Gucci Westman’s client roster reads like a roll call of Hollywood’s most stylish women, all loyal fans of the New York-based make-up artist who oversees their look for everything from public red-carpet events to personal occasions like their wedding day.
As for Westman, she credits the catwalk as the greatest influence on her “skin first” approach to beauty.
“My inspiration is always fashion,” reveals the 52-year-old, who works with A-listers such as Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts and Jennifer Aniston.
“The red carpet is inspired by what’s happening in fashion. When you’re doing fashion shows, you’re able to create trends. If, for example, I do glassy skin at six fashion shows in New York and then I do it in London, Milan and Paris, it might become a trend.”
Such was the case in January, when Westman created the make-up look for Kidman’s New York premiere of her recent TV series Expats, complete with red lips and blushed cheeks (pictured left, which she created using the Baby Cheeks Blush Stick in the shade Poppet from her own clean make-up line Westman Atelier).
Fellow Academy Award-winner Anne Hathaway has called on Westman for red-carpet premieres as well as personal moments over the years.
“I did her wedding,” she says of Hathaway, who married actor and producer Adam Shulman in 2012. “She looks better than ever. She’s incredibly disciplined – exercises every day, eats super clean, she works her butt off. She doesn’t stray.
“The first time I did her make-up was her first cover of Vogue with [acclaimed photographer] Mario Testino,” Westman says of Hathaway.
“She has really come into her own. She has found her place as a woman.”
As for Aniston, Westman has worked with the star on multiple cover shoots for American Vogue, among other projects.
“With Jen, it’s never fully a transformation, it’s usually a version of her,” Westman tells Stellar. “And she feels good that way.”
Founded in 2018, Westman’s eponymous brand expanded into the Australian market the following year via beauty retailer Mecca, where it’s consistently on the bestsellers list.
“The Australian girl loves fresh skin, glassy skin, bronze skin, just healthy,” she says.
“I feel like there’s an awareness around ingredients and beauty in general that resonates with [her], [and that’s] what our brand is doing.”
During her career, Westman has worked as artistic director of Lancôme and Revlon, and such is her influence that she had a brief cameo in the first Sex And The City film in 2008 (as a make-up artist to Sarah Jessica Parker’s character Carrie Bradshaw, during her wedding dress photo shoot for Vogue).
Having overseen countless runway looks for designers such as Carolina Herrera and Oscar De La Renta, Westman notes that TikTok is second to the runway for emerging trends.
“It’s probably the most influential platform for beauty at the moment,” she says of TikTok. “It’s more captivating than any other social media. It’s interactive, it can feel more positive – as opposed to feeling like you’re being left out or it’s someone projecting their perfect lifestyle.
On Instagram it can feel like you can’t look like that unless you’ve gone through some transformational make-up or procedures, filters … all of these things.
“There’s ‘cold girl skin’, ‘rich girl skin’, ‘glazed’ … It sounds so silly when I hear myself saying those things.
“I’m in my 50s and my daughter is like, ‘Mum!’ It’s fun. TikTok is a phenomenal platform for that. It feels more creative than being inspired by something that’s manipulated.”
Westman Atelier is available at Mecca. Visit mecca.com
Originally published as Celebrity makeup artist Gucci Westman on the Oscars, her deal with Mecca and beauty secrets of the stars