Professional make-up artist and lifestyle expert Sir John Barnett has worked with global celebrities including Beyoncé Knowles on the Mrs. Carter Show World Tour and beauty icons like Naomi Campbell, as well as major fashion designers: Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Dior, Louis Vuitton, Yves Saint Laurent, and more. Sir John’s go-getter attitude, work ethic, and unique eye have taken him and his art all around the world.
TVM: What is your signature?
Sir John: (Laughs) it’s going to be a signature glow: some kind of luminescent property to the skin. Or definitely smoky eyes. Your signature is basically what—sometimes—you want to run away from, but can’t. People ask you for it.
TVM: Do you prefer working with models or established personalities?
Sir John: I really want to bring light to the fact that who really helped my career were the girls. I can actually project artistic views or the mood I’m feeling through on their faces. They happen to be the screen I can project my worn on (laughs). So I’m going to say it’s going to be models. Personalities: they’re great. Working on Beyoncé is amazing and it’s like the dream. But when you work with a model, there’s raw clay there. You actually have a chance to really build a story instead of collaborating on something that’s already built.
TVM: Are you currently working with both?
Sir John: Right now I’m on a world tour with Beyoncé for “The Mrs. Carter Show”. So that’s taking up a lot of my time. We just wrapped the U.S. and England, and then we have to go to South America. But I took some time off for myself. I’m going to leave Columbia and go straight to Paris’s fashion week to see a couple of shows. Just need to stay relevant in my business. I don’t want to turn my back on what made me popular in the first place. You know, fashion.
TVM: Some people carry a notebook around to jot down ideas. What’s your strategy?
Sir John: (Laughs) I’m a HUGE lover of Instagram. I live in a very visual world. Instagram is my journal. It’s my way to archive things that I’ve done: to remember where I was last year, what made me happy, what places, or even quotes I was inspired by.
TVM: Where do you get your inspiration from?
Sir John: I’m going to be honest with you, and this might sound really corny, but I get the inspiration from the women I’m working with. I’ve worked with the most amazing women in the world, seriously. For example: last month I did the cover of Harper’s BAZZARD, ESpagne with Naomi Campbell, and the inspiration was her. My inspiration was Beyoncé was Beyoncé and how she emanates such radiance on stage. I wanted to reflect that in the make-up. I’m not inspired by the competitors or anything else around them.
TVM: Is it important for a vocalist to have a consistent make-up artist?
Sir John:This might lead to my detriment somehow… (laughs). On the contrary, it might be good to have multiple artists throughout your career. Sometimes you can grow out of a look. You can grow out of an aesthetic. You can organically morph into a new person just by doing releasing new album or having a baby or getting married. With all these things life throws your way. It’s good to have someone with fresh eyes to look at you in a complete different way. You should jump and see if you can find that right hand.
TVM: What does your job consist of on Beyoncé’s The “Mrs. Carter Show” World Tour?
Sir John: There are dancers and everybody else, but Beyoncé is my client. I don’t really work on anyone else.
TVM: What would you say are your favourite make-up trends?
Sir John: Trends… trends… trend is a tricky word because it’s recurring. I would say traditional make-up approaches, which are high lighting and low lighting. A series of architectural contours would be my favourite trend: to make the shapes of the face really keen and pronounced. Contour and highlight would be something I would love to do to everyone.
TVM: What is your top tip for a vocalist at home trying to look fresh and ready to go in 10 minutes?
Sir John:The eyes first would be ideal to save time. And also to edit. Edit where you want to go. Know what your direction is. Know what you want to highlight and showcase. And let everything else be minimal. Some girls, they just want to do too much of everything. So what I want to do is smoky eyes, a glossy lip and contour my cheeks. There should be an emphasis on something and everything else should fade away.
TVM: Do you have any favourite products?
Sir John:I love the Tom Ford brand, personally. I know the makeup artists (Charlotte Tilbury) who formulated the collection with Tom. She basically took his ideas and translate them into a well-edited collection. I love La Prairie Skin Care. I just like mediums; I like different textures. I like to play with things a little bit— I’m not just an eye shadow guy. I like to use gloss on the eyelids and shadow on the cheeks, and washed of blush on the temples in a way that is not completly visible. It just looks like the skin is glowing from within, you know?
TVM: Do you practice on a “test-subject”?
Sir John: No longer (laughs). I just go. I have these images floating around in my head. I put my hand to skin, and make something happen. I really don’t have a “test-subject”. At this point in my career, I just go for it.
