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Madonna’s Make Up Artist- Meet Gina Brooke…

February 06, 2012

The first time I met Gina, it was in New York. She told me she worked with Madonna, and I remember I thought, yes,maybe she did her make up once and now she counts her as her client.

Few months later, I was writing about her, so I went online and checked her website. She is impressive! Her make up, her personality, her list of clients, and most of all, the fake lashes she creates. And yes, she has been working with Madonna for many years!

Hayat Ammouri: You say that skin Preparation is very important. Could you tell us more about it?

Gina Brooke: Yes, skin is the foundation to any beautiful make up. I try to explain to people that doing a make up is like painting on canvas or a wall. If you do not polish the wall before you apply the paint, the paint will peel. The foundation of the skin has to be prepped properly otherwise the make up will not adhere.

Hayat Ammouri: How do you do that?

Gina Brooke: I actually spend more time on the skin than I do on the make up. What I do is time consuming, but it’s worth it.

Hayat Ammouri: How long does it take?

Gina Brooke: At least an hour. I start by using an amazing system called “Intraceuticals”. It’s basically a company from Australia. You know because of the ozone layer there, they have a very high rate in skin cancer. I use this machine from “intraceuticals” , that uses oxygen under pressure. We are born with Hyaluronic acid, but as we grow older, we lose it.

I take the acid, and with oxygen, I go on every pore of the face.

If you go to the website, we have tons of testimonials from John Galliano, Madonna, Eva Longoria, Justin Timberlake, and Fergie, to whom I introduced the machine to.

Hayat Ammouri: If we are home and we don’t have the machine, what could we do?

Gina Brooke: I would recommend using their skin care products. They contain a lot of Hyaluronic acid; basically this company’s machines were used on patients with skin cancer. And it healed the skin. Their products are just as powerful.

Hayat Ammouri: You don’t use a lot of foundation on the face?

Gina Brooke: If someone has a good skin, I don’t like to use a lot of foundation. The biggest problem with the skin is uneven skin tone. What I like to do, if the skin is good, why would I need a foundation? I would use a concealer, a moisturizer, and that’s it. Or a very light weight tinted moisturizer. Foudation is supposed to look like your skin, and has to look natural.

Hayat Ammouri: A lot of women want to look younger and fresher. Madonna Looks so good and young. How do you achieve this look?

Gina Brooke: I have been working with Madonna for 9 years. And before that, whoever did her make up, they would apply it very heavy. Heavy foundation, heavy on the eyes, a lot of sparkly eye shadow. The way to make yourself look your best, no matter what your age is, is really looking in the mirror, seeing what’s gorgeous in you, and focusing on it. Focus on your best attribute. A lot of women look in the mirror, and the first thing they do is see what they don’t like. As an artist, women have to look at themselves in an optimistic way. We are all beautiful, whether we have our lips, our lashes, our eyes.. Focus on the features. Look at your face objectively and determine what you love most about your face.

This is what I did with Madonna. She is a beautiful person. I think she is more beautiful in person than in the pictures. She has beautiful skin and incredible eyes. Focus on your beauty.

Hayat Ammouri: If someone is tired, how would you wake the face up?

Gina Brooke: The most common problem is that when women are tired, their skin is dull looking, and they feel dehydrated. First, I always suggest an enzyme mask at home, it would be great. it lightens the skin. The other thing is exfoliating, every six to 8 weeks. Dehydration makes us look dull and increases the appearance of fine line and wrinkles. We need to brighten up our skin. There is a product like a wand, inside the pen , it’s called Opulence Brightening Wand.It’s loaded with botanical brighteners; it evens out uneven skin tone and leaves the skin radiant.

Hayat Ammouri: Can we get this product easily?

Gina Brooke: You could purchase it online.

Hayat Ammouri: You apply this before the make up?

Gina Brooke: Yes. Women also worry about their eyes, they look puffy and tired, I highly recommend an eye cream with caffeine in it. That will brighten the eye area.

Hayat Ammouri: Is it the same if they drink coffee (I ask her laughing)?

Gina Brooke: Coffee dehydrates your skin. Use your opulence gel, and then there are 2 creams I recommend, The first one is La Prairie, the Cellular eye cream, and I also love the Intraceuticals eye gel, it’s incredible.

Hayat Ammouri: How long would it take these creams to work on your skin?

Gina Brooke: It depends on the person. Everyone responds differently to different products. What would work for someone might not work for someone else.

You think you are going to buy a cream that will take away everything, but they continue to drink coffee, and soda, and smoke and do all these things that damage the skin. This cream won’t do anything to them without them taking care of themselves internally. Your skin is a reflection of what is going on in your body.

Hayat Ammouri: Do you have any blush techniques?

Gina Brooke: I love cream blushes for women with dry skin. I also like to use lipstick because it leaves that sheen on the apples of the cheeks. It gives a dewy glow.

Hayat Ammouri: What is a fun way to do our eyes in summer?

Gina Brooke: I don’t believe there are rules in make up. I just love to wear lashes. It depends on the person. Women need to remember that make up is a way to expressing her identity, to express herself.

