Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Exclusive! Makeup Artist Emily Katz Dishes On Charlie Sheen's Anger Management

Awhile back, I featured makeup artist Emily Katz. You may recognize her name from such shows as The Nine Lives of Chloe King and -- one of my all-time favorites -- LOST. Well, now she's the makeup supervisor for Charlie Sheen's new(ish) show, Anger Management! Read on for tons of information from Emily, including her go-to products on set, what shooting in HD means for makeup artistry, and so much more.

You're the makeup supervisor for Anger Management, starring Charlie Sheen and Selma Blair. What has the process been like to create looks for the characters?
It's so energizing and exciting to create looks for characters on a show, particularly if they are just being birthed. My good friend, and an amazing artist, Gabriel Solan, is Charlie's makeup man, who invited me to do the show with him. I design (and do almost all of) the makeup looks for the actresses and some of the guys! A great deal of the process is collaborative. We individually discuss each look and style of character, what they envision, what the executive producer envisions and how I see it all coming into being, with my own spin on it. A cool thing is that I can do much more stylized, on-trend makeup for this show than, say, LOST's island look.

What have been your go-to products on set?
There are a lot of them! So I'll attempt to narrow it down. We have a big cast, and so many different needs and preferences.

FACE:
Chantecaille Future Skin Foundation is brilliant. Looks natural, can build up coverage, I love it.

One of my all-time go-to products is Benefit Some Kind-A Gorgeous -- it can be really sheered out or built up for a light medium coverage, works for so many people and they've expanded the color range. I used it regularly on LOST for that island "no makeup" look AND for the "in reality in the city" polished finish.

I also am a fan of Make Up For Ever's HD line. I use their HD Microfinish Powder.

I use plenty of CARGO products. I find their OneBase, Blu-Ray High Definition Mattifier and bronzers staple go-to's in my kit.

Bobbi Brown's extensive line of color foundations is terrific so we use plenty of those as well. I have their foundation palette and it gets used regularly. Always have one.

NARS The Multiple is ever a favorite, and I'm particularly fond of G-Spot this year. Portofino, Orgasm and Malibu are perennial faves.

Elizabeth Arden Ceramide Cream Blush in Honey, Eminence Bronzer in Chai Berry, Estee Lauder Signature Silky Powder Blush in Sensuous Rose are high on my list. L'Oreal One Sweep Sculpting Blush Duo comes in really handy for popping cheeks and giving that extra bit of definition under cheekbones or under the jawline without looking too dark or false.

EYES:
I regularly use Chanel eyeshadow in Eclosion, Rose de Mai and Tiger Lily. YSL and Dior 5-shadow combos are a standard of excellence -- I use too many of them to name! Estee Lauder makes an amazing dark dark brown shadow, Mink, and I love it for depth without being black. Sephora has some great waterproof eyeliner pencils I recently have become very attached to -- they stay on and don't drip!

LIPS:
Lastly, I could go on about lipsticks, always my favorite products. I use everyone's line it would seem. My personal favorite currently is Chanel Rouge Double Intensite Ultra Wear Lip Colour. It's a longwear lipstick that doesn't make your lips feel weird or cakey or dry, color stays on. I actually layer a Stila Lip Glaze over it after the initial setting period (about a minute) on top of the gloss that goes over the base color.

How do you prep and prime the actors' skin? Any specific regimen for keeping their skin in good shape before and after all the makeup is applied?
Skincare is the absolute fundamental of makeup. It is the canvas for the art, and having a background in skincare, I am very much in tune with effective products for a wide variance of skin types. Because we are under such heavy time constraints in readying actors, I always ask them to come in with clean skin. We can moisturize when they're in the chair. And at the end of the day, we offer cleanup products. My favorite quick cleaner-upper is a microfiber washcloth with warm water. Mario Bedescu Enzyme Cleansing Gel has been a favorite since LOST.

I am an aficionado of Jan Marini's line, and have seen some amazing results in a matter of days especially with the Transformation Face Cream.

Also, I use a lot of the following products:
Dermalogica Active Moist and Skin Smoothing Cream
Mario Badescu Oil Free Moisturizer
La Mer Creme de la Mer, The Moisturizing Gel Cream and The Moisturizing Lotion (and they make a divine body lotion)
Cetaphil Cleanser and Moisturizing Lotion (keeping it simple sometimes is best)
DermaDoctor products
Pevonica creams, especially their Ligne Yeux "C" Evolutive Eye Gel and Eye Cream

How does HD change how you're thinking about the makeup for the various characters, and are there any products you've used specifically for HD purposes?
HD is really a determining factor in what we apply to mitigate shine, which as it turns out, can be quite intense on camera but not to the eye. And, people speak of the detail with the pores and wrinkles. It is also very true that too much makeup (foundation, powders, cakey concealers) reads as makeup-y on camera and looks, well, pretty awful. I go for coverage that's just enough to perfect, and not too much that would read on camera. And hope the lighting is friendly!

The cameras pick up more information than the eye can actually see, which makes it especially important to not overdo, yet achieve the smooth perfect beauty we all strive for and expect to see on a show.

Antishine/mattifiers are a big kit staple. We use a lot of CARGO Blu-Ray High Definition Mattifier, Origins Zero Oil, M.A.C mattifier and YSL Top Secrets Pore Refining Skincare Brush. I like the clear silicone-based ones for darker skin as they don't ash up, and don't change the color of the makeup.

It depends on the skin type, color and also what I call glassiness -- some people have very small-pored reflective skin and powder does nothing to abate the shine, so we used the aforementioned. (Men too -- there are plenty of them on the show as well!) For some of the women, blotting film and light powdering is enough.

Because the cameras we use are so defined, I find the products that have light reflective qualities, like Laura Mercier Secret Brightening Powder, help to eliminate the appearance of dark circles and unwanted dimension.

When the bigger guns are needed (and that can be often), I turn to cream concealers like Benefit Boi-ing. I always am on the lookout for new concealers (new products that work in general!) and a few more are in the testing stage for me now.

1 comment:

  1. Great interview, I already own some of these products and now I have added a few more to my wishlist!

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