If you ask Gucci Westman when she became interested in makeup artistry, she could answer with any twist or turn of her professional journey — it was hardly a linear path.
The veteran makeup artist and founder of Westman Atelier began painting as a child, graduated to experimenting with luxury brands in Europe when she worked as an au pair, studied special effects artistry in Los Angeles and from there became both an editorial and celebrity go-to.
“A lot of editors would ask me how it feels to be the queen of natural beauty or the clean makeup movement,” Westman said on the Beauty of Tomorrow podcast with WWD beauty and fashion market editor James Manso. “That used to bother me — I’m so much more creative.”
Westman, joined by husband, fellow entrepreneur and Westman Atelier cofounder David Neville, recalled being first discovered by Grace Coddington, helping Cameron Diaz on the press tour for “Being John Malkovich,” and how social media has changed the job since then.
“The younger generation makeup artists are so comfortable on social media,” Westman said. (She, herself, boasts roughly 400,000 followers on Instagram alone.) Her content there ranges from her favorite homemade almond milk to DMs about her latest products. Speaking of which, “I put a lot of thought into whether or not we need this,” she said, holding a lab sample of a work in progress.
“We only launch products when Gucci is 1,000 percent happy with the performance of the formula,” Neville said. “I love the trust factor, the fact that Gucci is only going to launch something if she’s really happy with it. It’s not based on marketing’s call of when it fits into a calendar. It’s genuinely a lot of projects being developed simultaneously, but ultimately, it’s Gucci’s seal of approval that gives it the green light.”
To listen to the full conversation, CLICK HERE.
