Having trained and worked as a classical music conductor, creating boundary-pushing make-up looks for Doja Cat perhaps wasn’t essentially the most obvious next step for Laurel Charleston. But that’s exactly what she’s done. Fast forward to today and he or she is a daily collaborator of Doja’s, liable for the star’s recent awe-inspiring, blockbuster make-up including the No Face-esque painted look and the swirling white patterns that spread across her face like a sea creature.

But it surely’s not only her work with celebs proving her Instagram bio – “Turning makeup into superb art” – true. Using her own face as a canvas for mind-bending paintings, Charleston creates a gradual stream of optical illusions and experimental graphic looks, plus painstaking recreations of famous works by Van Gogh, Miro and Af Klint, which sit in her ‘Masterworks Alive’ series.

Charleston follows within the footsteps of countless drag artists and Instagram MUAs, rejecting traditional beauty ideals and pushing make-up’s transformational potential. But it surely’s been her ability to bring this anti-beauty mentality into the general public eye that sets her apart. In her own words, she “creates looks that aren’t merely accessory, but fairly an extension of a bigger artistic vision.” For the remainder of us, which means seeing a female superstar like Doja publicly reject beauty ideals, and as an alternative use her body as a vehicle for art. There’s little doubt that it’s an exciting time for beauty. And with artists like Charleston setting the usual, sky’s the limit. 

Text Letty Cole