Pat McGrath Focus

Hey guys!

I am a huge fan of Pat Mcgrath, as anyone knows she is one of the few named artists that I’ve always had complete admiration for, not simply because her otherworldly aesthetic in her makeup work but the references were always pulled from sources close to my heart. From the times she spent with the club kids to the consistent diversity that she’s worked within her career, I’ve always thought highly of her and was so excited when we were told that a makeup line was on the way.

Obviously what we were going to get was a toolkit from an on the go professional superstar, something that would do the job effectively, but be impactful. Nothing about Pat McGrath is timid and I think that her line would be so bizarre if it didn’t represent that image too. So in the launch of her label at Selfridges, we were contacted regarding the public display and makeup demo and it was really an opportunity I couldn’t resist so I grabbed a ticket with the Baron and I popped up to London for a post-birthday treat.

The demo was really fascinating because they had about ten models that they presented on stage in various looks, from the crystal-embellished eyes to the classic Egyptian gold on the lips. I wanted to do a Agitprop exclusive where I took those two particular images and did a basic spin on them as I thought t would be fun for you guys to see my version of her work. Now the thing that I learnt from watching her demo, was not that there was some massive technique-driven thing going on, she actually joked that her team ask her to use her magic finger to come over to their models and fix the lips. She actually uses her finger to shape the lipstick on the model, it was really unusual to see that because I thought the looks were kind of more technical? They were more organic than I had realised and even when shaping some of the looks around the eyes, it’s more an approach of getting the colour on, fix the shape accurately by removing. That was such a refreshing thing to see because it wasn’t contrived.

The skin was very clean, it was model skin and the products they focused on sharing from the range were the standouts. I really was more interested in the formulas of the eyeliners, the lipsticks and the skin vs the eyeshadow palettes because I find these products more so a gift than a tool, they don’t peak my interest as much. The go to products I have to rave about from the range was definitely the lip primer. It reminded me of the O-Keefes lip balm, which is to any makeup artist an essential for priming the worst, most dry lips. It was a flamboyant and gorgeous interpretation that did the job you need, definitely recommended. The packaging is very unexpected, the lipsticks have a gold kiss on them and they are quite hefty, they do not have the right sealant in the unit that I would have hoped for and one thing I have noticed over the last few months of using her lip stuff is that the outer shell falls off of the main component that holds the lipstick, so sometimes in my on the go back the ends will have to be pushed back together. But overall majorly lovely products and the range has a lot of great formulation colours.

Next is the mascara, now this mascara is gonna be a love or hate thing for everyone at home. It’s basically like a fat, thickems product that is sort of reminiscent to Benefit Bad Girl when they came out with that chunky first wand. The formula is totally different, it reminds me of some of the brands I used in Tokyo many years ago and it has a sort of dry powdery feel that I used to love when Bourjois did their Pump Up volume mascara. I have pretty long lashes and wet mascaras do not work for me, they are very much a case of pulling my lashes together where I would like a full fan out.

My personal favourite mascara is the Max Factor 2000 Calories, I like a large wand, a great product that’s black, that pulls my lashes apart and keeps them on. This mascara is sort of that, it gives a huge volume with what I can assume is a fiber in the formula that attaches to your lash and adds extra length, but the problem with this type of mascara is that it can break down through heat. You need to really cleverly layer this product because it’s phenomenal for an hour or two but has that wariness that can leave a powdery blackness to your under eyes. I still really love it and use it as the primer for a more stable formula that I layer on top.

I definitely wanted to take advantage of the beautiful packaging the products came in, as they had a lot of golden sequins in the package and we got to redeem the ticket price against some of the products, they were definitely worth it and I also loved the eyeliner pen. It was not my favourite I’ve used, the tip is one of those funny tips that eventually spray outwards and you loose that precise point, but it’s a lovely formula and stays on. I also like the length of it as it’s longer than say the MAC pens. I loved the shadow textures if you want that depth to your metallics they worked fantastically but again I normally mix up my own colour stuff so it wasn’t as appealing.

The design of the pop up was really unexpected to me because it was very effervescent, it was like a mood board of all the iconic moments from behind the scenes to the forefront of Pat’s work, it gave me more of an artists workshop with these regal embellishments and I really liked that. They had a number of collaborations with fashion brands, and it really gave you a feel of why the industry refers to her as Mother, because she definitely gave that energy. We took a photo together which was lovely, and I was really excited to have told her how much my work was inspired and how her impact on makeup was profound.

It was also really cool to see her team involved a lot of people that I’ve been online buddies with for the last decade, people like Ryan Burke who I love and think so highly of. There were also people like Renny Vasquez who I believe was working on Jackie who’s an influencer who was involved with the talk, it was all just a fun event. Jessica Stam was sitting beside me and her face was all over the show which was amazing. Just a lot of fun times to be had and a great launch.

I had the opportunity to record some of the audio from the talk so here’s some exclusive info from Agitprop Podcast, I thought I’d be opportunistic and included some of the info about Mother because she is very much a mysterious force. There isn’t a lot of information out there on her as a person and I think it was really touching to find out more.

Check it out here.