This is just a quick post about what happened a few days ago when I interviewed the hilarious and unbelievably talented celebrity makeup artist Mary Greenwell.
Her name may not be instantly recognisable, or you may have recently just been introduced to her through Lisa Eldridge’ You Tube channel, but either way you’re probably already very familiar with her work. With over 30 years experience in the beauty industry, she continues to have the type of career that many makeup artists can only dream of. She is as famous for her natural talent and unique way of applying makeup as she is for the people she works on – think Cate Blanchett (who she was in Dubai with, for the Dubai International Film Festival) Jessica Chastain, Amanda Seyfried, Kate Moss, Gemma Arterton, Gwyneth Paltrow, Keira Knightley, Anne Hathaway, Uma Thurman and many, many more. As a long-time admirer of her work, I naturally jumped at the chance to engineer an interview with her and experienced a huge fangirl moment in the process!
She was in town for a few super fast-paced days with Cate Blanchett, and on the day I met her she skipped downstairs to the Hotel reception to meet me while Cate was having lunch. Aside from the fact she was so easy to talk to and rather hilarious (the conversation was peppered with many ‘divine’, ‘fabulous’, and ‘darlings’), a few things stood out to me about Mary. Even though she has been a makeup artist for so many years, she is still incredibly passionate about what she does. Her enthusiasm for makeup is infectious and as you’d expect, her knowledge of products is pretty amazing. She’s also incredibly elegant – very tall and slim with amazing hair and fabulous skin!
Although we talked about many things, I’m sure the most interesting topics of conversation for readers of my blog would be whether she’s going to start her own You Tube channel and what products are involved in her own personal makeup routine! Amazingly, the latter consists of only five products! MAC Face & Body (she likes light coverage and natural looking skin), Chanel Illusion D’Ombre shadow in Ebloui which she uses every single day without fail, Tom Ford Extreme Mascara, Chanel Rouge Allure Lipstick in Silhouette – a now discontinued shade and to finish off, a touch of a natural toned blush.
As for You Tube, the reaction she’s had to the video’s that she did for Lisa’s channel has absolutely blown her away. She described the process of making the videos as ‘super fun’ but whether or not she’s going to start her own channel is something she’s not sure about. She is thinking about it though – so finger’s crossed! To finish off, I’ll leave you with a picture of the makeup pouch she was using that day on Cate Blanchett, I had a good root through it and unsurprisingly, some of the products were to die for! (Hello Tom Ford quad and Bobbi Brown University Palette). So there we have it, major fangirl dream of meeting Mary Greenwell achieved!
