Celebrity makeup artist Vincent Oquendo has created tons of stunning looks for his roster of clients including Lily Collins, Janelle Monae, Bella Hadid, Karlie Kloss, Hailey Bieber, Diane Kruger, Jessica Biel, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Elsa Hosk, Sara Sampaio, Suki Waterhouse, Priyanka Chopra, Candice Swanepoel, Natalia Dyer, Bebe Rexha, Nina Dobrev, Izabel Goulart and more, so when Stylish got to sit down with him and hear some of his beauty insights on Thursday, October 10, at The West Hollywood EDITION, we were all ears.
The Global Makeup Ambassador for Shiseido spilled on everything from how we can get “envy me skin” along with the ‘90s trends we can expect to make a comeback this fall.
Ahead of officially starting on a look, Oquendo relies on the same place most of Us do for inspiration. “I use Pinterest a lot because there is everything from the universe on it. From nature pictures, to landscape pictures, to iconic Hollywood starlets, you find just a bit of everything on there and you can reference it at the drop of the hat,” he explains.
“You can find some amazing pictures from the ‘70s, you can find classic Cat Woman pictures you never thought you’d find, you can find Sophia Loren images from different movie sets, you can look up National Geographic photos and you can just put it all together for a mood board and combine it,” he dishes.
Once that is set, the makeup artist says his celeb clients trust his vision and let him have creative freedom. “All of them are just down to have a good time. They’re like, ‘You’re the artist, create.’ I’m very fortunate because a lot of my clients are like, ‘You’re the boss. Do it.’”
Before applying any products, Oquendo focuses on prepping the skin to make sure everything goes on as smoothly as possible. ‘l’ll use a Shiseido sheet mask or their Ultimune Power Infusing Serum Concentrate and massage the skin with Georgia Louise’s Cryo Freeze Tools, Jillian Dempsey’s Gold Sculpting Bar and NuFace devices depending on the various levels of hydration that my clients need.”
After that, the skin is good to go and Oquendo is ready to put foundation and concealer on. “Whenever I’m working with my celebrity clients, I make sure their skin is perfected, but that you can still see pores. … It should just be skin on it’s best day and look like ‘envy me skin,’ which is glossy, pretty, glassy skin. … My favorite skin is when it looks like it’s their own skin and you can’t really see that I’ve done a lot of work on them.”
To nail that natural look, he uses Shiseido’s Synchro Skin Self-Refreshing Foundation and concealer. “There’s a shade for everybody and it has an SPF 30, so it’s almost like a protective glove on your skin. It has built-in primers, which is going to prolong the wear. I’ve seen clients who have gone to the afterparty and then the after-afterparty and then their face is sort of worn-out and their concealer needs touching up. These products almost reset themselves, so it’s like a touch up in a bottle,” he dishes.
While Oquendo swears by the motto, “fresh skin is always in” there are some other looks from the past he’s hoping to try out this fall. “I feel like we’re seeing so much ‘90s stuff that was so terrible, that it was amazing. I’ve been feeling a metallic lip. I’ve been thinking about it a lot — it hasn’t been the right fit yet, but I would love to see that. I’ve done tons of white eyeliners too and did it for Janelle Monae for Chanel, which was really cool. I’m also into the hardcore lip line. I’ve been doing it a couple of times here and there, but I haven’t gotten to a point where I’ve gone full out with it, but maybe,” he spills.
