Celebrity Makeup Artist Shares Tips for Achieving Summer-Ready Glam

Summertime is known for fun moments, good vacations and low-effort beauty maintenance. Being that the season is quickly approaching — a little more than a month away — celebrity makeup artist Kirin Bhatty shares one trend she’s seeing on the rise: “Having a natural but juicy lip.”

She explains, “I feel like people are glamorous all year round now, so I think I’m more just going to be embracing that summer and spring skin-tone shift and adjusting my kit based on that.”

Embracing tan skin and the desire to look put-together is a specialty of Bhatty’s, whose client list includes Moana star Auliʻi Cravalho, Geraldine Viswanathan, Jenny Slate and more.

The makeup artist who’s “a brown girl who’s really proud of that,” with parents who immigrated from Pakistan, knows by experience the struggle to have glam for women of color, sharing with The Hollywood Reporter, “It is so important for me that anyone who sits in my chair feels completely taken care of.”

She explains, “When I came up as a makeup artist, I came up at a time where there was not shade inclusivity, there was not product inclusivity. And I remember being one of the only few artists who could do all the skin tones so models would line up for me.”

Now, having access to stars for their special moments, including premieres and award shows, the makeup artist embraces a “philosophy about enhancing your own natural beauty.”

The makeup artist talked to THR over Zoom to discuss her favorite red carpet looks, hacks to get the perfect lippie and breaking ground as a woman of color in the makeup industry.

Why did you go into makeup artistry?

My journey is an interesting one only because I feel like when you’re meant to do something, it finds you. After college I graduated with a degree in English from Berkeley and I really thought I was going to be a writer and I went to the magazine side. And while I was there, I realized that I wanted to be on set and so a few magical things happened. I met my mentor, who is still to this day one of my dearest friends and mentors still; her name is Lori Taylor.

She took me under her wing and I kind of explored artistry on set in Los Angeles and that’s also how I got into celebrity because in L.A. that’s what we have as our industry. I think to be an artist, you have to have a bit of magical thinking and so that really guided me to where I’m today.

Your makeup looks are natural but glam, and it’s a special type of art to master that natural but beat face look.

You want to be red carpet ready, but you also want to feel like the best version of yourself, so that’s always my philosophy when it comes to beauty for red carpet. I tend to take people’s features, their natural features, and enhance them rather than re-create them.

Where do you draw your inspiration to create your looks? Walk us through that process.

I draw a lot of inspiration from the client who’s in front of me, and that really comes from having this philosophy about enhancing your own natural beauty. So anyone who’s in my chair, I really try to connect with them and I want them to leave my chair feeling two things: A) really good. But also so good that they know that they don’t need me to do this look themselves. Obviously when you’re expert, I have all the tips and tricks and I can do all the things, but I never want someone to feel like I gave them a different face, so I really do take a lot of inspiration from the person in front of me always.

Since people do have so many different unique features and cultural backgrounds, how do you adhere to someone’s uniqueness?

Being an artist, there’s a lot of connectivity there because we are literally touching your face, and in our life, the people who touch us that closely, if you think about it, who gets this close to your face, it’s like our mothers and our lovers and that’s kind of it. To be allowed in someone’s personal space, there’s a lot of emotion there. You really do connect and it is an incredible experience. It’s not a job for someone if you’re not a people person because it is so people-y.

Speak to that intimacy when you are with your clients — because you’re bonding, really — but they’re also putting so much trust into you to kind of bring their look to life.

Saying that you’re bonding is big because there is trust not only for you to make this person look amazing for whatever event they may have, but there’s also a bond of maybe you’re having a day where you don’t feel great or you feel puffy or you’re had to break up and you cried all night, or maybe you’re newly pregnant and figuring out your body. It’s all these things and we’re part of all those things. So there is this mutual trust there, and we are essentially, I look at being an artist as being in service to someone. There is an element of just caretaking and really giving your all, not just with your skill but with your products also.

In my bag and my kit, it’s filled with beautiful products that are good for my clients. And I mean, that’s why obviously I love EOS because it’s filled with good-for-you ingredients. It’s such an approachable, beautiful brand and it is also great for all because as you know, I work on multiple skin tones and I align myself with brands that are inclusive so it’s so great for me when I have products like that that I can share with everyone. It means a lot to me as an artist to be able to be really good to all of my clients in the same way.

How have you seen self-care transform the makeup process?

The self-care aspect in skincare is huge and when they exist together, it is a beautiful thing. I look at everything like a piece of a treatment and I’m a big skincare person. For me, lip care is skincare so that is my very first step. But I just think when you have that connection between self-care and skincare, the whole emotional of it all means that you’re going to look better. Whatever you’re doing, whether it’s a red carpet, an event or your own little dinner hour or if you have those intentions set with the actual going through the motions, it’s a better experience.

Let’s break down some of your famous looks. First is Auliʻi Cravalho at the Captain America: Brave New World premiere.

I’m obsessed with her. She is so gorgeous. We’re not always huge lipstick people, but we are lip liner with a Super Balm people. So that’s my look right now. I just feel like that’s the look of the moment.

