Anna Wintour, editor of Vogue, crowned Pat McGrath the most influential makeup artist in the world. Queen Elizabeth II appointed her to the Royal Household as a makeup and fashion service provider to the palace.
She’s been a defining name in this industry for more than 20 years - advising brands, developing products, working runway shows, turning up on campaign after campaign. She started in the 1990s, collaborating with photographer Steven Meisel and creating every cover Italian Vogue published in that period. Since then she’s built iconic, breathtaking looks for the world’s leading luxury houses across more than 60 shows in Milan, Paris, London, and New York, and she’s set the trends the rest of us follow - the clean skin that defined the ’90s, the no-makeup makeup look of the last decade.
In 1999, Giorgio Armani hired her to develop a cosmetics line for the house. In 2004, she became creative director of makeup for Procter & Gamble, overseeing product development for Covergirl and Max Factor, and created the Dolce & Gabbana makeup collection. More recently, she designed and launched Gucci’s first cosmetics collection. She knows how to build a brand and she understands social media, and both show in what she does with her own line, Pat McGrath Labs. Nearly every product she’s developed has been an extraordinary success.
The eyeshadows
The shadows come in matte, shimmer, and glitter finishes, and the pigment is enormous. Early on she released giant palettes at very high prices. Then came the six-pan palettes, then the quads, and eventually the singles - so most of her shades are now available one at a time, without paying a high price for a giant palette. Anyone who has bought a full palette and then used three colors out of it knows exactly why that matters.
You can build your own favorite palette now, one shade at a time.
The singles depot easily - that is, you can pop them out of their original packaging and set them into an empty palette. Just go slowly and take your time.
The foundation worth the hype
I was hooked on Tom Ford makeup for years. Then, last October, I wandered into a Sephora in Thailand and found out that Pat McGrath - whose eyeshadows I’d heard wonderful things about, and I already owned one of her palettes - had a new foundation. I tried it from the tester out of curiosity and wore it the rest of the day. Love at first sight.
It reminded me of the Tom Ford formula, and it’s priced in roughly the same neighborhood, but Pat’s version sat on my skin better - pores show up less. The finish is natural and luminous, it melts into skin, it covers everything it needs to without going heavy, and it sits perfectly even under the eyes. It’s great worn on its own, too; on days when I know I’ll be out for hours in Israel’s humidity, I mix a little Double Wear into the T-zone.
The lip liners
Word is that Pat McGrath’s lip liners are among the best in the world - comfortable, smooth to draw with, and extremely long-wearing. Buff gets the most praise, but the whole range is supposed to be in a league of its own.
