Fame Makeup

[Lina Drury]

Growingup did you have a clear idea what you wanted to do with your life? Was becoming a makeup artist something you always wanted to do and were you even aware that that was a career path?

I was looking at the screencaps of the new Tom Ford commercial and this specific shot gave me fame era vibes when she pulled her bangs back and showed her blonde eyebrows. It's definitely the nude lipstick, black mascara and eyeliner around her eyes

This silky powder bronzer won a lot of new fans in our tests. Panellists praised the luxurious feel and shimmery, perfectly even finish. Available in five shades, the bronzer is housed in a chic tortoiseshell compact with a "lovely large mirror" which makes doing your makeup on the move a breeze.

Coating lashes without clumping or flaking, this mascara was praised as long lasting and easy to apply. Testers loved the chunky conical packaging, with the hi-vis finish making it easy to find at the bottom of a handbag. It scored 5/5 in the lab for its smudge-proof capabilities, too.

All our testers liked both the lengthening and volumising results, with one saying "the brush seems to work magic." The mascara was praised as easy to use, and lived up to its long-wear promise, scoring 5/5 in our smudge tests in the lab, where we used a cotton pad to wipe from right to left and assess any dislodged product.

Scoring top marks for design, this product tames brows with a triple-pronged approach: an applicator spoolie plus a fine comb and thick fluffy brush tucked away in the lid. It was likened to salon lamination, with testers delighted by the way the gel tidied up overgrown brows and held hairs in place all day.

Denny is our Beauty and Grooming Tester and has an in-depth knowledge and background in beauty and PR. She has spoken on panels with Cosmetics Executive Women (CEW) and has worked with many beauty brands as a commercial model. Since joining in October 2022, she has worked on numerous testing categories including over 18 different brands for vitamin C serums, scalp scrubs, shampoos for dry hair and many more. She has over 20k followers on TikTok where she shares beauty and fashion tips otherwise better known as Denny Daily.

Yes, Miss Fame's sense of fashion and beauty is intimidatingly impeccable, but their true beauty comes from their true mission: shining a spotlight on the LGBTQIA+ community that's so bright, acknowledging it is unavoidable.

"Right now we're really finding a time to find the beauty from community and working as a union to make sure that people feel seen and heard," Miss Fame tells Coveteur. "I hope that through my platform, people are able to use my message and my image as a point of elevation; I want people to dream, to believe, and have hope to never feel limited because of who we are."

The RuPaul's Drag Race graduate is putting up a fight for queer rights through every front row they've graced in full drag, including (but definitely not limited to) Miu Miu, Jean Paul Gaultier, Maison Margiela, Mugler, Kenzo, and Viktor&Rolf. Miss Fame has been working with the latter fashion and fragrance house for quite some time and has recently partnered with the label for their latest Pride month campaign, "Free to Love, Free to Be Me," which has been crafted in conjunction with GLAAD. On top of working together to feature short films created by high-profile LGBTQ+ activists and content creators, Viktor&Rolf will also be making a financial contribution to support the LGBTQIA+ organization's mission, which is also near and dear to Miss Fame.

"For [Viktor&Rolf] to seal the deal and say, 'Hey, we want to put a campaign towards you to build your life,' when people like myself get work like this, it helps me to build my future," they say. "I'm an artist. I come from very humble beginnings. I grew up on a farm. There's no secret family member that's paying for my dream. I fought for my dream and I worked for everything I have. And I love to see that for other LGBTQIA+ people working in the beauty industry, getting opportunities, and then seeing them continue to work within those brands and houses."

"It's a lot of work to find yourself in an industry that is so saturated. There's so many things happening and it's at a very high pace. So how do you create something that is going to be innovative? For me, going into the beauty space was about the messaging, about who I wanted to speak to. It's really about tapping into my relationship within my own realm, which is gender fluidity and gender nonconformity. I was speaking to my community and I wanted to use my platform to reach people. I want beauty to mean something.