We always start with an EOS Super Balm. We went in, we did a beautiful black liner on top and bottom, and she actually always lines herself. She does such a beautiful lip liner that I’ll just hand it to her. That Super Balm that has pressed in and really kind of hydrated the lips, I’ll put a second coat on so that it’s juicy enough and it’s not so glossy where you’re overboard gloss. This is a beautiful, hydrated, healthy lip with a liner.

For Geraldine Viswanathan’s Vanity Fair Oscar party look, I feel like the makeup stays in place, but I can tell it’s not matte. What are you doing to achieve that look?

Skincare is my life, so whenever someone is in my chair skincare is a huge part of what we’re doing. I always start with the lip Super Balm. I go in with a mask, I do an eye mask, I do a facial massage, I do several mists. I go in with a serum, a cream.

It is crazy, but that’s how you get that beautiful kind of glowy look because no product is going to give you that without the base of having all that care put into it. Then I’ll go in there, we’ll do the foundation, we’ll let all of those beautiful things kind of sit and the longer your skincare and your lip care sits, the better. So often what I’ll do when they have the mask, then we’ll get in there and maybe start the blowout or put hot rollers in, set the hair or start braids or whatever we’re doing. And I just try to let that sit. The longer you marinate it, it’s more delicious. Same for skin. So the longer I can just have them sit in all of that beautiful skincare and lip care the better.

Do you find that you ever use your makeup as a sense of expression? Do you get a feel for your clients first, or do you stick to a certain look?

If I am getting somebody ready for a dinner, we don’t often do a lipstick and that is because they’re going to be eating or talking, all the things, so I will favor a balm and a lip liner or I’ll hybrid like a bomb and a gloss or even if it is a lipstick, maybe something a little bit more on the sheer side.

Now if somebody is walking a carpet, that’s when we will discuss a matte lip or something that is going to be a moment. It’s usually not if there’s eating involved or a lot of talking involved. Same for an eye look or cheek look, sometimes we go based off trends.

I’ll have someone sit in my chair and be like, “I really love that beautiful strawberry makeup that everyone’s doing. I want to do that.” So there’s always an element of that. Other times it is embodying something. I had somebody recently who was like, “I want to feel like a Bond girl.” I’m like, done. Let’s be Bond girls. And even for myself, sometimes I want to enhance my own freckles. Other times I want to be moody and have a lot of mascara on and all things. So I think makeup and being an artist and being your own makeup artist, it really lets you kind of play the character you want to be that day. I love it.

I’m in my soft girl era. I’m not in my villain era right now, so I’m not doing a lot of very snatched looks right now. I’m doing soft freckles and blushes and things like that, but I might embrace my villain era this summer. I’ve been in pilates a lot, so you might see the body out this summer and if that’s the case, you’re going to be [snatched], and we’ll be back to that.

As we’re leaving spring and kind of transitioning into summer, what are your favorite trends right now as far as makeup?

Right now, I’m really embracing brown mascara and [eyeshadow], and then even a brown lip liner and just a lip balm. I’m just playing with all my kind of neutral tones, and I like a rum raisin tone too.  I find browns are universally flattering across skin tones and there are so many different browns you can choose from. You can go anywhere, anywhere from super soft sable to deep, beautiful, rich cocoa so I’m really loving that trend. I’m still on Strawberry Girl, I know that it has passed, but I’m still, I love the beautiful cheeks with the fake freckles all across, I think for summer. That’s really cute.

I’m actually also really excited for what’s to come because I have a theory: I think matte lipsticks are going to come back. If you are wearing a matte lip and your lip health is not spot on, it looks terrible. … So for me, if I don’t make sure that my lips are taken care of, which we can all kind of let ourselves go, sometimes I’m like on my water grind and I’m like, I’ve drank 10 glasses today and I’m doing it and I’m eating all my greens and all of that stuff. But when I’m not doing that, I like to cheat with my products.

We just wrapped up awards season not too long ago. Who was your favorite look of the season?

I would say Geraldine and Hannah New were gorge, and we really kind of had a big moment there for both of them. I loved all of Auli’i’s looks too. That was really fun. I mean, it’s just been such a cool, honestly, good, very cool award season this year. I’ve had so much fun getting my girls ready for the carpet and just really excited now for everyone to have their movies come out this year and it’s exciting. Those are probably my three faves so far of quarter one of our year. And now I’m looking ahead to the next of what’s going to happen and what’s coming up, which is exciting.

Being done with awards season, we can experiment a little bit with our makeup. I’m curious to see what does that potentially look like for you as a makeup artist?

One is we will get people, especially in L.A. because there is so much sun, skin tones start to change, especially as people of color, we tend to shift the most. I have my summer color and then I have my [color for other seasons], it’s a whole vibe. So that is always a fun shift too, because then our makeup tones change and things like that. Obviously the things that kind of stay pretty steady across season is my lip care. That moment is pretty much the same all year round. Other things like maybe for moisturizers, I might change it up or add SPF to a primer. But I’d say lips pretty much stay consistent and also under eyecare stays consistent. Those two parts of the face are related with products in a way. The consistency of eye creams and also lip balms often are very similar.

