scared of blush because
it can go wrong, but I think our formulations have
changed so much. Like there's a lot of flexibility in
it now. Blush fixes so many things. It de-ages us,
it brightens our skin.
And it brightens out under eyes, it helps, you know,
contrast against under-eye darkness if you're tired, if you feel
(14:04):
very sallow, if you, you know, feel like you haven't
had a tan and you need some color, like it
brightens up your eye color, like it volumizes your face.
It does so many things. I would rather leave the
house without mascara on the blush. Oh, for sure.
Absolutely. 100%, like it's just heaven. I agree, I'm with you, sister. Um, applications,
(14:27):
so I love a cream formula, but I love to layer.
I layer my cream and my powder generally in a
33 stacker. So I'll put down my cream, I'll set
all around it, then I'll put on the powder.
But I generally, like I'll put a bright color down
first in the cream, and then I'll put a really
really light version of that cream down. So say if
I used a, a really beautiful like pink color, I
(14:49):
would put that bright color down first, and then I'd
use a really lighter version of that and I'd dust
it over the top to kind of set that cream.
And then I take a little bit of that cream
that I originally laid down the brighter, and I'll just
dab it on like the highest point, or maybe I'll
dab it in the center of the cheek, depending on
my blush style, just to give me that kind of
(15:09):
three dimensional kind of layering effect. And also, it just
helps it.
is the most important thing, it really helps it last
because blush evaporates really really does. I always think I'm
like if I leave the house looking a little bit clown-like,
I'm OK with that because I feel like by the
time I get wherever I'm going, it's going to look human.
15 minutes, it's gonna sink in. Exactly, yeah, and I
(15:31):
think that is a really,
A good thing to focus on with that situation is
using a cream first, because the cream will really sink
into your foundation and it'll sort of look like it's
coming through the foundation, so I think it's really good
to use a cream first and then to set it. Agreed. Yeah.
Do you have any favorites?
Oh gosh, I am such a blush, I get around.
(15:57):
I don't. I like to be blush. Yeah, I, I
was gonna say that and then I thought don't say that. No, no,
I said I knew you were thinking it, so I
said it. I don't say that, that's a bad word. Yeah,
so rare beauty, love rare beauty, friendly. Yeah, well, I
think it, yeah, it can be a little bit, tap
it on the back of your hand, work it into
your brush, then put it onto your face, so kind
of prime your brush first rather than dabbing it onto the.
(16:19):
To the cheeks like everybody does on social, like, don't
ever do that with a liquid blush. Always work it
into the back of the hand. You'll get a softer,
nicer effect. I really love the Dior glow blushes. They're
really sheer and very user-friendly. Nude sticks, love nude sticks.
And so many shades. Love that I can put them
on eyes. I am lips a little lazy. I like
(16:41):
to use multi-use things. I love the idea of having a,
a cream that I can put on the cheek. I'll
put a little bit on the eyes, I'll put a
little bit on the lips, I'll put the line.
Later on and I'm like, oh sweet. Done, done. You
have an absolute roll call of icons in your list
of clientele from Mel B to Drew Barrymore. What's the
most surprising or unexpected beauty ritual that you've ever witnessed
(17:06):
from one of these high profile clients? Like just something
so random that you go, that is shocking, but I'm
here for it. Oh my gosh, let me think. Like
a beauty version of, do you remember that moment where
Anne Hathaway.
Ate the cupcake from the.
How did she do it? Oh, she like broke it
apart and then put the icing in the middle so
(17:26):
it was like a little cake, so then, yeah, like
a cupcake sandwich, so then no bite didn't have a
lot of icing and everyone went, oh my God, that's genius, right. Yeah,
so something like that but beauty related. OK, I can't
mention the names because I could never give away, I mean,
I'm very much trusted in these positions, but.
I had a client who used to, instead of using
(17:47):
a leave-in conditioner, she used to put olive oil in
the ends of her hair and rock up and then
want me to do like a huge blow dry. And
you were like, ma'am I I was like, girl, your
hair looks like, I don't know, and I would be
at the back with like the dry shampoo trying to
kind of like get it.
It out of the of the ends of her hair.
(18:10):
So I think that was probably the craziest thing, yeah,
it was the olive oil. Let's talk about a bit
of a common myth or debate if you will, so
setting powder, what is something that you see that you
just go, oh my goodness, like whether it's online or
just in real life when people,
Are setting their faces, like do you believe in powder
(18:32):
all over, do you believe in more targeted, do you
think everyone needs powder? Yeah, look, I mean it's so subjective,
isn't it, depending on the result you want. I use
powder on every type of makeup for every type of finish,
so you know, if I'm using a radiant foundation, a
radiant foundation is designed to powder.
And if you don't powder it, it is going to
(18:53):
slip and it is going to move. It will become radiant,
you just need to give it a little bit of time,
or maybe you need to use some sort of setting
spray to kind of melt the powder in.
