Secrets of the celebrity make-up artist (and the £8.99 lipgloss she swears by)
If Hannah Martin wasn’t so warm, she’d be rather intimidating, possessed as she is of such a flawlessly made-up face. But while her face might be ‘show poodle’ her personality is ‘Labrador’, thanks to a boundless enthusiasm for her job that’s gloriously infectious.
If you don’t give a stuff about retinols and peptides when you meet her, you’ll be fascinated by the time you part ways.
A make-up artist at the top of her game, Martin’s dexterity with her own blusher is the best advertisement for why her clients should trust her with theirs. And they do: so famous is her clientele that half of them, she can’t even talk about.
In her 15 years of working in the beauty industry, she has tended to the A-list faces of actors such as Helen Mirren, super-models like Miranda Kerr, and TV stars including Nadiya Hussein.
Oh, not to mention the Princess of Wales, to whom she gave a make-up lesson ahead of her 2011 wedding to Prince William. In 2018, she also helped Princess Eugenie achieve her wedding-day glow.
Martin, 31, may be a Royal family favourite, but it’s a subject she’s not allowed to talk about. When I ask – a few days before the Coronation – whether she’ll be tending to any royal faces during the event, she says she is contractually obliged not to say.
‘I can neither confirm nor deny,’ she smiles.‘I’m under NDAs [non-disclosure agreements] for all of them.’ All of them? That’s definitely more than two, I say. She demurs – although in the days after the Coronation she posts an Instagram shot from over the weekend of herself with Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, and the Duchess of York. Which makes three, at least…
Martin is, however, happy to converse more broadly about the make-up required for public-facing events. ‘I don’t think there are stipulations for the young royals,’ she says, ‘but I do think that in the same way that fashion is a uniform, hair and make-up falls into a similar category.
‘With great outfits and hair and make-up, you feel empowered for whatever task you have at hand. Some tasks are bigger than others. Some tasks will be seen by more people globally than others. But the royals are no different from any other people in the public eye who benefit from glam squads helping them feel great before public-facing moments.’
When you’re on your LK Bennett wedges all day, greeting people who want to touch you, there must be a particular issue with fixing your make-up in place. Aren’t panda eyes and smudged lips a concern? ‘Can be. Each individual is different,’ Martin says.
‘Some are really concerned about that kind of thing – others are much more relaxed and don’t think twice about it once I’m finished. Although I’m forever giving away make-up from my kit,’ she smiles. ‘Have you got a lipstick? Powder? No? OK, you’re going to need these for later – pop them in your bag.’
Playing mother to everyone, often in high-pressure situations, must be exhausting. ‘Yes. And depending on the occasion, I’m often hyper-vigilant, trying to ascertain what’s appropriate. What are the cues that I’m meant to be picking up on? Should I leave the room at this point? Should I carry on?’
Happily for Martin’s clients, royal and otherwise, not only is she an accomplished make-up artist but an empath, a skill honed during an aborted nursing degree. ‘While nursing, I knew on day one that it wasn’t for me, but I learned so much.’ Such as? ‘Communication and interpersonal skills, I absolutely credit nursing for.’
Does she support nurses who strike for better pay and conditions? ‘Abso-blooming-lutely.’
If you haven’t seen her on Channel 5’s 10 Years Younger in 10 Days (she’s its resident beauty expert) or stumbled on her social channels (347K Instagram followers, five million views on YouTube), you may be wondering how a former nursing student managed to pivot to beauty by royal appointment.
The simple answer is ‘hard work’. The longer explanation is detailed in her new book, Make Up: A Masterclass in Beauty, an accessible guide packed with Martin’s encyclopedic knowledge of her trade.
Determined to pursue a love of make-up that had been ignited in childhood when she watched her mother get ready, after quitting nursing, she took a part-time job on the Benefit counter in her local Debenhams in Oxford. Next, she moved to London, working for as long as she could afford to as a make-up assistant, before taking a job on another make-up counter at Fenwick Bond Street to make ends meet.
It was here she first encountered the products of US make-up artist and celebrity favourite Bobbi Brown, a life-changing moment that led her to badger its area manager for a job (‘I called her every day for two weeks’). Her persistence paid off. An entry-level retail job turned into a 12-year career which saw Martin become one of Brown’s elite team of artists, travelling the world, working on fashion shows and developing products.
In fact, she says, Martin’s first choice of career wasn’t make-up artistry or even nursing: it was acting, an equally short-lived pursuit on account of her face being deemed ‘too commercial’ whenever she auditioned for a part. ‘Everyone said that,’ she remembers. ‘I was 17 at the time, and felt devastated. It was a massive identity shock, as acting was all I’d planned to do.
'I’m dyslexic – not academic in any way, and felt like a bit of a failure at school. But I excelled at drama, so for the arts to say no was really embarrassing.’
I suggest that her brutal experience of the casting process has given her a useful empathy towards the actors she now works with. ‘Yes,’ she agrees. ‘But also a huge amount of joy and love. When I work with actors now I have to be careful, because I just want to talk.’
