Sylvina Lopez

The self-taught makeup artist lives in an abstract world where she’s free to embrace the unfamiliar

- MIA CASTRO

Working with Sylvina Lopez—also known as Slo—always comes with a feeling of excitement and curiosity of what she’ll create. One of today’s most sought-after makeup artists, she built herself a notable client list thanks to her playful and adventurous aesthetic. She first gained attention for doing the transformative Halloween looks of popular celebrities such as Kathryn Bernardo, Ria Atayde and Isabelle Daza. Since then, she’s become an in-demand conceptual makeup artist for the likes of Kim Jones, Mond Gutierrez and many in the magazine industry.

Lopez has a penchant for dramatic storytelling and her work speaks for itself. A self-taught artist, she notices color and texture wherever she goes. May it be from the lines of a painting or the colors of a dreamy skyscape, she lets these inspire the story to be told with the face as the canvas. Because she keeps pushing beauty’s limits, she often goes beyond what is requested in a makeup look. “Beauty for me is to be felt, more than to be seen, and it’s not necessarily pretty. Beauty tells a story,” Slo says.

She sets herself apart, not only through her unique style, but also through the collaborative effort that she holds highly in her process. She shares that connecting the pieces and challenging herself, whether the story is hers or someone else’s, is a step she never misses. “As a creative, I’ve always thought of a makeup artist as someone who brings those elements together, finds a way to express it in a way that best serves the project, using the techniques and perspective one has,” she says.

For Lopez, it is clear that she uses the freedom she has with her brushes to have fun and to live in a world where beauty lies in a multitude of colors.