about me

I have always loved makeup. I remember looking in my mom’s drawer filled with bright, shiny things—silver compacts, pinky lipsticks, shimmery eye shadows. I couldn’t wait for the day I would be grown up, old enough to have my own.

Over 30 years ago, I didn’t set out to be a makeup artist—but I loved makeup artistry the minute I started it. I attended Smith College in Northampton, MA and earned a degree in American Studies—an unlikely education for a makeup career. While it sounds worlds apart, it wasn’t entirely unrelated. As a women’s college, Smith helped shaped my views, including (and maybe especially) my thoughts about beauty. I believe women are to define and recognize the beauty they possess—and that beauty is who you are, not how someone perceives you. Makeup is not about changing yourself or looking like someone else—that’s not beauty, that’s kind of ugly. For me, makeup is an art that's playful, creative, fun.

Before and during my years at Smith I was a freelance makeup artist at Clinique. When I graduated, I joined the Estée Lauder Companies and worked for Origins, Estée Lauder and Clinique —eventually becoming Clinique’s Director of Strategy and Creative Development and Global Beauty Director. There I developed and wrote programs and taught makeup artistry throughout Europe and Asia, in the Middle East and Africa. My experience included strategic branding, executive training and collaborating with marketing, product development, communications and sales to launch new programs.

Today I have a consulting business based in NYC, Shizué Beauty. I work with a variety of companies in different capacities. It can be anything from business strategy to program development to managing teams to makeup artistry. The work is rewarding and fun – and I get to do it with so many great people.

Clients

Guggenheim Productions, Origins Natural Resources, Estée Lauder, Clinique Laboratories, Aramis Lab Series, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, Rodin oilo lusso, Noble Panacea, Good Labs, Giorgio Armani Beauty, YSL Beaute, Christian Louboutin Beaute, philosophy, Chanel Beaute, Temptu, LaPrairie, Willagirl, Neutrogena, Phillips, Living Proof, Moroccan Oil, LOFT, Olay, Louis Vuitton, Kenneth Cole, Make Up For Ever, Fresh, Sephora, Real Age, Women's Health, Linea Pelle, Cosmopolitan, L'Oreal, Almay, Revlon, Money, People En Espanol, Golf Digest, Domani, Shop, Architectural Digest, RealAge, New York Philharmonic, Steinway & Sons, Signature Theater, Lincoln Center Theater