"I'm still figuring so much out in regards to my identity. I've got so much more to learn, and I look forward to it because I'm constantly evolving and I'm learning as time is passing. And as the times come, it's a beautiful thing.

"[As for] Viktor&Rolf, this is a brand that really encompasses me. They really celebrate me. They've allowed and welcomed me to not only sit at their table, but to have a point of authority by extending a contract to me."

"I've recently been texting with Kristen McMenamy on the regular, and she's one of those very unique nineties supermodels that was really going to be any identity. She beats to her own drum. She really represented being oddly, unconventionally beautiful. She was like dirty couture. I look at somebody like that, and I love that she's never conformed and she still doesn't conform, she's still authentically her. That's just the person who's within my industry who I look up to still, forever and always, [as well as] Linda Evangelista and Naomi Campbell. They're legends, these are the people that really formed glamour.

"Carine Roitfeld [is another inspiration]; she welcomed me with open arms. We had a great time sitting front row at different shows and laughing and just really celebrating life and individuality and Victor&Rolf. These are people that are a part of the community that are celebrating the [LGBTQIA+] community by bringing somebody like myself, putting me in that front row, and allowing me to really see and get to form my expert opinion on fashion by witnessing the show firsthand."

"I'm still loving short blond hair. I'm still loving classic nineties makeup. I'm loving less foundation on the skin, I think that's really nice. And also, [I love] playing with fragrance. I have the full Viktor&Rolf fragrance collection, so I'm sitting here and I'm able to adjust from a masculine scent to a feminine scent. If there is a gender attachment to fragrance, well, let's strip that away. I'm just loving all of it, I get to play and have a good time. I'm using Viktor&Rolf's Spicebomb a lot lately."

"Because it's Pride Month, a lot of brands get ready to say, 'We got to look right, and we're going to hop in and we're going to start paying spokesmodels that embody Pride Month. So we're going to be looking for LGBTQIA+ individuals because it's the right thing to do.' Yes, it is the right thing to do; they should be hiring LGBTQIA+ individuals, but I also don't think they should be excluded solely to the month of Pride. I think that we should be looking at beauty and saying, 'I love what you stand for. You really embody our brand as a whole.' When I look at Viktor&Rolf, it was the next indicated step for us. We've already established a working relationship, kind of a professional and respectful relationship of admiration."

"Pride is about rediscovering what truly matters. I think it's about core values, about really going inside myself and then thinking about how I can be a better person on this planet. And specifically within my community, to have a platform is not just to be 'Oh, how great, I have a verified Instagram account.' What does that really mean? It doesn't mean anything. Honestly, if all of this was taken away from me, I'd hope that deep down inside, I could say that my intention was always based on love, unity, support, and strength. And also knowing that there's enough for everybody to win. I think that we should never feel the fear of scarcity that we just can't. We could really benefit from being in unison and really saying, 'Hey, I'm with you, I see you, and I celebrate your win.' Pride is just about being introspective. [It's about] celebrating and elevating unity between each other, but within myself as well."

"I think having conversations is the first step in order for us to really bridge the gap of question and judgment. I think that judgment comes from misinformation or education; you're educated to hate, that's a fact. People learn how to hate by conditioning from family or religion, et cetera. I will say our backgrounds affect us. I wasn't raised in the most nurturing of environments, I didn't have all the support. People didn't fully get me and I wasn't always safe. And as an adult, I've really worked on building a healing within myself through any means necessary because I'm fighting for my life every day inside myself. I'm healing old wounds that are so deep and so significant that just existing is a form of protest.

"Every time I get myself ready and I go out to any fashion front row or any campaign or any posts, anytime I'm seen in real life with my makeup on is a form of protest. Somebody is going to notice me, and some people won't appreciate what I'm doing. They might say something that's harmful, and that's the risk, but I'm willing to take that risk because being visible is one of the most profound things that I've ever done for myself.

3a8082e126