A veteran of the beauty industry, legendary makeup artist Joey Mills has worked on numerous magazine spreads, runway shows and supermodels. And, if you remember that teensy jeans ad back in the 80s in which a full-browed beauty (eh hem, Brooke Shields) made us all envious of her classic beauty you’d like to know that Mills was the man behind the makeup on that shoot.
Below Mills fills us in about working with Shields and Calvin Klein, how we can prep our brows for the full brow look, and what his must-have beauty products are!
You worked with Brooke Shields on the iconic Calvin Klein Jeans ad in the 80s. What was your inspiration for her look?
Calvin Klein wanted something that was very fresh, very clean and most of all agelesswhen you see the jean ads you can see that she could be 23, 18, or 17. She was basically ageless and mainly classic. He wanted something that was peachy, complexion, bronzy, with not a lipstick color per se but a color that was rougey and didnt have anything to do with trendy or in at the momenta whole collaboration that was a fresh, clean classic look.
Defined brows are back this season. How can we pull off the bold brow look, and what makeup coordinates well with it?
You really have to spend as much time brushing your brows as you do brushing your hair or combing your hair particularly before you make them up. Always have a pair of tweezers in hand so you can do that natural archits all about the shape as well as the thickness. You have to look at the rest of the look with your makeup and contour it. You always should try to have a little bit of a taupey bronze colored blush and then right on top of it you should have a blush that has a little bit of a shine and a little bit of color, so contour and bone structure is key. Another tip for that is to make sure to use a very pale gold right under your eyebrows, once theyre arched. When I worked with Brooke Shields for a lot of magazine covers I always worked with eyebrow pencils and a brush to blend the eyebrows.
You’ve worked with everyone from Liza Minnelli to Barbara Walters. What are your tips for perfecting a natural look that is all your own?
I always always work with two to three concealers under makeup moisturizer, never put makeup on until you really moisturize your face from your neck to your hairline because it gets the circulation going and follow it up around the eyes and around the nose the key to a beautiful peachy complexion are concealers.
A lot of your work from the 70s and 80s is trendy again today such as the spidery lash and bold cheek color. Do you have any tips for doing these looks today?
I would pull it off with a cleaner version, instead of wearing those thick fake lashes get individualsit opens up the eyes so much. Also, instead of lining underneath the eye to your nose stop of the eye and blend it out and then use a lighter color eyeliner on the inside to make your eye bigger. You’ll still have the drama and it will come off very clean.
Bold lip colors are a huge trend for summerdo you have any tips for how to wear these bright colors?
My favorite is the Russian Red by MAC and I change it into six different tones of red by changing the lip pencil and I use the pencil as a lipstick base not as a lip lineryou can make it look dramatic, soft or even natural when going to work.
And finally, what are your must have beauty products?
Mac Russian Red and Mascara X those are the two favorites commercially that you can buy. The mascara has a football shaped brush that extends the lashes and separates them and if its large it will separate the small lashes really well.
