From Olivia Colman to Jessica Chastain – the stars all want a ‘Charlotte Tilbury face’
Meet the 49-year-old British make-up artist who has single-handedly changed the face of Hollywood. Sonia Haria charts her success
It has been a busy awards season this year, not least because it was the first full run of in-person red-carpet events in more than two years. And while the fashion was a mixed bag of high-octane glamour and understated styling, there seemed to be a unifying theme in beauty.
Until a few years ago, a classic Hollywood beauty look was reassuringly simple: a layer of powdery, mattifying foundation, a glossy winged black eyeliner and a slick of red lipstick. It is one of the most enduring aesthetics of all time, worn by everyone from Marilyn Monroe and Audrey Hepburn to Kate Winslet and Nicole Kidman.
But in recent years, and in particular this season, that rule book has been thrown out of the window. The favoured look today is a palette of smoky browns, pinks and mauves, which are more flattering for all women, not just the blue-eyed and blonde-haired. Think smouldering eyes, long fluttery lashes, piles of bronzer and a pinky-nude lipstick, and you’ll find yourself firmly in New Hollywood beauty territory.
The change is largely down to the influence of Charlotte Tilbury, who has become the go-to make-up artist for Hollywood’s elite. At the Oscars last month, she prettified Penelope Cruz and Olivia Colman, as well as having an army of Charlotte Tilbury-trained make-up artists booked for other celebrities, including Billie Eilish, Sofia Vergara and Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain.
If networking were an Olympic sport, Tilbury would have been the unrivalled gold-medal winner for years. She is best friends with Kate Moss (godmother to her children), has named lipsticks after Sienna Miller and Penelope Cruz, was behind Amal Clooney’s wedding day make-up, and is the founder of a bestselling
Tilbury has created a brand that transcends generations, from teens to boomers
namesake make-up range, which was launched in 2013 and became an instant success. In June 2020, at the height of the pandemic, she sold a majority stake in the company to the Spanish conglomerate Puig, in a deal that valued the brand at more than a billion dollars. Still chairman of the company and as influential as ever, Tilbury is determining beauty looks not only on the red carpet but for us mere mortals, too.
The confidence-boosting effect of make-up is something that Tilbury, who has been wearing cosmetics since she was 13 years old, has professed since early on in her career. “Make-up and skincare have the ability to change the way you feel about yourself – they boost your confidence and energise your mood,” she says. In fact, when her brand was first launched, Tilbury had a monthly makeover column in the Telegraph, where she would work with women of all ages, skin colour and skin types to make them look like subtly enhanced versions of themselves. There were often tears of joy at the end of the shoot days from the made-over readers.
Much of that confidence boost is down to complexion products. Foundations and base products have come on by leaps and bounds in the past decade, to create glowy, sun-kissed and softly highlighted complexions. Tilbury has been key in shaping this change. Her Hollywood Flawless Filter, a priming complexion product that immediately makes you look well-rested and as though you’ve just come back from a holiday (yes, really) is an industry secret weapon and something you’ll find in the make-up bags of women of all ages.
This democratising of beauty is
reflected in her advertising campaigns, too. In fact, Tilbury has cast 1960s model Twiggy, 72, as the face of her latest campaign, showing that it makes good business sense to have women of all ages front beauty ads. “Twiggy was creating her own make-up looks before make-up artists existed,” she says.
Bronzer is another product she has popularised. It’s no longer a muddy brown powder used mainly by teens in a bid to look sun-kissed; now we can all look like we’ve stepped off a yacht on
the Amalfi coast. There’s a bronzer for everyone. Tilbury has created a brand that transcends generations, from teens to boomers. She tells me beauty isn’t an “exclusive club”. “Everyone can discover the power of beauty, from trendsetting TikTokkers to gorgeous grandparents.”
Last year, mother-of-two Tilbury hit the headlines in an interview with the Daily Mail,where she addressed rumours that her husband, George Waud, a film producer whom she married in 2014, has never seen her without make-up. “I have my bedroom eye. I take off my make-up, do my skincare, then I put on my eyeliner that lasts 16 hours and my mascara.” In an interview with New York’s The Cut in 2016, Kim Kardashian confessed that Tilbury even taught her how to wear make-up “for bed”.
Besides wearing make-up to sleep, which is perhaps quite niche, what is the most flattering make-up for women? When she was formulating her bestselling nude-pink Pillow Talk shade, Tilbury looked at the dominant pink undertones in hundreds of women to find a shade that naturally enhanced the lips. “It makes your eye colour pop and your lips look fuller and wider,” she tells me. In fact, it was the colour this awards season worn by Penelope Cruz, Sienna Miller and Olivia Colman.
By creating a slice of Hollywood glamour in a compact, Tilbury has well and truly cracked red-carpet beauty. And influenced our make-up bags, too – one flattering, glowy complexion at a time.