One client she loves to talk to is Helen Mirren. ‘We’ve had really fascinating conversations. She’s really comfortable in her own skin. She cares what she looks like, but in a very cool, charming manner.’ Once, after having lunch on set, Mirren turned to her and asked for a toothpick. ‘I said I didn’t have one. And Dame Helen said, “Darling, the make-up artist has always got a toothpick.” From that day forward, I always have.’
Toothpicks apart, I’m desperate to know which other essentials are in her make-up bag. Which lash curler does she favour? ‘Tweezerman, Shiseido or Kevyn Aucoin.’ What product would she recommend for readers on a budget? ‘Maybelline Lifter Gloss in Ice. It’s £8.99 – a beautiful, plumping lip gloss. I’m giving them to my clients left, right and centre because they love it so much. For cheaper price points still, try Nyx, Revolution or Primark.’
Is there a category that people tend to overspend on? ‘Possibly skincare, because we’re all sold dreams. Right now, the industry is flooded with products, which is amazing in terms of choice, but can be overwhelming for the same reason. To shop smarter, pare back your routine.’ One thing the market is certainly not short of is celebrity make-up ranges. Is she a fan?
‘I am, because I love make-up that much. But we have to be careful, as consumers, that we’re not just buying somebody’s name. I draw the line at Harry Styles’ nail varnish. He’s a legend. But I don’t need his make-up.’ Instead she name checks Selena Gomez’s range, Rare Beauty. ‘Gorgeous, clean, vegan, beautiful make-up, and giving one per cent of every sale to a mental health charity is really positive.’
Martin doesn’t rule out launching her own range in the future. ‘I’ve dabbled in product development [she has collaborated with Beauty Pie, Ciaté London and MyBeautyBrand]. So yes, I suppose I have a blue sky dream. But the market is saturated at the moment.’
While she loves working with the A-list, she gets just as much joy from giving make-up masterclasses to her fans. She says that in her experience, the most common mistake older women make is ‘either not doing anything because they are paralysed by this fear that they’re going to look worse, or they do too much in a bid to recreate the make-up they wore at a time in their life when they felt most confident’.
Fans of heavy eyeliner should look away now: a heavy lower lash line is a surefire way of looking dated. ‘It can make the eyes look heavy and small. I encourage people to flip it: pop it along the top lash line, and do something softer on the lower lash line, like bronzer.’ As for those in a hurry, she suggests the one product they should make time for is mascara. ‘It opens up and frames the eyes.’
Martin’s online make-up tutorials have a cult following among viewers who particularly love that she starts with a clean face, a deliberate move that she hopes will counter the trend for face augmentation via the use of filters. ‘I’m so sick and tired of filtered images. They’re completely unrealistic. I have friends and even peers who believe they’re real. That’s terrifying to me, that you would look at eye make-up that’s CGI [computer generated] and believe it’s real, when everything has been tweaked: the colour, the blend, the eye, everything. So I filmed my own, where I’d sit barefaced and do my entire make-up. Next to it, I’d post about the products I’ve used to achieve that look.’
In a profession not always known for its candour, Martin’s is refreshing. ‘I can’t say I’ve never used a filter. I have. I would never use a filter on anything that’s a paid piece of content, because it’s against the law. But nor have I [used one] when I’ve been trying to do instructional or educational pieces, which is 99 per cent of my content. There is no excuse for blurring or face-augmenting filters.’
She is equally outspoken about tweakments. ‘No one needs a tweakment. But I’ve had baby Botox [microdoses injected for a more natural look] and loved it, so I’m conflicted. I first had a tweakment in lockdown. I was homeschooling my then seven- year-old son, my daughter was two [she lives with her husband, Simon, whom she married when she was 23, and their two children], one of my best friends died of breast cancer and I had a health situation of my own.
‘I was shattered and in agony, and I could see it in my face. I was lucky enough to be working with Dr Tapan on 10 Years Younger, who gave me a tiny bit of baby Botox. I felt like a different person. So I understand the huge impact on your sense of well-being that a tiny tweakment can have. I don’t want people to misunderstand me and think I’m saying everyone needs Botox. Absolutely not. No one needs it, but it is a choice.’
Sometimes, she says, she worries about appearing narcissistic. ‘I often wonder, do the school mums think I’m a poseur who loves my own reflection? But my motivation isn’t that at all. It’s lovely to work on models, but harder for people to mimic. How’s that going to help Sue, who’s in her 50s, with fine lines? By doing it on myself, I hope people watch me and go, “Ah, so that’s how you hold the brush.” Then they can copy me.
What makes a successful online tutorial? Honesty.’ It wouldn’t be surprising if the Princess of Wales had turned to Martin’s skilled hand for her big entrance at Westminster Abbey earlier this month: Kate’s make-up that day was highly considered and technical, designed to ensure her face was clearly visible to millions watching.
After all, Martin’s enthusiasm for her craft is contagious. ‘You’re not vain if you enjoy beauty,’ she reasons. ‘Enjoy it, embrace it – go for your life.’
MAKEUP by Hannah Martin will publish with HQ, HarperCollins on 25th May (£22).
