- You gonna know exactly who I'm talking about if I tell you
any one of these stories.
A lot of shit happened on the way to the club.
- A lot of shit happened.
- Hi guys, I'm Chloe Hall,
I'm a special projects editor and producer at elle.com,
and this is Backseat Facebeat.
(funky upbeat music)
What's a backseat facebeat you ask?
It's when you do your makeup so perfect
in the back of a moving vehicle.
It could be a plane, it could be express train,
it could be a car.
Whatever it is, your makeup just looks perfect.
So today we called in the big guns,
and not just like the big guns,
like, the big kahunas, the top dog,
like, the best in the world, bow down, et cetera, et cetera,
Sir John.
You may know Sir John from his work with Ashley Graham,
and Iman, and of course his work with the one and only,
the leader of our free world,
the greatest woman to just walk on water, Beyoncé.
Beyon-cé.
Be-yoncé.
Beyoncé!
Beyoncé.
So let's go pick him up
and get the Beyoncé Backseat Facebeat.
(car zooms)
(tires screech)
(car door opens)
- Hey guys.
- Sir John, do you know what a backseat facebeat is,
and have you ever done one? - Oh my god.
Do you remember the Mrs. Carter Show Tour?
- Oh, do I?
Yes of course! - So, there's this woman,
her name is Beyoncé. - Oh, okay, Solange's sister.
- Yeah, yeah, the big sister. - Yes, yes.
- We had to go directly from her plane to the stadium,
and when she gets out of the car
she had to go directly on the stage.
So I had about 35 minutes to give her concert face.
- Okay, yeah. - But it's like,
you're turning corners, and we're making things happen
and I'm holding her face,
I'm in the front seat leaning over the back,
holding her neck like 'please don't move'.
We always did like a winged cat eye
so I had to make sure that those winged liners
were going to the same party.
- Yeah, yeah, fine. - Through the bumps.
- Yeah, oh my god!
Let's remember that-- - So this is a piece of cake!
It's a piece of cake, guys.
- You did it on literally Beyoncé.
As we're getting the perfect facebeat back here,
I'm gonna ask you a series of questions,
and they're gonna get harder as the facebeat gets
more intense. - Ooh, I like the more
difficult questions.
- Yes, in the hot seat a little bit.
So let's go. - Let's go. Let's do this.
- Let's go! - Alright!
(car zooms)
- [Chloe Hall] Let's get started.
I have no base on, and then I'll hit you with the questions.
- Okay I love that.
So basically I'm starting out with a water-based moisturizer
just to hydrate the skin. Eyes up for me.
And you always wanna make sure that you hydrate your skin
before you put on any foundation, concealer.
You want this to be almost like a second layer.
You want it to look organic and lived in,
like a second skin.
- How'd you get started?
Where were you living?
- I went to school for art and art history
since I was six years old.
Started working for MAC very young early on,
I think it was my first full time job.
Did you know Bloomie's Soho?
- Mm-hmm.
- I used to work there,
and then as I was working at Bloomie's Soho,
you know I met photographers,
well, a specific photographer,
his name is Desmond Tuckerson.
He's like, "Hey listen, you know, I'm working with a model
and her makeup artist canceled.
Would you like to do this shoot? Can you paint her face?"
'Cause he knew I was a painter.
And I was like "I don't know what eyeshadow is from mascara
or whatever", you know?
I had no knowledge of makeup.
- Yeah.
But I just knew that it's just texture and color.
- Mm hmh.
- So basically, I did it, he liked it, the model liked it,
he asked me could I do the same thing next week
for like 300 bucks or 250 dollars,
and 18 or 19 years old and you're like a starving student,
it's, yeah. - A million dollars.
- Hell yeah. You're gonna do it.
Got fired from MAC for being late. Hi, MAC.
- Shout out, MAC.
- Even though I love you guys now.
They know I love them.
- What would your 18 year old self say
to the MAC person who fired you,
and what would the person now
say to the MAC person that fired you?
