In our new video series, Beauty Icons, makeup artist Kayleen McAdams—whose client list includes Lily Collins, Jessica Biel, Olivia Wilde, Kat Dennings, and, yes, her sister Rachel—breaks down iconic looks, both past and present, step by step. When asked about her own beauty signature, she said, “I feel like most makeup artists say they like to do eyes, but I love to do lips—I have big lips, so I love a big pop of color. Being a makeup artist is often like being the cobbler’s children who don’t have shoes: I don’t generally wear a ton of makeup on a day-to-day basis, so I just put on some powder, a little mascara, and pop on a lipstick and I’m ready.” Her go-to shade at the moment: CK One Color Shine Lipstick in Rockin (a sheer lavender), and for night she slicks on Tarte Glamazon Pure Performance 12-Hour Lipstick in Playful (a matte purple) underneath. In her earlier days, however, a simple Bonne Bell brown liner—a coveted product in Canada—was her object of affection. “I remember we went to New York City on some kind of a class trip, and I bought this specific [shade] that I saw in Teen magazine, it was called Pecan Brown. It really was the best brown eyeliner. I would wear that all the time—it was one of my signature things because I have blue eyes so it would go really well. I had that eyeliner until I moved about a year ago and finally got rid of it. I’m a bit of a makeup hoarder.” And in the making of our tutorials, it was also a liner look that she surprisingly enjoyed the most: “I loved the Brigitte Bardot eye because I don’t do a big eye on myself a lot. I guess I should take my own advice, because I always thought a big eye doesn’t really work for me, but then I did it and I was like, ‘It does work for me.’
