When makeup artist Laurel Charleston first met Doja Cat, it was, like any modern celebrity connection, thanks to technology. “We connected on social media, and the first time we worked together was for New York Fashion Week this year,” says Charleston. “She asked me to paint her, and we came through with that white, webbed makeup art painted all over her head!” The look was the trippy, swirling moment the “Woman” singer wore for Vogue World’s street-fair-meets-runway event, and it set the stage for an even more daring week in the City of Lights—with Charleston playing the role of a fine artist.
“Each look we put together was a deeply artistic and beautiful collaboration between her, myself, and her stylist, Brett Alan Nelson,” says Charleston, who channeled inspiration from each fashion look. Musing upon conceptual sources isn’t unfamiliar territory for her. Charleston started out recreating fine art paintings using cosmetics as a medium. “I ended up teaching myself different painting styles, techniques, and ways to express myself with makeup,” she says. After moving to New York in 2019 to work as an orchestra conductor, Charleston started experimenting with other Brooklyn makeup artists like Nathan Sweet, Brian Vu, and Patrick Church for test shoots and projects. “It was also at this same time that I started my journey, living life as a transgender person,” she remembers. “The classical music world is (still) sadly riddled with a lot of normative gender ideals and transphobia, a career as a successful, healthy, and out transgender conductor was going to be harder than I thought. But as the classical world pushed me away, the makeup world embraced me with open arms!”
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