The Power of Transformation
What inspires you when it comes to creating makeup looks?
Something that is always going to inspire me is growing up. In my teenage years, I was like a goth and a punk, and I was surrounded by a lot of subcultures. I grew up in Gothenburg in Sweden and in my teenage years, the subculture was a big thing. I did my A levels at an art school so everyone around me was very into their looks and the makeup and, you know, looking different. I come back to that a lot and I get a lot of my inspiration from my childhood heroes like Siouxsie and the Banshees and Bauhaus, artist that I grew up with. But also, my genre with makeup has a lot to do with drag. A lot of my work I feel is very inspired by drag and changing features and really transforming. I really love the power of transformation that makeup owns.
Who is your style icon?
Siouxsie Sioux and Pamela Anderson, definitely.
Two very different girls.
Very different. I think that explains myself a lot, I like the thing with the girl next door, but also the rockstar, crazy chick. So it’s a blend between Siouxsie and Pamela to be honest. Obviously Grace Jones has always been a huge inspiration. Being able to work with her was mega.
In what ways are you different/similar than innitbabes?
I would say that it’s definitely an extension of myself. I think, as a woman, there are certain things you get in life that men don’t get in the same way. The attention you get when you walk down the street, and the way you can express yourself in a different way. For a woman going to a red carpet, for example, there are a million different opportunities. For a man, it’s kind of just one choice. I think my drag really lets me explore my femininity but also lets me just go a bit crazy and be that slutty girl I never was [laughs]. So I think that my drag is definitely an extension of myself and it’s not a character I put on to be someone completely different. It’s more me experimenting with my gender and gender stereotypes and seeing how different you get treated when you have a full face of makeup. I don’t really follow the actual drag scene much. I think Baga Chipz from UK Drag Race is really funny. She’s hilarious. Weirdly enough, I’m not really in the drag scene.
Why/how do you choose to incorporate humor and abnormality in your work?
I never take myself too seriously, and I never take my work too seriously either. The times you create the absolute best is when you do something without overthinking it and you have a bit of fun with it and it becomes something that wasn’t your ambition in the first place. So, humor is a big part of it. Also, I think at the end of the day, I’m a makeup artist. I’m not a scientist, I’m not a doctor. It's not the end of the world if something goes wrong, I’ll take it off, I'll do something else. It’s not about being too literal with it. My work is very much about having fun and experimenting. It’s very rare that I'll show up to a shoot and have a sketch up of what I'm doing. It’s almost always improvised.
Trends that you dislike or something you’d like to see more of?
I would love to see more individuality. I think, with trends, which is a little bit unfortunate, is that it becomes something that’s too uniform, something that people feel that they need to adhere to. That’s why I don’t really like, and I feel like I don’t really follow, trends if you know what I mean. I feel that trends can easily become kind of restrictive. I would love to see more individuality. If you want to look nuts one day, then a glam chick the next day, do that. I feel like people think they need to commit to something. I think you really do the best when you go with what you feel for that day. [When something] starts trending, it’s almost not cool anymore and I just like individuality to be honest. I know it sounds cliché.
