Brush With Fame

Celebrity makeup artiste Donald Simrock has been creating signature looks for celebrities for a decade-and-a-half. Neeti Jaychander speaks to the man behind the makeup.

- Neeti Jaychander

One of Hollywood’s, and the world’s, most acclaimed makeup artists, Donald Simrock’s body of work is staggering. He’s worked with virtually everyone who’s anyone in the industry—Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, Lindsay Lohan, to name a few—and created magic with his makeup brush. Simrock was recently in India to craft looks for designers/models at the Lakmé Fashion Week Winter/Festive 2016.

“My agency, TFM, had already been talking about me in India before I had arrived. I hit the ground running straight off the plane! Since then, I have signed up for Lakmé Fashion Week Summer/Resort 2017, and will be working closely with Lakmé as their ambassador. I am so excited to work with such an amazing brand,” he says.

But Simrock started off with no formal training in makeup. “I really began working with makeup in the unconventional settings of nightclubs and discotheques, both across Europe and in New York City. I had no formal training which allowed me the opportunity to try things that would normally be considered ‘taboo’ or ‘against the rules’ of traditional beauty,” he explains. He later fell into a lengthy apprenticeship under Pat Macgrath, before entering the market on his own. “It was under Pat’s guidance that I learned to understand the mechanics of the industry, and how to handle the workload that ensues. You cannot put a price on that type of experience,” he says.