I guess the biggest mistake that I see is the
amount of powder, and I don't think that that's necessarily
like a general public issue. It's what social media has,
you know, tricked people into believing and is that is
(19:17):
they need to put so much on. You don't. And
you don't need to put it all over. Like you
can be really specific with it, less is more, apply
one light layer.
And then come back in and do another one if
you're unsure. So I guess that's the biggest mistake is
that influencers, you know, making out that you need to
use all this product, you know, it goes, it goes
across the board for all of it. Like, oh, you've
(19:37):
gotta apply all this foundation on, like that, all that
foundation does not look good in life. No. It only
looks good in front of their camera lighting, like this
beautiful lighting that we have right here where we've got
all these beautiful highlights bouncing on us. In real life,
you don't need to have all of that makeup.
So I think powder, less is more, be specific with it,
put it around the nose if you get oily there.
If you've got smile lines and and you find that
(19:58):
they get a little shiny and too enhanced, put a
little bit of powder there, put a little bit in
the middle of the forehead, be really kind of specific
with it, and then if you get halfway through the
day and you look at your face and you look
like a disco ball, then just put it all over.
Then rethink, rethink that you need to use a bit more,
but yes.
You funneled over 15 years of your secrets into the
(20:21):
sculpt and defined masterclass. What's one signature technique that you, well, I,
I really need to teach people this.
Yeah, I need to start that makeup course again. I,
it went off. COVID and it went absolutely nuts, and
it was a membership as well, which I wanted to
(20:43):
break all the rules because people were doing masterclasses and
they're still doing it, and it's about their look. But
I said to you that.
Before about, you know, trends, the T word, which is
such a double-edged sword for me, topic wise. You're teaching
one look. That one look doesn't look good on everyone.
And yeah, I understand that you can take little parts
of that, and yes, that works for people as well.
(21:04):
I agree, it's not completely wrong. But what I wanted
to do with my masterclass was teach girls how to
understand their,
Face, whether it be their coloring, whether it be their
face shape, and how to see that, how to recognize that,
and how to enhance that with makeup, specifically for them.
So I had a lot of like pictures, I had
a lot of color tabs that girls could look at
(21:26):
to see what sort of skin tone they were, to
work out what kind of foundation they were, what kind
of blush tones they were, what kind of lip tones.
And then I had like a lot of eye shapes,
cheek shapes, face shapes, lip shapes, so girls could recognize
what they were so that they could enhance their lip
to make their face look more symmetric or enhance those features.
And also it was really a big part of it
(21:48):
was about breaking down that idea that makeup is there
to cover. It's there to enhance. We're a little bit
broken in the sense that we're clickbait is to tell people, ooh.
You know, you wanna be unfashionable this season, you know,
don't do this, where I was like, look at your face,
find the things that you love, enhance those things, and
what you will actually find is that you won't see
(22:10):
the things that you dislike, because all the attention will
be on the things that you love.
And I think that's why it did pop off in
that sense, and I still have girls that are like,
can you do that again or can you just reactivate that,
cos I had to close the website down because it
was just like, I didn't have time and I just
felt like it was old, you know, I saw things
that needed to be fixed or or repaired, that still
(22:31):
talk to me about it. I have girls that turned up.
I did a YSL master classes, they turned up with
the printouts. Oh bless them. Being like, hey, in this
bit when you said this and I was like,
What is that? And I'm looking and I was like,
oh my God, it was in a downloadable PDF thing, yeah,
so people could download it, so they they printed it out.
(22:53):
That's so cute. Looking back over the past 20 years,
what is the biggest, most revolutionary technique you've seen the
average person adopt that you would never have believed possible
back when you were working on those early shoots? Oh gosh,
there's a few things. I'm gonna say probably the first
thing would be contouring. I have pictures on Polaroids before
(23:16):
we went to digital, that's how old I am.
Of girls on set with what I call the Lion
King face on where I'd painted the contour, painted the highlight,
and I was blending it and the photographer had come
over to test the Polaroids and had taken a snap,
and I still have those. And I think, if I
had only published that or if I had, my magazine
(23:37):
had only published that, because when that boomed, when Kim
Kardashian did that, I was just like, like it was
like something new. All of us makeup artists were like, huh?
And all of the drag queens that had been doing
the drag makeup forever, they're like, hello sis, you did
not invent this. Yeah, well it comes from theater. Originally
that's where it come from, from theater and that's where
we'd adapted it and we'd obviously minimized it a lot
(23:59):
in fashion because less is kind of more in that situation,
but it was something there, but you know what, it
was a really defining moment for me at that point
when I saw her do that.
My Instagram had been going, but it was not, I
was not selling anything, literally on my lifestyle, you know,
I was just posting art pictures of me and my
friends here or going out or a cigarette in an
ashtray or something randoms and I thought, ding. I thought
(24:23):
this is it. This is where we're going, this is
the future, like this is what I need to start doing.
I need.
To start photographing and videoing my process because this is
what people wanna see. Yeah, and to make it accessible
to people that aren't ever going to be in your makeup.
And you know what it's like when you're in the industry,
like I think still now I catch myself and people
(24:45):
are like, oh we want you to do a masterclass
on this technique, and I'm thinking surely everyone knows how
to do that by now.
