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Linda Cantello, the international make-up artist for Giorgio Armani Beauty, talks make-up trends, bright brows, and the problem with filters.

- Brooke Le Poer Trench

“I have to apologise because I love to talk,” says make-up maestro Linda Cantello when I sit across from her at the Armani Hotel in Milan. “Please don’t,” said no journalist ever. Meeting Cantello is the beauty editor equivalent of a patternmaker getting to pow-wow with Coco ... or a baker invited to Heston’s for tea. She’s a big deal.

Cantello is credited with inventing the modern smoky eye, a look that was integral to Tom Ford’s super-sexy vision for Gucci. Before she buffed and blended that shadow, we just had a hot mess of liner and colour slapped on our lids. She was backstage when make-up artists became trend forecasters. And for the rise of the supermodel, when Christy, Naomi, and Linda refused to get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day. She has worked with iconic photographers including Richard Avedon and Irving Penn. And she was at the coalface when technology became part of the make-up conversation—a moment kick-started by her boss, Giorgio Armani himself, 20 years ago with the launch of Luminous Silk Foundation.