‘Very Kim’: Celebrity makeup artist Ash K Holm on working with the Kardashians and Bite Beauty
Kim Kardashian is a $1 billion-dollar star with a power team behind her. Now, her makeup artist reveals how she gets her signature look.
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Exclusive: She went from reality star to major fashion icon but it was cosmetics that thrust Kim Kardashian into billionaire status.
Makeup made her one of the most bankable faces in the world, where everything she touches turns to gold or at least a shimmering shade of glowing, golden-hued highlighter.
But Kardashian doesn’t do it alone: she has a Kim-approved “glam” team who is behind her razor-sharp contoured cheekbones.
A key part of it is Hollywood makeup artist Ash K Holm, a mega-beauty influencer in her own right (she has 947,000 followers on Instagram).
“I keep everything very Kim,” Holm said, of working on the most famous face in the world.
“We like to get creative but I like to keep it in like the world of what Kim would love.
“There are some days where … she’s like, ‘do whatever you want.’
“There are other days that she knows exactly what she wants. She’s the queen of fashion and is like, ‘I have an idea! Let’s keep it in this direction but put your twist on it.’”
Holm’s clients also include Ariana Grande, Megan Fox, Australian model Shanina Shaik, and Kim’s “momager” Kris Jenner and her sister, Khloe Kardashian. “Koko loves a winged liner. She loves a lot of lash,” Holm said.
A glam session with a Kardashian usually takes between one and two hours. “I was at Kim’s a few days ago and she was like, ‘it’s a one-hour glam.’
“There’s days where they don’t have the time. They’re like, ‘you know what? I just want to spend an hour on everything – nails, hair, makeup’, and we knock it out.
“If it’s a red carpet, we may have like 2.5 hours, sometimes three.”
ALL BITE
While her A-list clients are used to being in front of the camera, looking Zoom-ready has become a day-to-day reality for the rest of us during Covid.
Holm advises going for “natural, no-makeup makeup” on video calls. “You want that model off-duty kind of vibe,” Holm said. “I feel like makeup aside, lighting is everything.
“The lighting that you do your makeup in should be bright, kind of like a white light.
“And you should use that same type of light for your Zoom.”
As for coping with makeup under a mask, Holm said: “I think the best way to do it is to use liquid foundation. I pack on the powder right where the mask is,” Holm said, speaking on Zoom from Los Angeles.
“I’ll contour with a powder too. When you’re using creams, it’s going to be slipping and sliding, and go into that line with the mask.
“Using powder and long-wearing products to push that powder in to really set it, I find that works the best.
“An old-school make-up artist trick that we do is taking one of those powder puffs and I hold it in my hand and bend it to where it’s almost like a taco. I’ll go in right after I have done the liquids. I’ll dip that into translucent powder, knock it off the wrist or my palm, and start under the eyes and I start pushing that in.
“The powder puff is really working it into the skin, making the foundation and concealer and powder become one, and I feel like that locks it in.”
Enter the Kardashians’ signature “baking” technique, where product is pressed on to the skin and left to set before it is blended.
“For even a little extra, we will lightly ‘bake’ under the eyes, on the cheeks, in the highlighted areas – that’s the famous trick that we always do for longevity,” Holm said. And on the lips, she said a matte texture works best under a mask. “I’ll take a tissue and blot over it – it does not move.”
So what is Holm – who is a global ambassador for clean makeup brand Bite Beauty – wearing on this particular Zoom? “I used a bit of Coconut Rum ‘Daycation’ on my eyes, so that gives you a wash of bronze, super light.
“You can use it on your cheeks and use the same shade on the eyes.”
On her lips, Holm swears by hydrating soft matte lipstick. “I’m wearing Sugar Buns right now,” she said.
For Holm, her role with Bite Beauty is personal. “I am a big believer in clean and vegan beauty products,” she said.
Bite’s clean, vegan and cruelty-free products contain “superfoods” such as papaya, agave, colloidal oat flour and maqui berry.
“I have really sensitive skin, I sometimes struggle with rosacea or dermatitis flare-ups from stress. I am picky what brands I introduce my skin to.”
BEAUTY BESTSELLERS
The need for a full face of makeup every single day has changed. And with most states in and out of lockdown lately, there has been a shift in beauty buying trends.
Angelique Hogan, Sephora’s director of retail education, said WFH and mask mandates meant “consumers are still buying beauty but they are flexing to their current situation”.
“Foundation preferences are being influenced by mask wearing, quick touch-ups, and Zoom-ready looks,” Hogan said.
Eyes and brows, which peep through a mask, are taking centre stage “as they are the only visible feature for most of us right now”.
These are the top-selling products at Sephora over the past two months:
* It Cosmetics ‘Your Skin But Better’ CC cream
* Milk Hydro Grip primer
* Bite Beauty Upswing full volume mascara
* Bite Beauty Agave lip mask
* KVD Beauty Tattoo Liner in Trooper
* Tarte Shape Tape contour concealer
* Fenty Gloss Bomb in Fussy
* Anastasia Beverly Hills brow primer
* Beautyblender Original
Bite Beauty is available at Sephora.
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