In a Santa Monica coffee shop just a few weeks ago, I sat humbly across from celebrity makeup artist Julianne Kaye, who got her start as the makeup artist for a young  Britney Spears. Growing up in the 90s, you can imagine how excited I was to be interviewing the woman solely responsible for creating some of Britney’s most well-known looks.
Since then, as an independent artist, Julianne has worked with a wide array of celebrities and iconic beauties. Most recently, Kaye is being acclaimed as the makeup artist on Fashion Star. Beyond her career in makeup, Julianne co-authored the captivating fictional novel Pop Tart, which is a fun look inside the entertainment industry, chronicling the life of a rising star and her comrades. In addition, she is the founder of Revolution Beauty Media Group, LLC. Her work ethic and true talent make her an inspiration to beauty mavens everywhere.
BANGSTYLE: What was your first big break? How’d you land Britney?
Julianne Kaye: I Started off in the business doing special effects. I knew I had to find a niche, so I started doing back-to-back low budget movies. I didn’t think I could make a living doing this. I knew this guy whose wife was moving to New York City, and she did N’sync and Britiney. Britney wasn’t big yet. I walked through a Sears one day and saw her on TV doing “Hit Me Baby One More Time.†Right then and there I thought, how cool is she? I mean, she wasn’t yet who she would become, but I thought she was so cute. Then, a few days later my friend’s wife calls and asks if I can assist her on something, which ended up being something with N’sync. Then, as I was helping out she asked me if I could finish up the ‘Baby One More Time Tour’ with Britney. I was like,’ Uhhhhh yaaaaaaahhh!!!’ I mean, the money to me was like absolutely insane. I didn’t know you could do this. It was one extreme to next. I was trying to get into the union. It never occurred to me that I could do magazine. So I met Britney once, in Pencicola, Florida. I was so wet behind the ears with regular makeup and hair, and the first thing she does is hand me a bag of hair. I had never put in extensions in my entire life! So my idea was to tell her she looked great without them! This was the start of our love-fest. She figured it out and looked at me and said , ‘Let me show you how to put them in.’ So she is actually the one who taught me how to put them in. After that, she brought me to everything, and that spawned a four year relationship. Â
BANGSTYLE: Tell us about the moment you realized you had made it to the “big leagues?â€
Julianne Kaye: I thought with Britney it was the big league. I realized after it wasn’t. I mean, this was before the days of Facebook, twitter, before digitizing our portfolios. We had to send our books out. I scoured the earth to get tear sheets; a lot of the stuff I did with her was performance so I didn’t have anything to show for it. And I was with her the whole time. When I would go to agencies, I thought I was a big deal;  in fact, the agency I’m with now told me maybe come back in 10 years. Of course, I came back and they loved me and everything’s great. But I needed the time to grow. It was a really interesting realization for me.
BANGSTYLE:Â How and when did you come to pen Pop Tart, becoming a published Harper Collins novelist?
Julianne Kaye: I met Kira for lunch; we co-wrote the book. I had all these ideas to write about girls in the entertainment industry. It was sort of like this pipe dream. We got all these silly ideas together and created a proposal. Then Harper Colllins wanted to do a deal. So we did the book and that was that. It was cool because I became a published author. I know that breaking into the literary world is not easy. In the beginning, there is a bidding war, and when it went up to where it did,  Kira and I were in awe because, you know, we are first time writers. It was a collective effort. It was a lot of tape recordings, and then I’d take my stab at writing chapter eight, and then we would combine them. So it was a pretty amazing process. I’m just happy to have done it.
Julianne Kaye:  I have always been a smoky eye girl, but I think its hard. I have only recently been trying to rock the trends. When I did Fashion Star, I realized I have a responsibility as a beauty expert to rock looks. The funniest one was the fuchsia lips. I was like, ‘I can’t rock that; I’m a redhead.’ One day I was like, ‘Screw it; I’ll try it,’ and you know, everyone I saw was like, ‘OMG, you look amazing!’ So it’s kind of like a testament to trying new things. I think it’s easier to follow a fashion trend. Makeup trends are funny; you just have to force yourself to get out of that rut.
BANGSTYLE: Greatest creation/Look you’re most proud of thus far?
Julianne Kaye: I just did a beauty shoot, a girl with black lips (pictured left). I used a Dior eye liner velvet aplica. I also recently did a shoot with Oribe, the hairstylists, where we did a David Bowie look on Kate Hudson. I haven’t seen the pictures yet, but I think this will be one of those iconic shoots.
BANGSTYLE: Anyone you are dying to work with?
Julianne Kaye: Jennifer ‘JLo’ Lopez. I like how experimental she is. On Idol she does different hair and different makeup. She knows how to have fun with it. During the auditions, she did a look where she wore pink and green makeup. It was total mermaid, rainbow bright but I thought, ‘Wow, she made that look so good.’ You can tell that she is down with everything.
BANGSTYLE:Â Tell us about the motivation behind your website, Revolution Beauty?
Julianne Kaye: It’s sort of an outlet for me, my ‘little blog.’ I want do a whole fashion section and also do a whole hair section, but you know it’s hard. It’s a whole job in itself. For Kira and me, it is still “under construction.â€
BANGSTYLE:Â Must-have products of the moment? Three staple products every women must have?
Julianne Kaye: Ladies, don’t leave the house without mascara! Cream blush!Â
I think women don’t wear enough blush; it totally brightens up the face, especially for woman who are older.
Brow powder, a good brow powder. Use a brow set and brush upwards!
BANGSTYLE:Â Any S/S 2012 trends we have never seen before? What trends are on the way out?
Julianne Kaye: Red/coral lips, lots of over-flushed color on the cheeks, fresh skin- tinted moisturizers areÂ
on the out- the makeup of the 90s! I cannot see that ever coming back. And Jersey Shore white eye shadow.
Julianne Kaye: Being on camera is a huge responsibility for me. On a normal runway show, I would talk to the designer, then we would brainstorm ideas, then I’d have a model and do a demo. It’s a process. This show, it’s like sometimes I don’t even have time to see the clothes, so I have to have them described to me. ‘What do you mean a blue dress, like a sky blue or a cobalt blue?’ On the fly, so lots of pressure. It was really nice when the contestants knew what they wanted. That is also hard because if I do my consultations first, and I come up with something really edgy and cool, and then they go to hair, we all have to talk to each other and make sure there is balance. It’s all about balance. It’s totally different being in front of the camera.
Visit Julianne on BANGSTYLE and here
Â
  
Check out College Gloss's exclusive interview with Julianne Kaye: http://www.collegegloss.com/2012/06/cg-interviews-celebrity-makeup-artist.html
ReplyDelete