28 May 2024 |
From the invention of the internet through to the birth of social media, we’ve become more connected than ever. On one hand, we’re fortunate enough to have the entirety of history at our fingertips. On the other, it feels like a snake slowly eating its own tail. But before you ask “Has everything been done already?”, there are those who dare to dream and innovate – single-handedly battling homogeneity in favour of ingenuity. Here, 10 meets five creatives bringing unique perspectives to beauty across the mediums of hair, make-up, nails, fragrance and content creation, and finds out what inspires their ability to continuously create among all the background noise.
AUGUST SOMBATKAMRAI
In the chaos of 2020, August Sombatkamrai tumbled down a TikTok hole and hasn’t emerged since. “During lockdown I was furloughed, so I had the opportunity to explore make-up in a very free and uninhibited way,” they say. “It wasn’t until two years ago that I really honed in on content-creating professionally.” Offering respite from the revolving door of 15-second fads and throwaway trends, their account, @imonaugust, is a much-needed palate cleanser. Leaning into the absurdity of the buffet of food-related beauty trends – think latte August Sombatkamrai: “Being in art school, I got really used to thinking conceptually” eyes, glazed doughnut skin and blueberry milk nails – Sombatkamrai’s tongue-in-cheek alternative is the potato girl, with bronzed, sun-kissed skin peppered with freckles. Continue scrolling and you’ll pass Twilight-inspired vampire skin, created by mixing your foundation with liquid glitter, and tips and tricks on how to reverse-contour with sunscreen and fake tan.
“Every look I pick is something that makes my brain feel happy and I started doing that to get away from what was trending on my For You Page,” they say. “Being in art school, I got really used to thinking conceptually and I like being funny online. I like the idea of mixing things together, it’s intriguing, almost like alchemy.” In response to the minimalist clean girl aesthetic, Sombatkamrai’s latest series finds them once again at the other end of the spectrum, dedicated to maximalist make-up. Among glossy, jammy lips and prismatic eye looks, the videos include recreations of fellow content creators’ looks – reimagined in their own style. “The competition of originality really saddens me,” they say. “It’s important to credit people, but at the same time, the nature of art is that nothing is truly original and it’s good to remix things and take inspiration. The capitalist society we live in forces people to claim ownership in order to make money.” It’s an attitude they hope more creatives can pursue in 2024. “I want people to have fun with make-up to recapture the feeling you get when you put it on for the first time and look and feel fantastic. That’s timeless, no matter what trend you’re doing.”
August Sombatkamrai: “Being in art school, I got really used to thinking conceptually”
LOUIS SOUVESTRE
“My mum told me that from a very young age, I always wanted to be a hairdresser,” says Louis Souvestre. Mesmerised by his cousins’ luscious locks, at 18 he moved to London from rural France, cutting his teeth at Toni & Guy. Before long, he began to make a name for himself in the realms of fashion and music, creating sumptuous curls and using wig wizardry to devise gravity-defying ’dos for Jorja Smith, Tems and FKA Twigs, who he counts as a long-time collaborator. Over the past three years, he’s transformed the singer, effortlessly switching from swooping sculptural styles to looks that mix textured techniques – proving that locs, waves and braids aren’t just achievable for Black hairstylists.
“I’m always seen as a texture specialist, but it shouldn’t even be a speciality,” he says. “When you look at make-up artists, there’s no such thing as being a specialist with dark skin, it’s not part of the vocabulary, but in hairdressing it still is.” Uncomfortable with centring himself in the conversation, Souvestre’s work speaks for itself, with his years of self-training and dedicated research culminating in looks that feel fresh while paying homage to their historic roots. It’s this conviction that keeps him creating. “If you do your research, there’s always something new you can do – you never get bored. I love the fact that everyone has different hair. Even if you work with the same person, you can bring a different mood.” What’s left to learn? “It’s really important for me to do my own thing, my own shoots that don’t even have to be submitted,” he says. “It’s important to do stuff for fun to fall in love with your work, make mistakes to learn and grow.” Later this year, he’s planning another new venture. “I want to do an exhibition, too,” he says. “Making wigs and taking inspirations that show my culture but making them into art pieces that melt into the head.”
Louis Souvestre’s hair look for FKA twigs
JULIAN STOLLER
At the tender age of 13, Julian Stoller took his first tentative steps into the world of beauty. Armed with a bunch of brushes he’d asked for as a birthday gift, he hustled backstage at his dad’s rock concerts, applying eyeliner for tips to buy more make-up. Scouring the internet and pages of Make-up Artist magazine, Stoller honed his skills with sights set on building a career in the industry. “I didn’t have friends so I started playing around and tried to learn as much as I could,” he says. “It was a lot of trial and error in my room.” Now, at the ripe age of 20, the Seattle-born, New York-based creative counts Julia Fox, Eartheater and Sky Ferreira among his celebrity clients and collaborates with brands including Jean Paul Gaultier, Puppets and Puppets, and Heaven by Marc Jacobs.