- You know what, I understand. - Yeah.
- You have a business to run. I get it. You know, I'm
- But your 18 year old self? That's good!
- Yeah, and honestly, I'm reasonable and hell.
- Yeah.
- And I think that the 36 year old self would say thank you.
While we're talking, I'm just kinda mixing up
these are liquid matte lips, right, but
I'm using these as a monochromatic liquid matte eyeshadow.
- Mm-hmh.
- They dry down really, really beautifully.
- Okay.
- I was doing makeup at a strip club in Queens.
- Oh, yes.
- Shout out to Riviera in Queens. Hi girls.
- What is one beauty tip you learned from the dancers
that were at Riviera's?
- My speed. I got so speed - Oh really?
- So quickly. When I say speed,
it's like one of those things
where you have 30 girls who are waiting to hit the floor,
and you need to sorta give everyone a look.
- And now you're a mentor on American Beauty Star.
- Yeah.
- What's the best advice someone has shared with you
- It was Charlotte Tilbury.
When you're an assistant,
everyone wants you to fade to the back,
wear black every day,
they don't want you to be special,
they don't want you to stand out.
So every day I would come in
and I would have to dumb myself down for work
when I assisted other people,
and she told me one day, she said,
"John, what's wrong with you today?"
and I'm like, "Nothing, you know.
I'm just going about my business
and doing what I have to do,"
and she's like, "I want you to...
You're losing that light you have.
I want you to bring that secret sauce back.
That's currency. That's cool."
and I was like, "Whoa! That's a thing,"
and so once she told me that,
I just started to become who I am as Michelle Obama says,
you know? - Mm-hmh.
- This is a liquid lipstick I'm using from Fenty,
and I'm mixing that with a little bit of L'Oreal rouge
that we have, and I'm using it as a base for the eyeshadow,
and then I'm tapping this shadow on top of it.
So this is creating a monochromatic eye.
I'm adding a little bit of shimmer, whoa!
Shimmer--see how you roll with the punches?
- Yeah.
- See how you have to roll with the punches?
- Yeah.
- Add that bit of shimmer right on the ball of the eye,
and I'm gonna use my finger and just make sure
that it really blends well.
- Do you have any trends
that you think are gonna be so big in 2019,
and one you want us all to leave behind in 2018?
- The trend I love at the moment
would happen to be... hold on, we're waiting for a red light
cause this pencil, I don't want to poke her eye out.
- (laughter)
- I love this sense of exploration.
Everyone's trying something new.
- Mm-hmh. - Look down for me.
Everyone's doing something super bold,
and there's a huge difference,
if you see this huge disconnect
from what's happening in fashion and beauty,
and the girls who are on Instagram, they want a look,
so for me, I think the biggest trend right now
is individual beauty, looking at makeup
as an emotional pick-me-up is something that's modern
and anchored in the now.
It can be just something that's bringing a little bit
of drama to an otherwise mundane makeup routine.
- Speaking of beauty secrets,
what is one of Tina Knowles' beauty secrets?
- She taught me the art of not using eyeshadow.
- Really?
- She doesn't like shadow.
And I'm like, "You sure you don't want to do
just the basic brown?" Nope. Skipping a step.
- I think it's so modern to skip a step.
Take an eyeliner and make it look like you just...
Walk of shame liner, with the perfect lip.
- Yeah. - That's modern, you know?
- Mm-hmh. I love that.
What's one look you created on a celebrity
that you regret?
- I don't regret any of the looks, you know why?
Because, you don't know what you like
until you know what you don't like.
People need contrast to know what's working,
what works, what doesn't work, and at the time,
it might have been all the rave,
but maybe a month later, two months later,
I'm like, "maybe I would've worked that differently
or the product placement could've been a little more clean,"
or something like that.
- Do you have any mascara tips?
- Yeah, so what you wanna do is you wanna take your brush,
and wiggle back and forth from the root,
like you're brushing your teeth, and then up,
so back and forth brushing your teeth, and then up.