And they're like, no, they don't, they don't, like people
still want to see this, people still learning because our
algorithms might be full of 10 different tutorials in half
an hour, that doesn't mean that someone else's is. Theirs
might be full of gardening, they don't even know that
(25:05):
you can learn how to do a.
On tour on TikTok or whatnot. We're all obsessed with
very complex routines, which I think definitely started with, you know,
the 21 step skincare routines coming from Korea, which, I mean, listen,
they've got beautiful skin. What is one popular ritual or
step that you
(25:26):
Just go, oh God, that's so unnecessary, and why do
you think we put pressure on that? Probably unnecessary would
be the amount of skincare that people are putting on pre-makeup,
not in life. I think in life, like, with your skincare,
you should take it seriously and you should see a dermatologist,
you should see a facialist regularly, you should invest in
(25:49):
your skin.
I mean, I have my whole life looked after my
skin a lot and there's no regrets there definitely, but
when I watch people do their skincare before makeup and
they're using so many products on there, it's completely unnecessary.
Your skin can only absorb so much before you put
makeup on. Well, is it also just gonna then make
(26:09):
the makeup it's gonna make the makeup move and it's
not gonna make it sit. So simplicity is the key pre-makeup,
you know, like if you need to exfoliate, do that, put.
a serum, put down a moisturizer, or put down an
SPF slash moisturizer and just keep it really tight. Put
all those products on at night. Finally, I know that
it will constantly be changing anyone that's in the industry.
(26:31):
We know that we always have new favorites or old favorites,
but right now in this very moment, if you could
only grab 5 makeup products, what would they be? 5
makeup products. Definitely my Armani Luminous Silk. I'm a diehard fan.
I can make any sort of foundation out of that.
That I need to, that would definitely be that. My
(26:52):
circular serum from Dermalogica, I love it, super hydrating, really lightweight.
It'd be some sort of sunscreen. I'm a big sunscreen fanatic.
Maybe like a naked Sundays, I love their primer, super thick.
NARS cream bronzer would probably be the next. Love it.
I really wanna have a pencil and a. You can
(27:14):
have two cause I never can't sunscreen because sun.
We just gotta have it. Yeah. Probably like the Make
Up Forever outlining pencils because I use them in so
many different ways. I'll use them as a lip liner,
I'll use it as a lip color, I'll use them
as eye shadows, I'll use them as liners, like they're
so multifunctional. I even use like Endless cacao as a
(27:34):
nose contour. Put it on my finger, and then I'll
just swipe it down each side of the nose for
an under shadow. Like I love it. Those pencils are
like amazing. This is kind of a random one.
But probably like the YSL Lash Clash mascara in brown.
It's like a really beautiful like red brown and it's
really gorgeous on like green and brown eyes. It really
(27:59):
brings out the kind of the yellow and the brown
or really brings out the green, and in fact, you
know what, it's actually really beautiful on blue eyes. I say,
could it work for blue. It's really good on everyone.
It has this really beautiful kind of reddish undertone, and
I just love that I can kind of put it
on super sheer or I can.
build it up and do like a real rock chick
kind of mascara moment with it. I love it. OK,
(28:20):
I'll probably regret all of those, but I, well, like,
I mean, listen, this is the thing, in this, you're
gonna have 5 different favorites potentially next week, so that
is like, take it with a grain of salt. It
is just in this moment today, that's why I've got
to like preface it. Well, thank you so much, everyone's
going to have learnt so much. Thank you so much
for having me. That was fun. That was so that
was a great round of questions. I'm I love it.
(28:43):
Well that was absolutely amazing. I'm walking away from this chat,
convinced I can try a couple of new things and
also with a few things on my shopping list, so,
you know, I'll have to go shopping after this and
I'm sure that anyone,
Listening will too. If you're keen to learn all of
Max's secrets, you need to make sure that you are
(29:03):
following him on socials and you can go to a
website and sign up, maybe he'll bring back the masterclass.
But thank you so much for joining us, Max. Make
sure you subscribe to You Beauty, and we'll be back
in your ears and eyes tomorrow.
Makeup is my therapy.
I'm obsessed and I don't even feel guilty about it.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hello and welcome to You Beauty, the daily podcast for
your face. I'm Kelly McCarron and you're listening to The Formula.
Today I've got such an incredible guest lined up for you.
I mean, I do every week, but I'm just so
excited to talk makeup with Max May. He's one of
Australia's top makeup artists and has dominated the industry for
(00:39):
over 20 years. He's the master behind some of.
Your favorite red carpet looks and the trusted hand behind
the makeup of some of Australia's biggest influencers. Max has
created looks for all of the high fashion editorials like
Vogue and Bizarre. He's worked with numerous top brands and
held masterclasses that blow attendees' minds. He's worked with much
(01:00):
loved celebs like Mel B, Drew Barrymore, Jodie Gordon, Elle Ferguson,
Beck Judd.
And he is the master of making effortlessly cool look
absolutely flawless. So thank you so much for joining us, Max.
