My Beauty Back Catalogue: Katie Jane Hughes

The Early Memories

My initial impression of beauty was shaped by my mother. During the week she was a stay-at-home mum, and then at the weekend she worked as a cabaret artist. She would transform into this stage icon with lashings of jet-black mascara, heaps of bronzer and – her signature – a bold red lip. Harnessing the power of make-up, she would take on a whole new persona. 

Another extremely glamorous person in my life was my nan – the quintessential glam nana. When she was about 70, she was our town’s carnival queen two years in a row. Her hair was always backcombed, she was a little Texan in that way, despite living in Merseyside. And, like many women of her era, she’d never go out without her make-up on.

The Experimentation Era

At about 12 or 13, I started to play with my appearance. I remember walking around the beauty counters of our local department store, Broadbents and Boothroyds, fascinated. The first lipstick I ever bought with my own money was Rimmel’s ‘Birthday Suit’, either that or ‘Heather Shimmer’. To this day, I’m drawn towards those light-reflecting shades – in fact we’re working on some lab samples for KJH.Brand in similarly shimmery tones right now. 

When we’re teenagers we tend to interpret trends in a very literal way i.e. bold and not necessarily flattering. One of my most unfortunate beauty blunders was lining my lips with a black eyeliner pencil and pairing it with nude lipstick – I think I was going for that 90s look. I was looking at celebrities for inspiration, Gwen Stefani, Drew Barrymore, TLC, SWV and the like. In fact, I plucked all my eyebrows off trying to get those Gwen Stefani skinny arches. Sadly, they never grew back properly, but at least now this gives me the freedom to create whatever brow shape I want. I remember going at them with tweezers, pulling out seven or eight hairs at once. If I could go back, I’d ask myself ‘What the hell are you doing?’

The Takeaways 

My career started when I was 23 and living in London. I didn’t work with one particular make-up artist on a first assistant basis because I was also doing nails. I was booked for jobs because I was versatile – they’d say: ‘Get that girl who can do nails too’ because there wasn’t always extra budget. It meant I was able to network, explain that I was looking to focus on make-up while already having a foot in the door. I’ve worked with some extraordinary artists, Andrew Gallimore, Sharon Dowsett and more.

What I remember from that time is the importance of mastering skin. Before you become a make-up artist you think you need to know how to do full coverage foundation but it’s the opposite – you need to perfect a sheer base. The skin needs to be immaculate, but so often it needs to look as though the model isn’t wearing a stitch of make-up. I learnt how to apply powder in a soft and delicate way, as well as how to prep the skin properly. Some artists go heavy on the moisturiser, I prefer a lightweight hydrating serum. I find overloading normal, balanced skin with product will interfere with the wear of the make-up and make my job harder.