Pro Makeup Tips From Beyoncé’s Makeup Artist Sir John

Known for painting the faces of Beyoncé, Zendaya, and Serena Williams, renowned artist and Medicube’s Creative Director Sir John’s love affair with makeup began with his mother. “To me, she’s the most beautiful woman in the world,” he tells ESSENCE. Although minimal and, as Sir John says, a tomboy, “she still invested in wearing mascara. I would watch her put it on everyday,” the Buffalo-born, Los Angeles-based beauty expert explains. “I saw how it put a pep in her step,” Sir John adds. “That was my earliest memory of the power of beauty and how it can change an environment—or the world.”

With an innate passion for art from a young age, Sir John went on to move to NYC at the tender age of 16 to pursue the craft of makeup artistry more seriously. MAC Cosmetics is where the creative learned to hone his skills. “Although I got fired at 23 for being late,” he admits. But this redirection gave him the opportunity to pursue visual design for the likes of Barneys and Bergdorf Goodman, menswear merchandising for Gucci, and even being the key makeup artist for a strip club in Queens called Reviere. 

As for what Sir John considers his career gamechanger? Attending his first Pat McGrath show. After meeting the queen herself, she asked if he’d be in Italy for fashion month. “The women at Reviere believed in me so much, they gathered money in a jar to help fund my trip,” he shares. “That journey led to my first shows,” Dolce & Gabbana and Prada, “with Pat” in 2006. And on the note of industry goats, Sir John also worked with Charlotte Tilbury which led to his work with Beyoncé, Julianne Moore, and more. 

But beyond breaking barriers in beauty and working with the world’s top models and talent, “I often say that my voice is more powerful than anything I can do with my hands,” he explains. “It’s great to be a really amazing makeup artist. But how do you make people feel?” he continues. “What I love most about what I do is I love the impact that I can have. That vibrational feeling or alignment that hopefully people come in contact with when they meet me.” 

The makeup products that I’m loving at the moment would happen to be Danessa Myricks Beauty Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Powder. It is really, really beautiful and it gives you a gorgeous complexion. Danessa really understands color in the way that artists love, but she also understands complexion in a way that people love, so I’m just really proud of my friend. 

Also, Ami Colé. Ami has a really beautiful, toffee brown colored lip oil that is universally flattering for all skin tones. I think it’s a great product, and it translates well on skin.

The last makeup product that I love is Uoma Beauty’s Stay Woke concealer. They also have beautiful lipsticks that are loaded with pigment, so I’m always going to be a huge fan of Uoma. 

This is easy. This is fun. My favorite type of beat is editorial. The editorial quality of makeup is a bit more refined to something like a concert or a show. So I love the beautiful cabaret-inspired glam that I’ve done for concerts, shows, and stadiums. But I will say, having skin look flawless in the spotlight is a really hard thing to master. So, I’m glad I’ve been able to sort of usher that into the beauty community. 

My top makeup tip right now would be to come away from lashes that are so heavy. I think we can do lashes, but I want to see them be more purposeful. 

Right now, on some looks they are adding punctuation to an otherwise mundane makeup routine. Where beauty is heading, I think that it would be nice to just see more evolved versions of hair on the eyes, more evolved versions of brows, more evolved versions of lashes, it looks a bit more sophisticated and elevated

If you are someone who happens to wear Celine or a beautiful gown or a beautiful dress, your brows should translate to be in that same caliber, because that leads to confusion when it doesn’t necessarily equate as a match and it looks like yourdecoding="async" src="https://www.essence.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/GettyImages-1473074078-scaled.jpg" alt="Pro Makeup Tips From Beyoncé’s Makeup Artist Sir John" width="400" height="600" />BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – MARCH 12: Gabrielle Union attends the 2023 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Radhika Jones at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on March 12, 2023 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Cindy Ord/VF23/Getty Images for Vanity Fair) A beauty myth he wants to debunk:

One of the beauty myths that should be debunked is that you should follow what’s trendy, or look at celebrities to find your next look of the season. I no longer feel like that applies. 

We’re in the age of the dopamine glam years. It’s less about what others are doing and more about how you feel about what you choose to put on – shake what your mama gave you!

This is a really great question, but I don’t necessarily know if I can answer it in one sweep, because I’ve been so blessed to be around women who literally run and move the world. 

I would be remiss to think that there’s only one take away that has changed me, but what’s grown me and what I’ve helped to take into a community of makeup artists or creatives is instilling this inner sense of self. This knowing that confidence comes from within. It’s not something that you can put on, but it’s something that you wake up and you’re born with or it’s nurtured in you as a child. 

How to fortify your own garden is something I’ve learned from really great women, and I’ve also translated that into my career, so hopefully, younger creatives can feel the same when they hear these stories. 

I uplift my clients by showing up with good energy. I do enough work on myself to check my energy before I go into these women’s homes, their dressing rooms, and these environments that we are in. 

So, whenever I’m invited back, I take it as my duty or as my right, to make sure that I impact the space, the energy in the room, and I hold that near and dear to my heart. That’s something that is sort of my calling card or my staple. At times that can be tiring, always working, to transmute or to shift the energy in rooms that can be heavy, but it’s something that I find joy in. Bringing smiles to the faces of the people I love.

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