Gina Brooke working with Madonna on Stage

Hayat Ammouri: Speaking of lashes.. You did the “Farfalla lashes” for Vivienne Tam… Any advice for first time using eyelashes?

Gina Brooke: Women are very concerned with lashes, but they are very easy, just like everything else, it needs practice. like the first time you tried eyeliner. There are easy techniques to apply lashes. For example, you hold the lashes from the outer corner of the lash, you take it off gently off the package, because sometimes women take it from the inner corner, they pull it too hard and ruin the lash and loose it. From the outer corner, even if you make a mistake, you could still cut it and use the lash. Remember, if you want to cut the lashes, you always have to cut it from the outer corner not the inner corner of the lash. Then you hold both sides with your fingers, you bring them together like a horse shoe, you play with it up and down, until it starts molding. Go below the lash. Apply the glue on the base of the lash. a lot of women do the mistake that they apply the lashes straight away. No, you should wait a little bit, because you want the glue to adhere. Apply it as close to the lash line as possible.

Hayat Ammouri: What are the craziest lashes you did?

Gina Brooke: This month in Italian Vogue, we did Couture Lashes. I made 8 sets, I could not go out, I stayed home working. Really over the top lashes.

Another pair of lashes is one with diamonds that I did for Madonna, and it ended up selling for $10,000 the pair. They became the world’s most expensive lashes.

Hayat Ammouri: What do you enjoy most about your work?

Gina Brooke: Making people feel and realize their beauty. I don’t care which woman, not only celebrities, even any woman at the department store. Women are so focused on their flows instead of their beauty. I transformed Britney Spears once, and she couldn’t believe it was her. It’s just enhancing what you have and take it to a different level.

Hayat Ammouri: What’s you dream? You work with great companies..

Gina Brooke: I just signed on with Hourglass cosmetics. It’s very popular in America. They sell in Sephora and Barneys. I will be helping them create new products. I also just became the ambassador of intraceuticals. I took it when it was unknown and introduced it to everyone… I only work with companies I believe in. I don’t like politics. I like good energy, for me it’s not all about making money. It’s not just about making a fortune, but also about providing good products. I know what women love, and I know what women want. I am a woman and an artist, I want to give the woman what she needs, and help direct the company. Shu Uemura was not very famous, the average person did not know what it was when I joined. I love eyes and skin, that’s my forte. We became known with skin care and eyes, we did the eyelashes bar.

But the dream that I really want to do is renovating houses. I just bought an apartment in Manhattan, and I renovated the whole place. It’s very similar with what I do with women. I walked into that beautiful home, it has nice things, a nice foundation to work with. I completely renovated the building but I kept its identity. It was built in the 1930, and I did not want to ruin it. Everyone was asking me who is your designer, but I did everything myself. Taking something already beautiful and making it more beautiful.

Hayat Ammouri: What’s your best advice for young woman to succeed?

Gina Brooke: All women should understand that we have the power to achieve what we want if we believe in ourselves. When I was younger, I would say I wanted to be a make up artist, everyone would say, no, do something more secure, it’s too much competition… Do something that you love. If there is something that you truly love, try to make money out of it. Anything you do in life, there will be a challenge. Once you figure out what it is that you really love, you have to think about how to make it a profession. In the beginning of my career, not everyone treated me kindly. I didn’t have celebrities’ clients yet. There was this photographer; the first time I worked with him when I was not famous, he was mean, them all sweet and nice asking to work together. I don’t want to work with people like that. My advice for women is to work with good people who are inspiring; everyone who does not inspire you and destroy your spirit, get rid of them. Believe in yourself, study and work hard. A lot of successful people I met don’t come from rich families, they just worked hard.

Gina’s Favourite Products: I love Shu Uemura…

There are so many products I like..

For Foundation: The key is to match your skin tone.

Hourglass tinted moisturizer is amazing.
La Mer Foundation
Chanel Foundation
Giorgio Armani has a great foundation too.

Concealer: The concealer is a very important step. Choose it slightly lighter, but it should blend. It should have a yellow beige to counter redness. If you have redness and you want to take away redness, then it should have yellow.

Cl de peau have the best concealer. If you are fair skin, try ivory or beige. There are only four colors.

Favourite Blushes: I love cream blushes. I love Orgasm from Nars, it has a light reflector, it makes the skin really beautiful.

Favourite Powders: I use Shu Uemura colorless powder.

Favourite Bronzer: In Summer time, I like to use Bronzer. I like Hourglass Illume bronzer. It’s a powder to cream bronzer. You put the cream on the nose, on your cheekbones, etc..

Favourite Mascara: I am working on a mascara for hourglass, it’s called Film Noir, and it will give you the effect of having false lashes; it gives you shiny black lashes, and it will be availabale in the summer.

Favourite Gloss: There are so many; I love YSL and Chanel

My favourite right now is Prodigy. I like matte, I like sheen… It doesn’t matter which brand, you have to find the right colour.

What Do You Think?

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