What is Editorial Makeup?
What are Editorials?
Editorials are a visual medium of storytelling through photos created via a fashion photoshoot. There is a lot of preplanning and collaboration necessary in order to create a theme and build a proper team that each brings their department’s expertise and complements each look. A team most often consists of a fashion photographer, wardrobe stylist, makeup artist, hairstylist, and at least one model but some editorials also have an art director, producer, videographer, set designer, and/or prop stylist involved as well.
These shoots are normally shot under the assumption that they will end up in a printed publication or published in an online magazine In order to get your editorial published, someone from the team will either contact the magazine beforehand to pitch the concept or after the photos are finished, will be submitted to various magazines in hopes that one of their editors will accept it for publication. Most magazines want you to submit 6-10 different images or looks in order to be considered. Most magazines accept submissions monthly and some even have varying themes each month.
What types of Magazine Editorials are there?
There are 3 types of editorials that are most often accepted in magazines; Fashion Editorials, Beauty Editorials, and Creative Editorials.
Here is a breakdown of each type, as well as makeup artistry’s place is in each category:
Fashion Editorials
The most common editorial type, featuring a story based around well, fashion! The wardrobe stylist creates a clothing story that evolves or stays in theme, which could be about texture, color, evolution, characterization, shapes, etc. These images are shot from a farther perspective either in a full body or half body crop. The makeup style needs to can be more dramatic, saturated in color, or excessively subdued in order to emphasize, but never overpower the styling to let the clothing sing.
Most often you will see editorials like this in magazines, in advertisements for high-end fashion houses like Chanel, DIOR, etc as well as in campaigns for clothing brands.
Beauty Editorials
Maybe I am biased, but beauty editorials are my personal favorite because these editorial stories are focused on telling a story with skin and makeup. The photographer shoots these images from the shoulders up, a crop of just the face or even closer in macro. Beauty editorials have no rules can showcase very natural, dramatic styles or anything in between. Sometimes beauty stories feature accessories, jewelry, or hairstyles. Since they are shot so closely, these detailed editorials really showcase a makeup artist’s talent and ability to create a series of cohesive looks.
You will often see beauty editorial shots on advertisements for skincare, makeup brands, and jewelry.
Creative Editorials
Creative editorials are often experimental, Avant-garde, or make you feel something. The styling is normally full of couture pieces, dramatic layering, as well as out-of-the-box textures patterns, and shapes. The makeup and hair don’t have to be traditionally ‘beautiful’ but it needs to fit in theme with the story, wardrobe, and vibe. It’s a moment to create art with your team; so I like to think about alternative textures, graphics, and shapes or experiment with using uncommon materials to adhere to the face or painting an unusual part of the body. It is extremely important to choose a strong team to shoot this type of editorial and have a clear plan so it doesn’t look gaudy or amateur.
Creative Editorial makeup is no longer just seen in magazines, we are seeing it much more often being worn by celebrities, singers, rappers, actors, actresses, in music videos, and walking red carpets at events like the Met Gala. They want to push the envelope, be on trend and create the trends.
If you are looking for a makeup artist for your next photoshoot in the Miami, Fort Lauderdale or Palm Beach Area (or beyond) contact me here