Makeup by Madz
Below is a portfolio of my work as a makeup artist! I will continue to update this page often. You can also follow my makeup artistry Instagram @MakeupByMadzDenault for more! Scroll to the bottom for my history with makeup :)
Interested in having me design something or having your makeup done by me? Please visit the Contact Me page!
It all started when I was a little kid…
I was always a performer, and my sister would do my makeup for me for all my dance recitals/shows from the time I was three. She started teaching me right away! My sister, mom, and my dad would allow me to play with makeup on them as well.
Around age ten I started to struggle with acne and began to break out pretty severely, which started me into wearing makeup everyday—at first to simply cover up the acne and hide my insecurities. But the older I got, it became less about covering and more about creating art and expressing myself with makeup.
I was in high school at the height of 2010’s makeup influencer YouTube—and learned most of my techniques online through people like Nikkie Tutorials, Manny MUA, and Scott Barnes. I quickly became known for my daily colorful and bold looks—friends and family started hiring me to do their makeup for special events like homecoming, prom, and even weddings!
In my late teens/early twenties I also began exploring my queerness, I learned SO much from starting to follow drag artists. I often consider looks I do to be drag inspired and/or drag. Some I really look to for ‘mug’ inspiration are Katya, Latrice Royale, Manila Luzon, Sasha Velour, Monet X Change, Trixie Mattel, Crystal Method, Murray Hill and sooo many more. Living in Chicago I get to see all the coolest drag performers often. I’m currently a huge fan of Chicago kings and queens Derry Queen, Ari Gato, Peeper Johnson, and Travis Fiero. Around this time I was also hired to makeup design a few junior shows for our local theater—They were such fun projects and I hope to someday do more!
My sister started training to become an esthetician during those years. I was often her model and ended up learning a lot about skincare and makeup sanitation/safety through her and my own participation in the programs.
2020 and after, I learned life changing tips and techniques from Robert and James Welsh. They helped me branch out into different types of looks and makeup looking good in all settings from daylight, to ring lights, to stage lights—and understanding that makeup in real life doesn’t look what the internet taught us, and that’s okay!
With this all of this knowledge and further research of my own—I have decided against photo retouching when posting my looks. Meaning, I won’t do any smoothing, blurring, removing dark spots, or things of that nature that change the way makeup sits on the skin. The maximum editing any of the photos have will be minor lighting/saturation related things (some older photos have higher saturation, hello 2016). I will also list products I am working with when possible if you follow along on my makeup Instagram!
I hope you enjoy my work!