Although make-up artist Clayton Leslie has worked with many celebrities and has been chef de cabine at several fashion shows, he remains quite down-to-earth in this chaotic small world. “It’s only make-up”. But hey, we love him for being so no-nonsense and thus we were set on bombarding him with all these beauty questions. Clayton Leslie is all yours.
morning ritual
“I absolutely can not do without my L’Oréal Men Expert HydraEnergetic moisturizer if I want to look reasonably presentable in the morning. It is a nourishing cream that gives your skin that boost for a fresher look. A wonderful feeling when you step out the door.”
Inspiration
“My sister is my greatest inspiration. I have four sisters, which can be enough inspiration, but this sister was into make-up and always managed to make herself even more beautiful. I always thought, ‘I want that too’. I had the idea that it wasn’t an official profession and didn’t know that you really could earn some money doing it. And I had other interests too. Travel, mixing with people and especially meeting new people. After trainings in that direction and jobs that always contained one of these aspects, I always came back to make-up. So now I do something in which all these aspects come together. I find inspiration in everything. Obviously I love to travel the world for the fashion weeks and I keep up with the leading magazines. People on the street inspire me, but also clothes, nature and films. Everything actually. I think the most important thing is to be open to inspiration and the beautiful things in the world. Like a pink flower in a green patch of grass can fascinate me for 5 minutes. To let inspiration in, you just have to open yourself up to these kinds of beautiful things in the world.
Trends
Trends I’ve particularly noticed are fire engine-red lips, thin eyeliners and eyes completely framed in one colour, for instance a pastel colour. I think that every look on the catwalk can be suitable for daily life. The only important thing is to translate it to yourself: ‘what suits you?’, ‘How can you make sure it suites you’, and not to forget, ‘which occasion is it for?’ I also think that nearly every trend can be recreated at home. The only thing you have to do is listen to yourself and the people around you. If you like it then just do it and wait and see how people around you react. But the most important thing is that it makes you happy.”
Red carpet essential
“For red carpet moments it is important to make sure you don’t shine in the wrong places, like your forehead and along the nose. That is definitely in the ‘don’t’ category. On the other hand, a shine works really well on the cheekbones, certainly with photos. It is also important to choose the right foundation colour for your face. One that’s not too light and certainly not too dark.”
brows or lashes
“If I must choose, certainly eyebrows. Every facial expression is made with your eyebrows. Whether you look angry, happy or surprised, it all happens with the eyebrows. So they are the most important for sure. Therefore I think it’s really important that they have the right shape. Not too thin and not too round. An eyebrow that goes from thick to thin, with a nice angle. And the ‘drawn-with-one pencil-line-brow” is totally forbidden.”
favorite parfume
“I have various favorite perfumes for various occasions. One is Lolita Lempicka, Chanel Blue and more exclusive perfumes like Frederic Malle and Comme des Garçons.”
undiscovered beauty product
“One undiscovered beauty product for me is the right eyeliner brush. It is a very small brush that is trimmed at an angle, just like the point of a Tweezerman. You can make the most beautiful eyeliners with it. And great liquid illuminating products like Strobe by M.A.C., Copacabana by Nars also do wonders.”
tips for a dark skin
“With a dark skin, you also have to take care that it doesn’t become grey or ashen. This soon happens when products containing no warmth are used. For instance with foundation that can be a red or orange tint: for eye shadow I would sooner go for a bronze/gold/ copper tint than for silver/white. Unless of course the colour is a statement.
Shows
“The best show I’ve been able to do was my first big fashion week show as chef-de-cabine (head of the make-up team). That was a Claes Iversen show, one of my favourite Dutch designers. At first the make-up seemed fairly simple, beautiful as usual with a lot of shine, but when you looked closely, every model had a special touch. One had a yellow stripe in the lid crease. Another had a lip with a changing colour and there were more of that kind of’ ‘secret eye catchers’. Great to create and make and especially to hear the reactions.
At my very first (smaller) show as chef, I had thought of giving the models smokey eyes between the first and second runs. Unfortunately I didn’t test that in the general rehearsal. As the models went on the runway in pairs in the second run, I proved to have less time than calculated. My whole team was stressed and some models had to go out with just one smokey eye. What an all-time low. But rather amusing because after the show people came up to me to say how cool they thought it was. They thought I wanted to show that you shouldn’t take your ‘fashion’ so seriously. Interesting.”
Never leave home without
“I never leave home without a mini-jar of Vaseline. I don’t use any make-up myself, but it’s terrible if I or anyone else has dry lips. That always looks so miserable. Completely unnecessary. A touch of Vaseline and it’s gone. And it gives a nice gloss too.”