TVM: Would you say that confidence came with time?
Sir John: Um… within a short amount of time. I don’t think you always have that luxury to have someone sit and you just play. I’m on a job and you’re kind of nervous for the job. Will “the look” translate, etc? You just go for it. A true artist doesn’t really have time to prep and do someone for a mock trial, or something like that. Don’t overthink it too much. Once you start to overthink a project too much in this business, it becomes contrived and you lose artistic value.
TVM: Can you describe one challenge you constantly face in your practices?
Sir John: I feel that in our business, there is no competition. We’re artists; we’re not horses. We shouldn’t compare each other to each other. Sometimes I feel everybody is looking into the next man’s pot. And it destroys what you have when you’re comparing your artistry or your aesthetic to another person. You can find inspiration or align visual interpretations, but you should never look outside of yourself when it comes from the hand. And time! (Laughs) we want time; we want our time. Sometimes you’re allowed the time you’re supposed to have to create a look. And that’s when you can feel cheated as an artist. Every sector of our business is allowed a certain amount of time to do the job extremely well.
TVM: That seems like a lot of pressure.
Sir John: (Laughs) yeah, but you know what? It’s a business where you have to get the girls ready for a show. And you don’t have time.
TVM: What’s one thing you’ve learned from working with Beyoncé?
Sir John: What I learned from her is to use time wisely and to have a serious work ethic. She is a very, very, very hard worker. And I thought I was until I met her. When you’re off the job, you’re still not off the job. You can be editing; you can be doing other things. She uses time wisely.
Relationships are key in my business and how you treat people. The business is so small— it really is. The higher you get in fashion, in music, in media, the smaller it becomes. If you treat someone like sh*t one day, it can really come back to you. It’s important not to burn bridges. It’s one of the things that gave me success in my career.
TVM: What do you enjoy most about your career?
Sir John: Travel. I like to go and see new places. Just the fact you can go from South Columbia to France, and then France to Morocco. I don’t think I would have been able to if it weren’t for the business. It’s also a really large platform to do something else in life, if that’s what you would like to do.
TVM: Where do you hope to be in five years?
Sir John: I want my furniture to be in hotels. I’m slowly bridging the gaps or turning the corners into home & lifestyle, from Fashion and Beauty. If I can do half as well as I’ve done in Beauty, I will be very happy.
Smokey Eyes How to:
1) Start w/ an eye kohl around the top and bottom lash-line. The base of a smokey eye is one of the most important components. (The perfect eye kohl should be close to the color of your intended shadow.) The difference between eye kohl and a regular eye pencil is that kohl’s have a lot more maneuverability when blending. Kohl pencils smudge with incredible ease. Perfect for layering under a powdery shadow. Pencils offer durability to the shadows by giving the pigment something to grab onto. Resulting in a richer more opaque application of color.
To get the best results with your smokey eye shape, you need the right tools. I suggest using smaller firmer brush for the initial blending of the kohl so that you have a strong foundation. Fading your base medium is extremely important. (If not blended properly, your shadow will stick to non-blended areas & create a disaster.)
2) Start to take a short dense brush & with your darker shadow. Pack color on top of your primer/ pencil. Really saturate the pencil/ base. Working your way up from lash line fading away at the crease.
3) Take a clean blending brush & soften the edges of the color you deposited. Practicing your fading technique is crucial. No color should rise above your crease, in other words the brow bone should stay clean.
4) Use a similar technique at the bottom of your eye, except this time use a smaller brush. Set your pencil with shadow. Then begin to diffuse any sharp lines with your clean brush.
Tip: keep your shade of choice neat and contained close to the lash line washing out. Better to start off slow building your intensity as you go along, instead of aggressively saturating your eye too quickly. Often resulting in raccoon eyes, which is not the direction this trend is taking us.
5) At this point you should see a graduation of pigment. Starting intense at the lash line dissipating to nothing at the crease & below eye.
6) Add a bit of shimmer to your brow bone. The skin on the bone should be shinny, creating the look of radiant flawless skin. Simultaneously where the darker color and the highlight meet should appear seamless!
7) Armed with a q- tip & water based eye makeup remover clean up around the smoke. Then apply a concealer & foundation. With a clean blending brush diffuse any lines where the eye meets the concealer/ foundation. Lastly, set your concealer with a fine translucent powder. Doll up your lashes with a volume enhancing mascara & go.