You have such beautiful skin, but how?
OK, Max, you've spent over two decades defining the looks
(01:24):
we rip out of magazines and now screenshot, cause I
don't know, not many people are buying magazines these days.
Sometimes I do, sometimes I'm like, I'm gonna be a
magazine person again, and then I simply just, I do,
I do. I love like, you know, lying on a
beach and reading a magazine. You just feel very chic.
What have you seen change in how people approach beauty
(01:46):
from 20 years ago to now?
Oh my gosh, wow. shift. Yeah, I guess the biggest
shift is like accessibility, like what we have access to.
It's just an abundance of information and knowledge and people
are just really baffled by it because it's just like
(02:06):
coming at them from left, right and center, so I
really feel like people are kind of are a little
bit lost in the sense of like what they really want.
For themselves, they're kind of bamboozled with what everybody else
is doing and wearing, so I do find people are quite,
that would be the biggest thing is people are quite
complex about what they should be doing for themselves. You've
(02:27):
just actually blown my mind, it sounds so simple, but
you know how we always joke or,
We make silly memes and such about how we looked
like trolls growing up when we were teenagers, and the
teens today are like so hot and slaying their makeup routines.
It's because they have access to tutorials and they're watching
influencers and they're watching,
(02:48):
Masterclasses and that sort of thing, that's why we didn't
have access. That's why we were trolls. We didn't we
have magazines and we waited for every month for it
to come out and they were gloss learn too much
from them, like you're not gonna learn techniques from a magazine.
That's the excuse. I also do think that the ugly
stage is character building.
(03:09):
That's why we've all got great senses of humor. Exactly,
and will that next generation, I don't know, maybe they won't.
They're just gonna be flops, just flops. I'm gonna run
you through, remind you of some really popular products over
the last 20 years that I'm sure you've used and
maybe you still do. I wanna know if you loved
them at the time and if you still use them
(03:29):
today or would if they still existed. Maybelline Instant Age.
Wind razor. Oh, did I get into it? No, I didn't.
It was a little bit like no, and I don't
know if I would. Well, also it's not very, like
I guess the ease of use at home, but you're
not gonna use it on a set. No, not for me. Yeah,
not for you, not for me, but I can see
(03:49):
where like it kind of connected with people for sure. Why?
I still use it. Do you? Yeah, it'd be top
like 10 products in my kit, I still use it.
Nobody has replicated that product other than, I mean, by
Terry tried to because she actually invented it and so
she came out with that whole range, but I still
use it, particularly on set when I'm shooting beauty cos
(04:11):
it's just so sheer and it's so responsive with it
being undetectable. Would you say it's better for young people though?
Used in the right way, it can be used for everybody,
like I love using it if, if I've done a
bold lip and I wanna clean up the edges.
And I'll use it because it just brightens those edges
and brings the lip forward. If I wanna clean up
a liquid liner, I'll use it to pop in there,
but then I'll go in and I'll mix it in
(04:32):
with my concealers when I'm laying them down to give
a little bit of brightness, or if there's a little
bit of darkness in the inner corner, I'll pop it
in there, if I want like that no makeup look,
which when I'm shooting editorial, generally we don't want to
see anything on the skin. For me, I love it,
still use it. The OG naked eyeshadow palettes.
(04:52):
Still got it, don't use it, just kept it because
it was such an iconic moment. nostalgic, right? I finally
bit cos I was just like, I simply do not
have the room to store these and I'm not gonna
use them, but I did keep them for ages because
I was like, I feel a connection with them. There's
so much nostalgia. That tin case of mine is, it
literally looks like people have driven over it, it's banged
(05:15):
and scratched, but.
I converted my garage into a makeup studio, so I
have wall units and I keep all my eye shadows
all stacked and it's in the kit with a few
other like old school Dior palettes and things that I
just think one day I'm gonna need that for something
or would you use it like if you were desperate
for a shade. Probably wouldn't use it, but as a
(05:36):
reference I could pull it out because it's like it's
a color.
In there that was just really iconic to that moment
or like I work with a lot of makeup brands,
so maybe I would need to draw on the particular
colors and why those colors worked. I just think also
as well, it was just one of those palettes that
I was just like, every day, on set, celebrity clients,
I was ripping out that palette and everyone was just like,
(05:59):
how did you get that palette, like where did you
get that palette? I feel like that palette to me.
Was the start of the general public getting obsessed with
makeup products, like that's the product that I think of, yes, yes, exactly,
not just like putting one thing, you know those tiny
little quads that our mums used back in the day.
(06:20):
Kylie lip kits, like the original matte. Yeah, never got
into them. I've got one Kylie pencil, I never got
into those lip kits. I'm not into those matte lipsticks,
it's not my vibe. So no. No. Maybelline Dream Matte
Mousse Foundation.
My aunt still uses, I'm pretty sure, a replica or
(06:42):
a version that they relaunched of that, and she reminded
me very similar to, I don't know if you remember
when Estee Lauder changed their iconic foundation recipe and all
the old ladies went.