“I like seeing beauty take on these more elaborate forms and more extravagant manifestations,” Stoller says of his aesthetic. From metallic face-warping geometric shapes, playful prosthetics – remember those off-kilter farmyard animals from Collina Strada’s AW23 show? – to mattified white visages reminiscent of the New Romantics, this beauty isn’t for the faint-hearted. “I’ve been very fortunate to work with people that really enjoy beauty,” he says. “It’s a nebulous term, but they all enjoy make-up and Julia is a great example of that. She had become known for one look, so we pivoted severely, but it was an unspoken thing between us. It was instinctual and that was my first experience of working with someone so constantly that your tastes start aligning – which was really special.” As Stoller continues to develop as an artist, he’s mindful of losing individuality in the scroll-hole of social media – advice he shares for others interested in pursuing make-up. “I hope that people will look towards other points of reference and inspiration because it’ll end up being completely homogenised otherwise,” he says, name-checking Isamaya Ffrench, Erin Parsons and the late and legendary make-up master Kevin Aucoin as creatives who successfully forged their own lanes. “Try to be transgressive!”
make-up artist Julian Stoller creates fantasy faces: “I like seeing beauty take on these more extravagant manifestations”
BRIANNA ARPS
“I’ve been in love with fragrance ever since I can remember,” says Brianna Arps. “My maternal grandmother was my earliest champion of creativity. She allowed me to sit at her vanity for hours and dabble in all of the things, eau de parfums and extraits, and encouraged me to build my own scent wardrobe.” Initially, pursuing a career as a beauty editor at titles including Refinery29 and Essence, after being unexpectedly laid off in 2018, Arps found herself reconnecting with her first love in order to find a new path. “I went through an identity crisis and had a lot of anxiety about what my life would look like,” she tells us. “I really leaned into things that brought a sense of normalcy back to my life, in particular my beauty routine and fragrance. The notion of getting up, getting dressed and putting myself together made me focus on my greater purpose in life.” Following her nose, in 2021 she launched Moodeaux, her very own fragrance brand. “At the core of Moodeaux, we’re helping people flaunt how they feel. It’s about honouring people’s autonomy to create and develop their own self-care rituals,” she says of the brand’s unique philosophy.
Its debut offering Worthy – “designed to smell and feel like a hug and a bottle”, she says – blends warm vanilla with brighter notes of orange blossom and white tea while the follow-up, Punkstar, which she describes as “the leather jacket of your scent collection”, is at the opposite end of the spectrum, with darker hints of blackcurrant, raspberry, incense and cedar leaves. “Who wouldn’t want to invoke a sense of rebellion against the status quo or anyone who has ever doubted your abilities?” Along with its mood-enhancing properties, Moodeaux’s fragrances are clean, crafted for long-lasting wear that nourish your skin with roll-on applicators and alcohol-free alternatives, and created for everyone – whether you’re he, she or they. “Assigning gender expressions to inanimate objects like fragrances is outdated,” she says. “A rose is a rose and it smells good, so who cares?” With the brand’s third and fourth fragrances anticipated to drop in 2024, Arps teases what the rest of the year holds. “We’re being really intentional and you’re going to see us being more visible offline with experiential activations to connect with our community.”
fragrance innovator Brianna Arps launched Moodaux in 2021: “We’re helping people flaunt how they feel”
SOPH PARKINSON
Forget fusty French tips and natural nude tones: take a dive headfirst into the surreal scenes of Soph Parkinson’s nail sculptures. “Ideas come to me very quickly,” says the artist. “I look back at them in my Notes app and there are some really odd things in there – it comes from all around me. One day I was looking out of my bedroom window and I saw some scaffolding, so I thought about putting scaffolding on a nail.” Seemingly uninhibited by the laws of physics, Parkinson’s miniature nailscapes include a swimming pool (complete with swimmers), a running track, mind-bending functional feats in the form of a water cooler, a Newton’s cradle and a mechanical crane.
“My mum was a product designer of toys, so growing up I’d be curious about making things for my own,” Parkinson tells us on the influences of her artistry. Elsewhere, the mundane moments of life – like waiting for the bus and lazing on the sofa – are brought to life via fun videos. “It’s mostly trial and error,” she says modestly. “A lot of it is movie magic, too.” From her initial foray into alternative nail art – a set of Fairy-shaped talons, with fluid washing-up liquid inside – she’s since gone on to create looks for UGG, Adidas and Glow Recipe. A much-welcomed perspective brought to the limited real estate of nails, Parkinson says the possibilities are endless. “Nails used to be looked down on and maybe seen as tacky, but everyone is being more creative now and thinking outside the box,” she says. “It’s on the same level as hair and make-up. People are realising they can do so much more with them. I get bored quickly, so I always want to explore in-depth and change things up. This year I’m going to go further and even crazier.”
Soph Parkinson’s surreal nail sculptures
Taken from 10 Magazine Issue 72 – DARE TO DREAM – out now! Order your copy here.
