Hillary Clinton’s Former Makeup Artist Reveals The One Beauty Trick That Transformed Her Look

Carolyn Hsu
Updated

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Let’s get this out of the way first: As one of the most famous politicians of our time, Hillary Clinton is the focus of much of our collective conversation these days. And in the rank of importance when it comes to topics to discuss regarding Clinton, makeup is probably not high up there. But with that said, we have to admit that every time we catch a glimpse of the 69-year old presidential hopeful on TV, we do tend to make a mental note of how radiant her skin looks. That’s why when Yasuo Yoshikawa, a Japanese makeup artist who has worked with Clinton through the years divulged to WWD Clinton’s beauty secrets, we paid attention.

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When Yoshikawa first met Clinton on the set of a Time magazine cover shoot, “she was already famous, and there were already rumors that she was on course to run for president.”

“She’s a very capable woman, and she’s also naturally very beautiful. I thought it was a shame that she was being called both beautiful and intimidating.  I decided to play up her natural beauty. She has a naturally feminine face and is a classic beauty,” says the artist. “I expected her to be wearing powder foundation, which can make thinner, mature skin look quite dry. And that’s exactly how she arrived, with very dry skin and matte lipstick. So all I did was just make her foundation as light as possible to take away the powdery effect, applied very subtle eyeshadow and brow pencil, and used some lip gloss instead of the matte lipstick. I just made everything look as natural as possible.”

Clinton was so happy with Yoshikawa’s work that she retained the artist for a number of shoots over the following year.

“Because she had dry skin, I started her makeup from skin care. Using an oil-based foundation, I gave her a natural, dewy look. She’s naturally beautiful, so just by correcting the dryness she became exceedingly beautiful. Powdery makeup looks very obvious on the skin, and I think it can cause some people to be kind of depressed. So instead of making her skin look like makeup, I made it look like natural, dewy skin, but flawless.”