Absolutely nuts. My aunt was losing it when they discontinued.
She was the mousse. Loved that mousse. Does she have
oily skin? Oh, loved it. So she's still on board, OK,
(07:06):
but you were not. Never. Very thick. Yeah.
Tarte Shape Tape. That's the concealer, right? Yeah, and people
in the 2016 YouTube era were doing like the huge
triangles under their eyes and don't mind it. I have
a couple of colors that I use as highlighters, and
in fact, they just launched a cream stick version.
(07:28):
The blur. I am using that on my mature girls,
and let me tell you, I'm loving it and they
are loving it as well. I have lost many of
those sticks since purchasing them because the girls are swiping them.
They're really good. I agree, and I, I've seen a
couple of reviews, people don't like them and I agree
with you. I love it. Oh, tap it on the
finger and just tap it on the face and let
it out, it's so smoothing, it's blurring heaven.
(07:50):
A little bit of oil in there if you want
to thin it out and then paint it on your
whole face and it just sets down. Gorgeous. The Becca
champagne pop. My like love for Becca like is just,
it's so iconic in. Were you so happy last year
when they brought back with Smashbox. Yeah, and so I
shot some Becca campaigns back in the day and.
(08:13):
It's just like a ride or die product for me,
the highlighters, the liquid highlighters, they were the first to
do that, those foundations were amazing, the eye greases, like,
loved it all, use it all, still have some like
little skerricks of eye glosses and things still in my
drawers that I've just kept because I love. And they're irreplaceable, irreplaceable. Finally,
(08:34):
Jeffree Star skin Frost.
Do you remember these? They were literal frosts, like the
most tacky. It's almost like crystals on your skin highlight,
like really thick frosting. Oh gosh, you didn't never tried
it probably for the best. I used to.
(08:55):
Did you whip it out on the top of the cheeks,
on the eyebrow? I was very into my 2016 YouTube era,
look real good in real life. So your work has
graced every Vogue and Bizarre page globally. How do you
adapt that high gloss editorial artistry for an iPhone screen,
and what's the biggest difference between setting a magazine standard.
(09:19):
Then moving on to like digital storytelling. OK, very, very different. Yeah,
like less is more when I worked in fashion and
when I still work in fashion, when I go there,
it's very minimal, it's very intentional, and then, you know,
when I go into my digital persona because I do
have two very different portfolios and two very different styles
(09:40):
of work.
It is a little bit more kind of polished and
glossy and a little bit more kind of glam and
obvious and I layer a lot more products and things
like that when I'm working in that digital space, which
I think kind of more translates more into girls doing
their own makeup and getting longevity and things like that.
When I'm creating a picture and I'm on set doing that,
(10:03):
it's for that moment.
You know, so I'm looking at getting the perfect finish
rather than saying that this is going to last. And
I guess that digital kind of makeup also translates over
into my very much my celebrity kind of glams, red
carpet where I need things to kind of last a
little bit longer or they're going to go off on
their day. So two very different styles. Yeah, that makes
(10:26):
sense and.
I guess with all of the looks that you do though,
skin prep, and your skin prep and your love of
it is very iconic. So break it down for us, like,
do you have a secret to really plumping skin and
making foundation stay all day? Do you use primers, like
I'm anti-primer. Really? I don't like primers unless the primer.
(10:49):
is like a pore refiner, like one size has a
pore refining silicon moment, which I'll use a lot around
the nose and these kind of pore areas and stuff,
and I'll put it on, but generally primers, nah, not
into it, don't believe in it. I believe in skincare.
I believe in good skin prep, so you know, like
I will do everything from doing like a Paula's Choice
liquid exfoliating and then.
(11:10):
You know, I'll go in and do a moisture mask
and then I put my hyaluronics on, and then I
put my moistures on, and then I put my sunscreen on,
and then maybe I'll kind of come in and, you know,
do a little bit of a, of a, of a
primer if I absolutely need it in a patch. So yeah,
skincare's a major part of what I do. I think
I really built my style off that.
(11:31):
Because you were doing it rather than saying come with
your skincare. Yeah, like I was into the massages, I
was really into products, and I worked out really early
in my career that,
It was important for makeup not only to look good
in the picture, but also to look good in real life,
because we were moving kind of into that digital moment,
so I kind of started to foresee that, so I
(11:53):
really worked on skin and I also noticed that girls
were like, oh my God, my skin looks amazing. But also,
I was just able to manipulate makeup a lot better
when I put that time in,
To the skincare, I could see the result a lot more,
so for me it's a huge part of my career,
I love it. It's crazy what a different your makeup
will look just from a few minutes massaging.
(12:16):
Yeah, like a nice little face massage. It changes everything,
the way it goes down, the way it blends, the
way it lasts, just your finish, like, I'm constantly, I
feel like a broken record, I'm always like, guys, you
want your foundation to look like that, it's not about
the foundation, like it's about your skincare, it's about your skin.