What it does is it creates a lot of separation at the base
and it gives you massive, massive volume,
so that's the goal.
Lashes are like jewelry, in my opinion.
- Mm-hmh. What do you mean? - More is more.
- Okay. More is more. I love that.
- Yeah, we're gonna take a bit of the mascara,
and I'm gonna go and do a couple dots.
I want you to think about things in terms of makeup,
it's like you know what, this is the story I wanna tell.
What story is it that we're telling today?
It's that a lot of shit happened on the way to the club.
- A lot of shit happened. - (laughter)
- So you work on the world's most perfect human,
has she ever had a pimple or like...
- Oh my God! Yeah. (laughter)
- What? This is groundbreaking.
- I mean, she has beautiful skin.
Actually everyone likes her without makeup more than makeup.
- Oh, really? Mm-hmh.
- As the makeup, we're like the bipity-bopity-boop.
You guys seen Cinderella?
We're like the icing on the cake,
and hopefully we have something that some women at home
would want to translate and makeover again, that's the goal.
- What is your mood board or your vision
for the woman who would wear this out?
Where is she headed? Riviera's...
- No, she... you know what I love
about the Cardi B's of the world
is that they made a place like Riviera's,
when I was trying to get to Paris or Milan for fashion week,
as a young guy, I'm working at the strip club,
they put a jar, a Fashion Week jar for this guy
they put a... Like Sir John's Fashion Week Fund,
- Oh my God, yeah!
- They took their money and pilled me off dollars
and sent me to Europe for the first time.
- No, 100%.
- This isn't a strip club look,
but what this is, I would say is like,
I'm leaving work,
I don't know if I want to hang out with my girls,
but there's an event.
It's not a concert, but we're gonna have a little fun,
and there's gonna be pretty lighting.
- Mm-hmh. You don't need to names,
but can you give me the tea on the craziest celebrities,
the craziest story backstage, like something so wild
everyone at home will be like (gasp) "What?"
- You're gonna know exactly who I'm talking about
if I tell you any one of these stories.
- Really? - Yeah.
- Okay, what if you mix up the three truths and a lie,
and you don't answer what the truth is?
- This person, she wipes lip gloss
on her makeup artist's shirt if it's too shiny.
Won't name any names.
- I like this game already. I'm not gonna name any names.
I'm not even gonna guess, but I just love this game already.
- Okay, this person, she doesn't want to do a job,
and so when she doesn't want to do the job,
she creates so much of a fuss on set
that it's like, "Oh, that person's looking at me."
"I'm out."
Or, "That person was trying to look at me as I was changing
I'm out."
and it's like, girl, no one was looking at you.
No one's fucking looking at you.
- Yeah.
- [Sir John] So, right now, we're gonna go into
a panel discussion or American Beauty Star,
and it's one of those things
where it doesn't matter where you're from,
or what age you are,
we all have a different relationship
with the person in the mirror.
- Mm-hmh.
- So many young girls who are suffering
from anxiety and depression and bullying
because of this beauty industry that we're in,
so, you know, my goal is to break some of that up.
- Yeah, that's great.
- So that's what we're gonna talk about right now.
Mind you, this is daylight. Daytime,
and you have sort of a PM look on,
but I think you can carry this pretty well,
and I hope what you guys see in the mirror,
not the mirror, but the camera,
is a beautifully blended application of blush.
The eyes are not supposed to be perfect, guys.
So these eyes are supposed to be haphazard and funky,
and kinda like rockstar shit.
- Mh-hmh (funky upbeat music)
- You've gotta model it for... open your eyes.
And bam! Give 'em all of that.
We're about to go in and do this panel discussion
for American Beauty Star on Lifetime, 10/9PM Central
and I hope that you guys like it,
but I hope that you like the conversation
and this dialogue even more.
- Yeah! And this incredible soul.
Okay! Let's go! Let's do this.
- Let's do this.
- We're very late, but I'm very excited for this panel.
(funky upbeat music)