I asked Stephen my 3 beauty-related questions + a bonus. Here are his answers:
INDUSTRY BREAK: I attended the University of Maine upon graduating high school. It was there that I discovered my love for fashion and beauty. After attending the university, I moved onto beauty school and began working with local photographers by providing my services as a hair and makeup artist. From there, I fell in love with the art!
5 MOST COVETED PRODUCTS:
1. My MAC concealer palette. I think their concealer choices are the best match for a broad variety of skin tones.
2. Cover Girl Lash Blast in Very Black. The formula is thick and creamy but stays on and the mascara wand is designed so you can really get to the roots of the lashes making lashes look thick.
3. My Benefit concealer brush. It is shaped perfectly to get into the corners of the eye. Has enough tension to really work the product in and is big enough to make sweeping strokes to blend the concealer.
4. I bought Stephane Marais lip liners (not available online) in Paris and to this day I reach for them all the time. There are 5 with all subtle differences in shade plus the consistency is perfect cream but not too creamy. It always amazes me when a line nails a universal color spectrum so well.
5. Yes, this is cheating but ANY Jouer Lip Gloss. Again, their color choices are the most current on the market for me. When I use one, it’s always the exact color I was looking for.
FAVORITE LOOK YOU’VE CREATED: My favorite is of Amy Adams when she did Saturday Night Live, one of the images they put up on the screen before cutting to a commercial. There’s one where her hair is pinned back on one side and cascading down the other. I love it because it still looks like Amy but yet it looks the way you’d imagine a modern movie star to look. It’s beautiful, Mary Ellen took it and did a phenomenal job.
ANY MORE LOOKS THAT YOU LOVE?
1. The first is of Rebecca Hall at the Toronto Film Festival. I just added some brown eye shadow to her upper lashes and used one of the new NARS matte lipsticks to her lips and I think she looks like a million bucks in that red outfit (above, top).
2. The second is of Hailee Steinfeld for the Teen Vogue party this past year. I loaded her eyes with mascara and individual lashes. Her hair was straight and she looked so effortlessly flawless when many that night tried too hard.
3. The last look is of Amy Adams this past Oscar Season. We had done an event with her that day and had what felt like a minute to change her look before her event that night. When I saw the images of her in that dark blue dress with this metallic brocade, her gorgeous mane, I couldn’t believe how stunning she looked. Instyle.com even ran a story about her eye makeup. I loved it.