Meet Laurel Charleston, the visionary trans makeup artist
Multidisciplinary artist Laurel Charleston. (Laurel Charleston/Instagram)
Trans makeup artist Laurel Charleston is responsible for next level makeup, including that of Doja Cat and trans TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney.
Charleston met Doja Cat on Instagram, where she has more than 150,000 followers, and told her that the pair are a match made in heaven.
Speaking to the publication, Charleston said her love for makeup began in college and when she started to discover her transness and embarked on doing drag in 2016.
“Makeup, even in those early stages, allowed me to express and discover parts of myself that I never could in the classical music world,” she explained.
Charleston said she didn’t ever use makeup to be “beautiful”, but instead to express herself.
“I get very inspired by patterns, silhouettes, textures, and designs,” she said, adding that she is inspired by “looking at a fashion” and “letting my imagination run wild,” she told Them.
The multi-talented makeup artist is a regular collaborator with Doja Cat and also trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney, whose makeup she did for the Grammys.
Her winged eyeliner and red lipstick look was nailed by Charleston who took to X/Twitter to call Mulvaney an “icon”.
But sadly, despite looking flawless, Mulvaney found she had been misgendered, saying: “I felt so beautiful that day in Christian Siriano, Brad Goreski dressed me, I had my makeup by this fabulous trans artist, Laurel Charleston. On my Instagram page, there’s still people commenting, ‘You’re a man, you’re a guy.’”
Thankfully, Mulvaney has learned to ignore the hate, saying: ”I’m just so happy that I’m getting to a place where that doesn’t affect me quite as much, because it’s not actually productive.
“If I am to live in those feelings, I can’t be that ‘it girl’ that you just call me.”
