Congratulations to legendary makeup artist Billy Brasfield! He’s partnered with L’Oréal Paris as a consultant! Check out his exclusive interview with ELLE where he talks more about the partnership.
L’Oréal Paris is bringing one of the biggest names in beauty on board as a consultant. Billy Brasfield, the man that gave Lady Gaga her gap and Beyoncé her shine, joins the cosmetic powerhouse in 2013, where he will lend a hand on everything from social media to product development. ELLE.com sat down with Brasfield for an exclusive chat about the partnership, his favorite famous faces, and his Mississippi roots.
ELLE: You’ve worked on some pretty famous faces, do they let you be the creative force or is it more of a collaborative effort?
Billy Brasfield: Celebrities are real, ordinary people in an extraordinary situation. They own their face, they have an opinion, and some of my clients have an incredible sense of style. In the very least, it’s a collab. I’ve learned from them as I hope they’ve learned from me.
ELLE: What are some of your favorite looks that you’ve created?
BB: I get excited thinking about working with Missy Elliott during her first project. She really was the first Gaga and pioneered something that no one had ever done. The video I did with her, ‘She’s A Bitch‘, I look at that still and I don’t how I did that and how that all stayed on her. She was covered in black makeup and crystals, underwater. It was very much by the seat of my pants.
Working with Gaga was amazing. I loved the amfAR red carpet [look] that I did with her and the pearls all over her. With Gaga, no is not an option. She has an idea and you either keep up or you can’t hang with her.
ELLE: What is your most memorable look that you’ve done?
BB: In Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ video, that last shot might be my favorite look that I’ve ever done for her. It’s a close-up of her, her lids are greasy and smoky and she has a gap in her teeth. Awhile before that, her mom had told me this story about her teeth when she was little—she had this big space between them and kids made fun of her. I always remembered that, so for the video, [which was] all about celebrating who you are and your imperfections being beautiful, I thought it would be fitting to put that gap in her teeth. I grabbed a marker last minute and just drew that on. The world thought that was a shout out to [Madonna], but it wasn’t. It was a shout out to little Gaga.
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