A Maniac for Makeup

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The lunatic, the lover, and the poet / Are of imagination all compact. -- A Midsummer Night's Dream, V.I.

I lust for makeup. I love how it can transform and fool. I love how colors are named the most bewitching, visceral words in the dictionary. And I love how you can try on a new identity, wash it off, then try another. As Walt Whitman wrote, you are contradictory, you contain multitudes.

These looks were all done by the legendary makeup artist, Linda Mason. Name the most beautiful women on Earth -- Iman, Cindy Crawford, Kate Moss, Charlize Theron, Demi Moore -- and Linda has done their makeup.So imagine eating the food of a master chef, now bring him or her closer. Closer! Now touching your face. That is what sitting in Linda's chair is like (seriously, read her Wikipedia page). It's an honor to be the canvas when the painter is this good.

Here you can see Kabuki (an exercise Linda did with her daughter, Daisy, an opera singer, taking the lead), Pea Soup (explorations in green), and what I call Skittles (reading the contours of the face and neck). Linda and I don't waste time with the normal stuff. The world is too beautiful and strange. And there's always soap.