THE EXPERT
MARIA BOSTRÖM
FEBRUARY 12.2013
by AIMEE BLAUT
"I went to art school in Finland and wanted a job where I could travel. So I decided to pick up hair and makeup. Working with hair is like sculpting and doing makeup is like painting. I moved to Stockholm and applied to work with Björn Axén, probably the best salon in Sweden. Björn said that I could take five models and film my styling then come in for an interview. So here I am this little girl from Finland walking around Kungsträdgården trying to find some models, I didn’t know anybody in Stockholm (laughs). So I dragged some girls down and did my video. The next day I went to see Björn and I got the job and got into his creative team. It’s been great fun we did all the shows in New York and I was working with the royal family.
In 1989 Björn and I were in Paris for the couture shows and I met Kim Robinson who was an Australian running salons in Hong Kong. We had dinner and he invited me to come work with him. I thought about it for a while and eventually called Kim and decided to go. First it was hard but after one year it got a lot better. In Scandinavia you demand respect but in Asia you have to earn your respect so that was a very interesting journey. I worked with a team in Hong Kong for hair and set up my own makeup practice. Eventually I left Le Salon and Kim Robinson and worked a lot with the magazines. I eventually opened my own which I later sold to Elle Hong Kong when I moved back to Sweden.
(some of Maria’s favorite products)
I teach makeup to people and I teach in a different way. A lot of brands have a very scheduled process of how to wash the brushes and do things from light to dark; then I come in and am like ‘okay we are going to break all these rules! Anyone who went to a classic school is going to hate me but people who want to try something else, enjoy the ride!’ I do a lot of patchwork and work mainly with my fingers when I can. I work the best when it’s hands on and I can touch and feel things.
Since I don’t wear much makeup if I want to do something more dramatic I’ll wear red lipstick. So from time to time I throw on a red lip and put on my Tom Ford glasses.”– To see more images and learn about Maria’s daily beauty routine click here to read here.
Photos by: Aimee Blaut in Stockholm
Tags: Björn Axén, Giorgio Armani, Kim Robinson, Lancôme, Le Salon, Makeup.com, MARIA BOSTRÖM, Shu Uemura, Stockholm, Stockholm beauty, Sweden, Tom Ford
YOU ARE A BABE
EMILY DAHL, PHOTOGRAPHER
OCTOBER 24.2012
by AIMEE BLAUT
“I studied photography in high school and then went to art school for painting and illustration. I loved painting but I was never going to be able to make a living from it. I like things to move quickly and I love photography because its more immediate, the idea goes form your head and into the camera. I also have a blog with a Swedish magazine, Damernas Värld but I identify more as a photographer because in Sweden we have a particular culture around blogs. The photos that I post on my blog follow my life and career I never put up any images of the actual work I do. The editorial or final shots always go up on my portfolio. Having this delineation helps me to keep the two separate."
“The first thing I do in the morning is hit the snooze button and then get up and have my breakfast. I am really tired in the morning so after brushing my teeth I always rinse my eyes with water, it helps me to wake up. I am using two day creams at the moment, Beauty Flash Balm from Clarins and the new one from Boots No 7. I love all the Clarins products but when I put on Beauty Flash Balm and look in the mirror, within seconds, my face just looks awake and tight. All of the sudden my complexion just looks perfect. It says on the bottle that you have to apply makeup immediately afterwards, so I always rush to put my foundation on afterwards. Boots is a British brand that is very popular in Sweden and England. I’m using the Boots No 7 eye cream as well to tighten the skin under my eyes.”
“I am very loyal to my beauty products, when I find something I like I use it forever. If I hear that a brand I use is going to stop producing a product I love I rush to the store and buy fifteen of them. I had a crisis last year when I thought my eyeliner, L’Oreal Super Liner, was out of production. I went to the store to buy it and the store clerk told me it was discontinued. I wrote about it on the blog and I bought ten containers. One of my readers wrote to me because she worked for L’Oreal and told me that I was misinformed and that they will be making it forever– I was so happy. It has a felt tip brush and is really black and stays on all day, to me it’s perfection.”
“I need to do my face before I do my hair because I hate standing in front of the mirror with my curling iron looking at my unmade up face. I always start my makeup with foundation, L’Oreal True Match is what I am using now and this one is new to me. Next I do my eyes with black liner and put on my mascara. I use Maybelline Great Lash. I use the Makeup Store shadow and brow duo to fill out my brows and give them shape. It is perfect for redheads. I am naturally super blonde so my eyebrows are non-existent; I pretty much need to pencil them in. It is surprisingly difficult to find a shade that works with red hair. I love wearing lipstick and usually wear Ruby Woo from MAC. Lately I’ve been mixing my own colors. I’m into this gothic lip that is kind of nineties so I mix red with a dark black.”
“I used to do hair modeling so my hair has been every color in the book: pink, blue, green et cetera. I never had red hair though and when I stopped modeling I had hair to my waist. It was bleached and almost silver. I had always loved redheads; it’s the best color. I had a really hard time finding someone to do it though. People were telling me that I couldn’t go red because it wouldn’t suit me. And after numerous disappointments I found the darling Magnus who does my hair now. He works at a fifties salon in Stockholm called Blowout, I love it, he’s amazing. When I come in he says, ‘Ok we are going to go more Grace Coddington today!’ He knows my references and he understands what I like.”
Photos by: Aimee Blaut
Tags: Chanel, Damernas Värld, Emily Dahl, Grace Coddington, L'Oreal, Maybeline, Photography, See Emily Play, Stockholm, Sweden
YOU ARE A BABE
REBECCA BRAGE, DJ
AUGUST 08.2012
by AIMEE BLAUT
Last week I spent a morning at home with Stockholm-based DJ Rebecca Brage. Here are a few pictures from our shoot for L’Oreal’s site Makeup.com. Catch the full story to see more photos and hear about Rebecca’s beauty routine here.