Look after your skin, like you have to take that
(12:37):
step really seriously because you will not get,
The finish that I have got without doing that. Exactly,
and I just got a flashback to the troll era,
where I would put the Maybelline Mousse on unmoisturized acneic skin. Oh,
that would have been a a real treat to the
(12:58):
eyes of anyone walking past like concrete d bad, bad.
You love blush. Yeah, I've got a blush obsession. So
do I. I love blush. People who don't like blush,
I'm like, why? It makes you look youthful, it makes
you look healthy, like I'm obsessed.
You know, we're entering summer here in Australia, how can
(13:20):
people easily start incorporating it into their beauty routine? Do
you have any faves that you think are universally flattering,
or methods of application, because people go, oh where should
I put it? I'm like, I don't know, wherever suits you. Yeah,
definitely wear blush, blush is for everybody. People who don't
like blush, I mean I put them in the same
category as people who don't like.
Agree, agree, because also maybe you just used a Barbie
(13:44):
one that looks awful on you or like an orange one. Well,
I think that people are quite scared of blush because
it can go wrong, but I think our formulations have
changed so much. Like there's a lot of flexibility in
it now. Blush fixes so many things. It de-ages us,
it brightens our skin.
And it brightens out under eyes, it helps, you know,
contrast against under-eye darkness if you're tired, if you feel
(14:04):
very sallow, if you, you know, feel like you haven't
had a tan and you need some color, like it
brightens up your eye color, like it volumizes your face.
It does so many things. I would rather leave the
house without mascara on the blush. Oh, for sure.
Absolutely. 100%, like it's just heaven. I agree, I'm with you, sister. Um, applications,
(14:27):
so I love a cream formula, but I love to layer.
I layer my cream and my powder generally in a
33 stacker. So I'll put down my cream, I'll set
all around it, then I'll put on the powder.
But I generally, like I'll put a bright color down
first in the cream, and then I'll put a really
really light version of that cream down. So say if
I used a, a really beautiful like pink color, I
(14:49):
would put that bright color down first, and then I'd
use a really lighter version of that and I'd dust
it over the top to kind of set that cream.
And then I take a little bit of that cream
that I originally laid down the brighter, and I'll just
dab it on like the highest point, or maybe I'll
dab it in the center of the cheek, depending on
my blush style, just to give me that kind of
(15:09):
three dimensional kind of layering effect. And also, it just
helps it.
is the most important thing, it really helps it last
because blush evaporates really really does. I always think I'm
like if I leave the house looking a little bit clown-like,
I'm OK with that because I feel like by the
time I get wherever I'm going, it's going to look human.
15 minutes, it's gonna sink in. Exactly, yeah, and I
(15:31):
think that is a really,
A good thing to focus on with that situation is
using a cream first, because the cream will really sink
into your foundation and it'll sort of look like it's
coming through the foundation, so I think it's really good
to use a cream first and then to set it. Agreed. Yeah.
Do you have any favorites?
Oh gosh, I am such a blush, I get around.
(15:57):
I don't. I like to be blush. Yeah, I, I
was gonna say that and then I thought don't say that. No, no,
I said I knew you were thinking it, so I
said it. I don't say that, that's a bad word. Yeah,
so rare beauty, love rare beauty, friendly. Yeah, well, I
think it, yeah, it can be a little bit, tap
it on the back of your hand, work it into
your brush, then put it onto your face, so kind
of prime your brush first rather than dabbing it onto the.
(16:19):
To the cheeks like everybody does on social, like, don't
ever do that with a liquid blush. Always work it
into the back of the hand. You'll get a softer,
nicer effect. I really love the Dior glow blushes. They're
really sheer and very user-friendly. Nude sticks, love nude sticks.
And so many shades. Love that I can put them
on eyes. I am lips a little lazy. I like
(16:41):
to use multi-use things. I love the idea of having a,
a cream that I can put on the cheek. I'll
put a little bit on the eyes, I'll put a
little bit on the lips, I'll put the line.
Later on and I'm like, oh sweet. Done, done. You
have an absolute roll call of icons in your list
of clientele from Mel B to Drew Barrymore. What's the
most surprising or unexpected beauty ritual that you've ever witnessed
(17:06):
from one of these high profile clients? Like just something
so random that you go, that is shocking, but I'm
here for it. Oh my gosh, let me think. Like
a beauty version of, do you remember that moment where
Anne Hathaway.
Ate the cupcake from the.
How did she do it? Oh, she like broke it
apart and then put the icing in the middle so
(17:26):
it was like a little cake, so then, yeah, like
a cupcake sandwich, so then no bite didn't have a
lot of icing and everyone went, oh my God, that's genius, right. Yeah,
so something like that but beauty related. OK, I can't
mention the names because I could never give away, I mean,
I'm very much trusted in these positions, but.
I had a client who used to, instead of using
(17:47):
a leave-in conditioner, she used to put olive oil in
the ends of her hair and rock up and then
want me to do like a huge blow dry. And
you were like, ma'am I I was like, girl, your
hair looks like, I don't know, and I would be
at the back with like the dry shampoo trying to
kind of like get it.
It out of the of the ends of her hair.
