Vlad Haggerty, the Goddess of Lip Art, on Pat McGrath's Plagiarism and Heritage

The name of an American of Ukrainian origin is Vlada Haggerty, she is Vladamua, known to most of those who know how things are going in modern make-up. Vlada, one of the first major make-up wizards who made a career through instagram, managed to occupy a narrow niche between commercial make-up and pure art, in this sense, she is the heiress, for example, Pat McGrath. Haggerty became famous for her lime art: on her own and those of others, she draws Escher's cubes and drops of water, covers them with liquid gold and sequins. But the glory responded to Vlada not only with bright prospects. A scandal erupted several years ago: sister Kim Kardashian Kylie Jenner, launching her own cosmetic line, used Vlada's work as a logo, retracted with a minimal deviation from the original. The professional community then sided with the make-up artist, but the story did not become less unpleasant - especially given the fact that the idea of ​​one of the latest promotions Kylie borrowed from Haggerty again.

The popularity of Vlada in instagram naturally began to attract the attention of brands. The make-up artist does not exchange advertising posts - she has much more interesting options. In honor of the new Smashbox Be Legendary liquid lipstick collection - Lip Pigments and Liquid Metals - Vlada created lip artworks that play around the name of each shade, and now she travels with master classes all over the world, speaking in an interesting status "Smashbox Lip Editor-In- Chief ". Before the Moscow presentation, Moore Sobolev met with Vlada.

The Smashbox team found me on instagram about a year and a half ago. They invited me to their office in Los Angeles - they gave me a chance to try out samples of new products, and asked what I thought of them. So they got the idea that I would make visuals for the collection. Each lip-art promotion is inspired by the name of lipstick - for example, in honor of the blue tint Iced Out, I made lip art, where my lips seem to be covered with ice cubes, and for Bad B I made honeycombs from large glitter. Smashbox gave me complete freedom, they did not offer their vision, but trusted mine - their only wish was that the concept of the picture played up the name of the shade. In general, when I went to the makeup school in Kiev, we had a small Smashbox booth. We painted all the models with one palette from there, handed it to each other, and I thought: "Once I have such a palette of my own." I have a dream!

An important stage for any make-up artist or artist is the study, study and copying of someone else's work. All you need to understand the technique. But then, after this phase, you need to grow something in yourself. Many people believe that creativity is unusual colors or glitter, but creativity is a new idea, an attempt to do something that no one has done before. It is terribly important for me to be original. I follow instagram and makeup artists, but precisely in order not to repeat someone's idea and be able to come up with something new. I adore Alex Box, her brain works somehow fantastically, she is so different and she doesn’t care at all that it is fascinating. I love the surrealists, Dali and Escher - those who play with the form. It seems to me that I have it from my childhood: Mom always said that you should not try to be like everyone else, and this installation is stuck in my head forever.

Therefore, it is very painful for me when my work is stolen and copied - because this is my idea, how can you just pick it up and take it away? It does not flatter me at all - for me it’s the same thing as to come to visit someone, to see a TV on the wall and pick it up. It is not flattering. It is unpleasant. Therefore, I try to use my fame for good purposes - I talk a lot about copyright, copyright, and intellectual property. By the way, many photographers and artists wrote me thanks when there was a scandal with Kylie. Because almost every person engaged in visual art has a story about how he was robbed.

Of course, every make-up artist dreams of launching his own line of cosmetics. But it seems to me that I have not yet revealed all my potential and all my possibilities as a creative make-up artist. I admire Pat McGrath and am proud that I worked with her for a year. It seems to me that she has a very correct path for a makeup artist. In the fashion industry, she is now an icon, everyone knows her. At the moment she practically does not paint, everything is done by her huge team, she has about fifty people. She is the brain, the creative director, she comes up with the concept. By the way, I was at her house, I was very worried, but she turned out to be terribly sweet, such a plush universal mom. When I came to her, I only thought: "Oh my God, oh my God, I am at Pat McGrath's home! I am in Pat's closet!" And she came to me and immediately hugged.

I, nevertheless, still have a makeup fuse: I want to shoot, invent, paint. I have a few friends who have launched their lines, and I see how quickly their productivity as make-up artists has dropped. This is difficult, especially if you have a small indie brand, within which you are both a PR manager, a creator of a formula, and a purchaser. There is simply no time and effort to invent something else, but for now I really want to. Maybe when I retire, then think about it.

I started making lip art to get distracted. My husband and I moved to Los Angeles, I didn’t work with Sephora, and I ended up in a foreign city without work, without friends, and in a slight panic. I painted on myself every day for several hours: it is so meticulous work that it is difficult to suffer when you do it, the brain is completely immersed in this process. I started making lips, because it is easier for me to paint them than my eyes: I don’t need to close anything, dodge to see what you drew there. Over time, I had my own techniques and devices: I bought a strong magnifying mirror, began to break off brushes to get as close as possible to the mirror (the first time I did it from irritation, and then it turned out that it was so much more convenient). On models, I can’t draw such miniature drawings as if on myself, because I just can’t approach another person so closely - it will be uncomfortable both for me and for the model. I shoot myself too - on a camera with a macro lens to which the monitor is connected.

That drop I had turned out by chance. I didn’t have any monitor back then, I took off my lips - and accidentally put too much gloss on before shooting. She felt while she was taking off that he was dripping from her lips on a T-shirt, was upset that she had ruined her clothes. And then I saw on one of the photos how this droplet “froze”, and I liked it so much! I had seen such makeup before, but I managed to create it in my own style - mine was made of a transparent shine, very heavy, and most of all I like to make droplets using metal textures.

I adore shops for needlework, for me they are like confectionery for a child. It is there that I buy sparkles, rhinestones, chains and all sorts of things for my work. Now I have a studio room at home, I’ll drag everything there like a squirrel into a burrow. I also often use materials for nail art: they are quite small, it is convenient to use them not only for nails, but also for the face. In general, I think that my ideas are rooted in nail art: at the age of sixteen or seventeen I painted my nails all the time, painted all sorts of flowers and mushrooms on them. Now, since I work with people and all the time I process my hands with a sanitizer, the lacquer flies off very quickly and I barely paint the nails. Apparently, my desire to continue to paint on myself and turned into drawings on the lips.

I used to do art on myself every day - of course, now, when we have a campaign going on, it doesn't work that way. On a trip, I sketch ideas into a notebook — in order to draw on myself, I need my studio, my brushes, my mirror. I go to my place, close the door, turn on the “Friends” on my phone, and for me it’s like going to the spa. And I, of course, had many unsuccessful attempts. Even when I completed, removed and edited the work, I can still decide not to post it. That's why I like drawing on myself most of all: I need the freedom to decide what to do with this work. The longest work I draw about three hours. Here, for example, each diamond is separately lined with spangles. My neck tightened wildly, the most difficult thing is to sit for three hours with my mouth open! But the satisfaction of the work done, the fact that I am well done, is worth it. Well, and then through the tears you have to wash off the makeup, of course.

Lip-art is interesting, in particular, by the fact that it lives for a very short time - literally an hour or two. If we talk about lime art in everyday life, the most wearable option is glitter: if applied correctly, they last for several hours. The main thing is not to apply glitter on the mucous membrane, press it with your finger and use a sufficiently thick and sticky lipstick as a substrate. In general, it seems to me that lip-art is the trend of the future: a couple more years - and everyone will walk like that. Let's start with the glitter on the lips, which many already wear.