I would say the other thing, even though award season is over, I feel like people are glamorous all year round now so I think I’m more just going to be embracing that summer and spring skin tone shift and adjusting my kit based on that. I have my predictions — I think lips are going to be a big thing. I think we’re going to still see these beautiful cheeks. I do think you’re going to see more brown mascara. I do think the one thing that is a mainstay though is that this whole skincare self-care vibe, no one, even if you’re a minimalist with your makeup, everyone is kind of maximalist when it comes to hydration, lip care, skincare, sunscreen. It’s like we are too locked in now to go back so I think that will stay true. Healthy skin, healthy lips, healthy hair, that is all classic for a reason.

Speak to the importance of bringing women of color looks to life, as a fellow woman of color.

As a woman of color, myself, just like you, it is so important for me that anyone who sits in my chair feels completely taken care of. When I came up as a makeup artist, I came up at a time where there was not shade inclusivity, there was not product inclusivity. And I remember being one of the only few artists who could do all the skin tones so models would line up for me, and they were women of color from medium all the way to deep and beautiful. I take a lot of pride in that, but it is, for me, it’s something that stuck where everyone should feel honored and everyone should feel included.

As a woman of color, really focusing and aligning myself with inclusive brands before I even bring a brush out is so important because that integrity behind the brand is important to the integrity in my work and my clients. I feel like my clients really feel that. So yes, I think we’ve come a long way. There’s always room to grow and always room for more. And I’m so excited to be part of that journey and also to be a touch point for people who are maybe afraid to find their right shade or ask for their right shade or wonder, “Which brown can I use?” And really the great thing for you is that there are so many you get to choose from now. Whereas when I was beginning, we would really be struggling trying to figure it out, and maybe we would have to use an eyeliner to make a lip liner happen. And thank goodness that part of our story has ended, and now it’s more just affordability, inclusivity, and just, I think it’s really nice when brands have a welcome mat at the door for everyone. When I partnered with EOS, it felt like that, and it should feel like that for everyone.

When you’re building a kit, how do you go about choosing products? It’s more options now for sure (like Fenty Beauty with their 50 foundation shades), but it’s still a process I’d imagine.

The cool thing now is that if you were my client, I could just pick one thing for you. Whereas before, I would have to mix three or four or five things to make one thing. And that I love. I remember the first time I actually got my shade because my undertones are different. For South Asian women and South Asian people, we tend to sometimes be green and a little bit gold, but often there’s only red undertone and yellow undertone.

I remember the first time I got to, on myself and on a client, use one bottle of something, I was like, “OK, oh my gosh, somebody saw me.” Even when I’m chosen for a partnership, that actually to me shows that brands are really seeing me and seeing us because there’s a lot of us who are able to do this job in front face for brands.

For example, when EOS came to me, I felt so honored how incredible that I get to be the one, and I’m not No. 12 on that list or 20, or an afterthought. I am the first one and they picked me to represent them and teach about these beautiful products. I think when you get to also see people of color front facing, it makes such a huge impact on everybody. And even me in a small level, in a macro level, every time I get to do something like this, I am so thrilled and emotional and I really have to fight the imposter syndrome of it all but every time I get a chance to do something like this, the imposter syndrome voice gets to get a little bit more silenced. And I think the more we see that and embrace that as a human community, the better for all of us.

It really is empowering. When I had saw your profile, I’m like, oh my goodness, this is so cool. A makeup artist who is of Asian descent, a woman of color with dark features.

I am a brown girl. True and true. That is what I am. That is who I am, and I am a brown girl who’s really proud of that. But I am so excited that I get to represent for everybody and when I began this career, we didn’t have those chances, and now we do. I just want more of those for myself and for everyone.

This is also an era of self-confidence and kind of silencing the imposter syndrome that really lives in all of us. I think especially for people of color in fields that often have in the past not embraced us, we have to be even louder and more confident in what we’re doing and what we’re presenting because clearly we are being seen. It’s now our time to take whoever is seeing us and giving us that chance and making it grow tenfold, 20-fold and not only being inspirational for other people who look like us, but also for people who don’t look like us and who need to see us.

Any favorite behind the scenes moments that you can share of you doing these makeup looks, whether it’s for a premiere or awards?

Being backstage or getting people ready for their premieres, it’s my favorite because you get to be forever etched into this monumental moment. And sometimes it’s a little moment … but other times it’s their biggest film of their life or they’ve been nominated for an Oscar. So, some of my favorite BTS moments have been like Auli’i — I got her ready in London for her Moana premiere — and it was so special to just be a part of that. And even being with Geraldine so many times … really being a part of her coming into her own now has been awesome.

Then I got to be with [first-time Oscar nominee] Jenny Slate right before her walking the Oscar carpet. To be able to do that with someone is an honor that someone would let you be in their moment that they’re going to cherish forever. … It’s like all those moments of just being a part of something that is bigger than you in a way has been really cool. I would say all those really kind of iconic movies that I get to be a part of, Oscar moment, premieres, SAG Awards, even Vanity Fair, is very special. That’s always fun because it’s a party so anytime I’ve gotten anybody ready for the party for the Vanity Fair party, it is like there’s people around, there’s champagne, there’s all the things.