(18:10):
So I think that was probably the craziest thing, yeah,
it was the olive oil. Let's talk about a bit
of a common myth or debate if you will, so
setting powder, what is something that you see that you
just go, oh my goodness, like whether it's online or
just in real life when people,
Are setting their faces, like do you believe in powder
(18:32):
all over, do you believe in more targeted, do you
think everyone needs powder? Yeah, look, I mean it's so subjective,
isn't it, depending on the result you want. I use
powder on every type of makeup for every type of finish,
so you know, if I'm using a radiant foundation, a
radiant foundation is designed to powder.
And if you don't powder it, it is going to
(18:53):
slip and it is going to move. It will become radiant,
you just need to give it a little bit of time,
or maybe you need to use some sort of setting
spray to kind of melt the powder in.
I guess the biggest mistake that I see is the
amount of powder, and I don't think that that's necessarily
like a general public issue. It's what social media has,
you know, tricked people into believing and is that is
(19:17):
they need to put so much on. You don't. And
you don't need to put it all over. Like you
can be really specific with it, less is more, apply
one light layer.
And then come back in and do another one if
you're unsure. So I guess that's the biggest mistake is
that influencers, you know, making out that you need to
use all this product, you know, it goes, it goes
across the board for all of it. Like, oh, you've
(19:37):
gotta apply all this foundation on, like that, all that
foundation does not look good in life. No. It only
looks good in front of their camera lighting, like this
beautiful lighting that we have right here where we've got
all these beautiful highlights bouncing on us. In real life,
you don't need to have all of that makeup.
So I think powder, less is more, be specific with it,
put it around the nose if you get oily there.
If you've got smile lines and and you find that
(19:58):
they get a little shiny and too enhanced, put a
little bit of powder there, put a little bit in
the middle of the forehead, be really kind of specific
with it, and then if you get halfway through the
day and you look at your face and you look
like a disco ball, then just put it all over.
Then rethink, rethink that you need to use a bit more,
but yes.
You funneled over 15 years of your secrets into the
(20:21):
sculpt and defined masterclass. What's one signature technique that you, well, I,
I really need to teach people this.
Yeah, I need to start that makeup course again. I,
it went off. COVID and it went absolutely nuts, and
it was a membership as well, which I wanted to
(20:43):
break all the rules because people were doing masterclasses and
they're still doing it, and it's about their look. But
I said to you that.
Before about, you know, trends, the T word, which is
such a double-edged sword for me, topic wise. You're teaching
one look. That one look doesn't look good on everyone.
And yeah, I understand that you can take little parts
of that, and yes, that works for people as well.
(21:04):
I agree, it's not completely wrong. But what I wanted
to do with my masterclass was teach girls how to
understand their,
Face, whether it be their coloring, whether it be their
face shape, and how to see that, how to recognize that,
and how to enhance that with makeup, specifically for them.
So I had a lot of like pictures, I had
a lot of color tabs that girls could look at
(21:26):
to see what sort of skin tone they were, to
work out what kind of foundation they were, what kind
of blush tones they were, what kind of lip tones.
And then I had like a lot of eye shapes,
cheek shapes, face shapes, lip shapes, so girls could recognize
what they were so that they could enhance their lip
to make their face look more symmetric or enhance those features.
And also it was really a big part of it
(21:48):
was about breaking down that idea that makeup is there
to cover. It's there to enhance. We're a little bit
broken in the sense that we're clickbait is to tell people, ooh.
You know, you wanna be unfashionable this season, you know,
don't do this, where I was like, look at your face,
find the things that you love, enhance those things, and
what you will actually find is that you won't see
(22:10):
the things that you dislike, because all the attention will
be on the things that you love.
And I think that's why it did pop off in
that sense, and I still have girls that are like,
can you do that again or can you just reactivate that,
cos I had to close the website down because it
was just like, I didn't have time and I just
felt like it was old, you know, I saw things
that needed to be fixed or or repaired, that still
(22:31):
talk to me about it. I have girls that turned up.
I did a YSL master classes, they turned up with
the printouts. Oh bless them. Being like, hey, in this
bit when you said this and I was like,
What is that? And I'm looking and I was like,
oh my God, it was in a downloadable PDF thing, yeah,
so people could download it, so they they printed it out.
(22:53):
That's so cute. Looking back over the past 20 years,
what is the biggest, most revolutionary technique you've seen the
average person adopt that you would never have believed possible
back when you were working on those early shoots? Oh gosh,
there's a few things. I'm gonna say probably the first
thing would be contouring. I have pictures on Polaroids before
(23:16):
we went to digital, that's how old I am.
Of girls on set with what I call the Lion
King face on where I'd painted the contour, painted the highlight,
and I was blending it and the photographer had come
over to test the Polaroids and had taken a snap,
and I still have those. And I think, if I
had only published that or if I had, my magazine
(23:37):
had only published that, because when that boomed, when Kim
Kardashian did that, I was just like, like it was
like something new. All of us makeup artists were like, huh?
