Take a look at a list of Priscilla Ono’s clients, and there’s a good chance you’ll initially mistake it for a list of The Coolest Girlies in Any Given Room. Perhaps best known as a global makeup artist for Fenty Beauty—and the hands behind some of Rihanna’s most iconic beauty looks—Ono has painted such iconic faces as Megan Thee Stallion, Kali Uchis, and Latto. And a scroll through her Instagram will send you on a bookmarking spree: Along with all the celebrity inspo, Ono regularly creates stunning makeup looks on herself, too. (Maybe she didn’t invent the red lip/blue eye combo, but she definitely perfected it.)
We chatted with Ono about her favorite beauty trends, partnership with Secret, and best tips for achieving a summer complexion that’s all glow, no grease. Keep reading for what she told us.
The Beauty Trend She’s Loving
“I’m really into glowy skin. I feel like it’s been a trend since lockdown; everyone is into glowy skin. I guess it’s ‘The more natural, the better.’ So for me, it’s like, how do I create that look, but still put makeup on myself and on my clients—because we’re makeup girlies, and we want the blurring! I think a lot of makeup brands right now are kind of up to speed, and they’re coming out with so many really cool, lightweight, blurring technologies so that your skin looks real, but you’re definitely using foundation—you’re covering all your imperfections, you’re just blurring them out. So I’m really into that. I’m really loving all of the different makeup brands that are coming out with all of their new technologies, I think that that just makes the beauty industry stronger. And it gives us the power to look like we’re not wearing makeup, but we are.”
Her Best Advice for Achieving Kali Uchis-Level Lip Liner
“I think starting off with a very clean mouth. I love using lip masks and lip oils before makeup to moisturize the lips so that they’re really smooth, [but you have to make] sure you take that all off. Sometimes if you even leave a little bit of residue of lip mask or lip oil before you put your lip liner on, it’s gonna slip everywhere. It’s not going to have longevity, you’re not going to get that precise line.
“Just clean them off and don’t moisturize them again—leave them kind of dry. Then [do] your lip liner, then apply your lip oil or whatever you want to apply in the center. And then on the outside, when I’m done, I like to take a little bit of the foundation on a small brush and I just kind of edge and carve around, so that it makes it perfect, kind of like when you carve brows. It makes the shape real perfect, but also [creates] a barrier so that your lip liner… doesn’t bleed throughout the day. It’s kind of a protective layer. A lot of people don’t know about that, but that’s the biggest secret: We call it reverse lip liner, when you use that foundation color—not concealer!—around the lips.”
@priscillaono/Instagram
Three Beauty Products She Can’t Get Enough Of
“I really love moisturizers, I love moisturizing the skin. One of my favorites is actually a drugstore brand, Cetaphil…. because I can use it on everyone, [even] the most sensitive of skin, which is great. I love my Secret Weightless Dry Spray. It’s my go-to right now, especially all the new scents that they have, which I’m loving. I can use it on myself, but also my clients. It has a spray applicator, so the sharability is there. 48-hour sweat and odor protection—a lot of the times, when I’m working on set with myself and my clients, we don’t really have time to go back home and shower, this, that; sometimes we’re working through jobs and going on to the next. So I love that it has that protection. And honestly, they just smell good, and everything about summer is just, like, smelling nice and nice scents.
“I’m also loving no-color powders; Fenty has one. It’s basically a powder that you can apply throughout the day without adding more makeup to your skin. Because no one wants to look cakey throughout the day—we just want to take away the shine and oil—no-color powder is the go-to. It’s one color, so it’s essentially for anyone.”
On Her Partnership With Secret
“Honestly, I think that it all went back to my childhood. I remember vividly when I was, like, 12 years old, that coming-of-age time in your life. It’s like a core memory, where my grandma—she raised me—would literally put a stick of Secret deodorant in my backpack and send me off to school. It’s like a core memory for me. So when Secret reached out, I was like, “Oh my God, of course.” I’ve been using Secret since the beginning of my adolescence, as I was growing up. So for me, it hit close to home, you know; it’s a part of my upbringing and culture. When I partner with brands, I really want there to be a connection, and I felt like the connection was there. And it’s something that I have always loved and something that I definitely use on myself, but even in my workspace, in my kit, in my set bag—I gotta have it in there. It always has my back.”
On the Best Ways to Summer-Proof Your Makeup
“I think moisturizing is key. A lot of people think ‘Oh, I don’t want to over moisturize because I’m gonna be oily throughout the day.’ But actually, if you deprive your skin of moisture, your skin kind of reacts and goes crazy and produces even more oil. So you definitely want to make sure you moisturize really well. And I would say using foundations that are more soft, matte velvety. They don’t have to be true matte, because nobody wants to look dry.
“I actually recently saw Tiktok by Nicole Richie, and she said that in the sun no one wants to look powdery or cakey, that’s not very flattering. And I was like, “You know what, that’s so true.” When the sun hits your face, if you just see this cake makeup, like, that’s not summery skin. So you want to make sure that the skin isn’t super matte—you want a soft matte, a velvet matte, something that still looks fresh. But don’t go for that super glow foundation, because throughout the day, you’re going to slip and slide everywhere. You want something in the middle. And obviously, your Secret Weightless Dry Spray that keeps you cool, calm, and collected throughout the day.”
On Lashes Worthy of the Grid
“Before I even apply mascara, [I love to] brush them out and kind of see where the pattern of the lashes goes. The lashes [at the] center of the eye, I like to push them up and out… you know, how people apply it. But at the ends, I always like to apply it more in a swooping motion, to kind of make the lashes go out, and it just creates this lift on the eye. So the eyelashes are lifted. That’s always kind of my thing. And then I don’t always use the wand the conventional way. A lot of people, when they do mascara, they go up, down, up, down. I sometimes take the brush vertically, and I coat each lash so that each lash gets a good amount of mascara. I feel like that way, you actually get those lashes to look nice and full and thick. Because sometimes, some get lost in the sauce, right?”
