Sean Brady
While there isn't an obvious path to becoming a professional make-up artist, each candidate must be able to concentrate in the frenetic environment of a set. It's a skill Sean Brady had from the start, and throughout a career that would lead him to work with Gucci and Simone Rocha, and on Australian fashion week this year. His editorial eye, able to keenly absorb multiple influences and translate them into one cohesive vision, was honed early. “Growing up, late at night I would watch FashionTV when my family was asleep,” he says. “Haute couture shows were always the fantasy I never imagined I'd be in proximity to.” Brady's slick, expressive glamour – often with graphic monochrome linework – is informed by the contours of the face he's working with. “I want it to feel somewhat organic, so it's about adapting ideas that come to me with the right face,” he explains. Brady isn't afraid to embrace on-trend looks, like skinny eyebrows, and reinvents them with his signature understated futurism. “Everything in fashion and beauty is so cyclical, which is so fun.”
Meg McConville
It might appear seamless and refined, but there's nothing simple about Meg McConville's approach to beauty. The Australian talent specialises in make-up that brings fantasy to life, referencing historic subcultures to create newness. “Thanks to the work of artists like Walt Cassidy and photographers like Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe and [nightlife photographer] Derek Ridgers, I've been able to understand make-up not