And all of the drag queens that had been doing
the drag makeup forever, they're like, hello sis, you did
not invent this. Yeah, well it comes from theater. Originally
that's where it come from, from theater and that's where
we'd adapted it and we'd obviously minimized it a lot
(23:59):
in fashion because less is kind of more in that situation,
but it was something there, but you know what, it
was a really defining moment for me at that point
when I saw her do that.
My Instagram had been going, but it was not, I
was not selling anything, literally on my lifestyle, you know,
I was just posting art pictures of me and my
friends here or going out or a cigarette in an
ashtray or something randoms and I thought, ding. I thought
(24:23):
this is it. This is where we're going, this is
the future, like this is what I need to start doing.
I need.
To start photographing and videoing my process because this is
what people wanna see. Yeah, and to make it accessible
to people that aren't ever going to be in your makeup.
And you know what it's like when you're in the industry,
like I think still now I catch myself and people
(24:45):
are like, oh we want you to do a masterclass
on this technique, and I'm thinking surely everyone knows how
to do that by now.
And they're like, no, they don't, they don't, like people
still want to see this, people still learning because our
algorithms might be full of 10 different tutorials in half
an hour, that doesn't mean that someone else's is. Theirs
might be full of gardening, they don't even know that
(25:05):
you can learn how to do a.
On tour on TikTok or whatnot. We're all obsessed with
very complex routines, which I think definitely started with, you know,
the 21 step skincare routines coming from Korea, which, I mean, listen,
they've got beautiful skin. What is one popular ritual or
step that you
(25:26):
Just go, oh God, that's so unnecessary, and why do
you think we put pressure on that? Probably unnecessary would
be the amount of skincare that people are putting on pre-makeup,
not in life. I think in life, like, with your skincare,
you should take it seriously and you should see a dermatologist,
you should see a facialist regularly, you should invest in
(25:49):
your skin.
I mean, I have my whole life looked after my
skin a lot and there's no regrets there definitely, but
when I watch people do their skincare before makeup and
they're using so many products on there, it's completely unnecessary.
Your skin can only absorb so much before you put
makeup on. Well, is it also just gonna then make
(26:09):
the makeup it's gonna make the makeup move and it's
not gonna make it sit. So simplicity is the key pre-makeup,
you know, like if you need to exfoliate, do that, put.
a serum, put down a moisturizer, or put down an
SPF slash moisturizer and just keep it really tight. Put
all those products on at night. Finally, I know that
it will constantly be changing anyone that's in the industry.
(26:31):
We know that we always have new favorites or old favorites,
but right now in this very moment, if you could
only grab 5 makeup products, what would they be? 5
makeup products. Definitely my Armani Luminous Silk. I'm a diehard fan.
I can make any sort of foundation out of that.
That I need to, that would definitely be that. My
(26:52):
circular serum from Dermalogica, I love it, super hydrating, really lightweight.
It'd be some sort of sunscreen. I'm a big sunscreen fanatic.
Maybe like a naked Sundays, I love their primer, super thick.
NARS cream bronzer would probably be the next. Love it.
I really wanna have a pencil and a. You can
(27:14):
have two cause I never can't sunscreen because sun.
We just gotta have it. Yeah. Probably like the Make
Up Forever outlining pencils because I use them in so
many different ways. I'll use them as a lip liner,
I'll use it as a lip color, I'll use them
as eye shadows, I'll use them as liners, like they're
so multifunctional. I even use like Endless cacao as a
(27:34):
nose contour. Put it on my finger, and then I'll
just swipe it down each side of the nose for
an under shadow. Like I love it. Those pencils are
like amazing. This is kind of a random one.
But probably like the YSL Lash Clash mascara in brown.
It's like a really beautiful like red brown and it's
really gorgeous on like green and brown eyes. It really
(27:59):
brings out the kind of the yellow and the brown
or really brings out the green, and in fact, you
know what, it's actually really beautiful on blue eyes. I say,
could it work for blue. It's really good on everyone.
It has this really beautiful kind of reddish undertone, and
I just love that I can kind of put it
on super sheer or I can.
build it up and do like a real rock chick
kind of mascara moment with it. I love it. OK,
(28:20):
I'll probably regret all of those, but I, well, like,
I mean, listen, this is the thing, in this, you're
gonna have 5 different favorites potentially next week, so that
is like, take it with a grain of salt. It
is just in this moment today, that's why I've got
to like preface it. Well, thank you so much, everyone's
going to have learnt so much. Thank you so much
for having me. That was fun. That was so that
was a great round of questions. I'm I love it.
(28:43):
Well that was absolutely amazing. I'm walking away from this chat,
convinced I can try a couple of new things and
also with a few things on my shopping list, so,
you know, I'll have to go shopping after this and
I'm sure that anyone,
Listening will too. If you're keen to learn all of
Max's secrets, you need to make sure that you are
(29:03):
following him on socials and you can go to a
website and sign up, maybe he'll bring back the masterclass.
But thank you so much for joining us, Max. Make
sure you subscribe to You Beauty, and we'll be back
in your ears and eyes tomorrow.
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