Aoife Cullen is the Internet’s Favourite Makeup Artist
Words: Joss Peter | Creative Direction: Aoife Cullen | Photo: Danika Magdalena | Styling: Miranda Mikkola | Styling Assistant: India Ashmore | Hair: Raphael Arcadios | Hair Assistant: Mariana Feliziani | Makeup: Aoife Cullen | Makeup Assistant: Blanca Diosdado | BTS: Blanca Diosdado
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When she was twenty, Aoife Cullen had just started her first job at a makeup counter. On her second day on the job, sporting full glam, including Fanta coloured foundation and audacious winged liner, she was sat down on the makeup chair and told, “You can’t wear your makeup like this”. “Looking back,” she laughs, “It was bad. It was baaad”. Now, Aoife Cullen, known online as Aoife Artist, wears her makeup however she wants, thank you very much.
Aoife’s dalliance with cosmetics started in a very normal way; she saw other girls wearing makeup at her school, so she knew it was time for her to. A trip to the shops and buying a selection of cheap, nondescript products was the literal gateway, but things changed for her when she started exploring editorial looks, on runways, in magazines, online. “I was like wow- that is just so not what i was taught to think makeup is”. YouTube and Tumblr were digital pools of inspiration, and she realised being a makeup artist could be an actual, tangible, full time job.
Aoife tells me that she is inspired by drag. She likes things to be a little bit scary, a little bit intimidating. Sharp and bold. The past is a huge influence, as is the past’s image of the future. She likes to dance between eras, between influences, between styles, borrowing and plucking references as she pleases. If there is a makeup rule, she’s broken it. In one video I watch she contemplates what colour blush she should settle on, deciding yellow. I watch with scepticism, then with blinking incredulity to see it work. ‘Yellow blush’, I think, ‘obviously’. In another video, she completes her aqua-goth eye look with a dappled green lip. ‘Duh!’ I shake my head at myself. Aoife tries her hand at coquette, not with a ribbon in her hair, but rather with bows for eyebrows. It’s high camp.
But this is what Aoife loves about artistry - subverting beauty standards, coating them in a glossy female gaze. Pinned to the top of her TikTok she has a series of playlists, one titled ‘weird lips’ and another ‘messy makeup’. They are both very much does-what-it-says-on-the-tin type situations, but also testaments to her talent for turning the bizarre beautiful, or perhaps helping us see the beauty in the bizarre. Sheer black glosses, a metallic purple cupids bow with a royal blue gracing a pouty bottom lip, lips that look like alien spawn, lips looking like Realtree camo, the video entitled ‘c*nty swamp lips’.
Aoide and I grew up watching the same YouTube makeup artists, the Shani Grimmonds, the Loz Curtises, the Bella Fioris of the world. Although, as we discuss, she has had a slightly different trajectory from them. The beauty influencer pipeline seems to be; makeup tutorials, then leaning into lifestyle content, then it’s time to start a brand. This is not of interest to Aoife. She started posting religiously in lockdown and says that whilst social media is really fun, that it has opened up a lot of doors for her, it was never her intention to grow a following. She says all she’s ever wanted to be is a makeup artist. “Not in any pretentious way, but I don’t see myself as an influencer.” She muses, “I just do makeup online and there’s people that follow me.”
“The end goal is not to sell you something, just to inspire you. But, I mean, you can say that is influential - I just don’t consider myself influential.”
What is the difference then? I ask. Is it ideological? Attitudinal perhaps? “An influencer to me is someone who showcases a product really well, who works with a lot of brands.” Aoife explains, “There’s nothing wrong with that at all. I don’t want to sell stuff, I just want to share what I like to do with makeup.” Her videos are accessible and all the products she uses within the videos are multi-functional. Eyeshadows are patted onto lips, lip liners are used in water lines. There is no push to buy a million things for each separate look, no product is segregated to one neighbourhood of the face. She adds, “The end goal is not to sell you something, just to inspire you. But, I mean, you can say that is influential - I just don’t consider myself influential.”
“I’m exhausted by the like - I’m bored even saying it - trend cycles. I’m bored even saying the word trend.”
When you scroll through her social media with this lens, it is clear that Aoife is there to provide a service. There are no artfully curated images of friends, or of parties she went to on the weekend, or bars she visited. It is a showcase of her work, whether it be worn on her face or on another’s. I ask if this boundary between personal and professional is intentional. “I don't want to commodify every aspect of my being.” She replies, “There's people who do that so well, and I follow lots of people that I love that do that, but it's just not for me.”
She tells me she doesn’t enjoy scrolling TikTok that much anymore; “I’m exhausted by the like - I’m bored even saying it - trend cycles. I’m bored even saying the word trend.” I tell her how I saw the other day that cat eyeliner is supposedly the espresso martini of makeup right now. “What? Oh man, just shut up!” she laughs. Aoife’s outrage is not directed at me, but rather the pushers of the sisyphean trend cycles. She loves beauty, but is sceptical about the ethicality of the industry as a whole; the constant thrust to create more products and the lack of guaranteed compensation, unless it is a commercial job, which is rarely creatively fulfilling. Yet Aoife loves working in fashion, loves how hard but exciting working runway shows are. Adores the way shoots come together, with everyone working so hard to create something beautiful together.
I ask her where she sees herself in 5 years. The answer is quick; “Offline.” She wants to step behind the camera, to get out there, do more shows. At most, she’d like to release a limited edition colourway with one of her favourite brands. And if she were to stop working as a makeup artist? “I would like to be a tour guide for a National Trust house.” Naturally.
