We are all about that hair — and makeup too! Here at Stylish, we’ve never seen a hairstyle or makeup trend we couldn’t talk about for days on end, so we started a podcast to dish on all the latest beauty news — from hits and misses on the red carpet to celebrity hair and makeup gurus’ dos and don’ts. Each week, Us Weekly beauty director Gwen Flamberg talks with some of the best in the biz about what’s new in hair, makeup and style in our Get Tressed With Us podcast. Listen above!
This week, Gwen and Us Weekly deputy beauty and style director Beth Shapouri welcomed a makeup artist to the show for the first time — catching up with Beyonce’s go-to guy, Sir John, about those epic Coachella — ahem — #Beychella beauty moments and how he collaborated with her longtime hairstylist, Kim Kimble, to create the looks.
Sir John has been working with Bey for years, and he explained that, when it comes to getting her ready for a big event like the Grammys or Coachella, it is an all hands on deck collaboration between him, the hair team, the stylist and even the lighting crew to ensure the look is #flawless.
“It’s all one big story,” he said of how the teams work together. “I think all of our planets orbit around each other.”
When it came to Queen Bey’s gorgeous hair and makeup look for her history making performances at Coachella (she was the first black woman to headline the annual Palm Springs music festival), Sir John said that her waist-grazing blonde curls were actually inspired by the “goddess hair” she sported at the 2017 Grammys, where she performed while expecting twins Sir (notice the same first name?) and Rumi (ironically, Bey had to cancel her Coachella performance that year because of her pregnancy).
John explained that it may take Kimble weeks or even months to source the hair, cuts and colors she needs to tend to Bey’s tresses, but his makeup look comes together much quicker. After getting a sense of what the hair and wardrobe teams are doing, he said he’ll talk to Bey, watch the choreography and sit with the lighting team “for an hour or two” until he is inspired.
“[It’s about] what can I add to this? How can I make this impactful,” Sir John said of deciding on a makeup look. “It’s not necessarily about doing more. It’s about complementing what is already there … It’s about harmony.”
With that in mind, the makeup maestro said it was “with patience and a prayer” that he got Bey’s radiant Coachella makeup look to stay on through her two-and-half-hour set in the desert heat. “She was essentially doing two hours of cardio,” he said, and the key to maintaining a #flawless face throughout is “duality.”
“Make sure you have a liquid and a powder” of everything, he said, to create a “teflon base.” That means layering a powder foundation over a liquid one, powder blushes over creamy formulas and eyeshadow over a budge-proof gel liner. It is also important that skin is properly prepped and hydrated, so he recommends applying a mattifying moisturizer as primer on oily skin types and a water-based cream on drier skin.
As it relates to summer hair trends, Sir John said it is best to take a page from Beyonce and Mariah Carey (circa 1990) and embrace curls and texture because there is a “youthful” quality to it.
For more of Sir John’s tips and tricks — including the unexpected makeup colors you’ll be wearing all summer long — make sure to listen to the full podcast above and subscribe!