I call Emily Wood at 10 a.m. on a Monday. She answers on the third ring. “They’ve just started construction. So sorry if it’s super loud—the whole fucking flat is shaking!” She asks how my weekend was and what my star sign is (Gemini, but later she tells me she’s convinced I have Taurus in my chart). Wood has been in New York, staying at her boyfriend’s place and contrary to other people, she quite likes being long distance. It gives her the space to prioritize her friends when she’s back home in London. “Platonic friendship means everything to me,” she muses.
None of this has anything to do with the reason for our call, but it has everything to do with who Wood is. Kind, honest, authentic, curious, and deeply earnest. And those characteristics influence everything about her work. Wood has been a professional makeup artist for years, but started to gain
notoriety online for her bold looks and unconventional techniques. She applies her makeup in scribbles and smears, with her hands and no mirror, and most often outside: on her boyfriend’s fire escape, a walk, or in front of a hillside of grazing cows. “I struggle with really bad anxiety,” Wood says. She also has ADHD, OCD, and dyslexia. “[Sometimes] it feels like my central nervous system is all wobbly,” she admits.
As a child, Wood’s dyslexia helped support an interest in art—where everything was subjective, leading her to follow her intuition. And later, when she started to struggle with anxiety, Wood found that being in nature helped her feel more calm. Now, she’s found ultimate success in combining the two. “I must’ve just been like, ‘I’ll go to Hampstead Heath, and I’ll sit on a blanket, and I’ll do my makeup looks, and I’ll regulate.’ Because it’s my art form,” she says. “It’s really hard to explain, but I do see those pencils and
pigments like I see crayons.”
This sort of perspective gives Wood the freedom to subvert traditional or popular makeup aesthetics. The brightest shades of blue, yellow, green, and pink are her go-tos. She uses lipstick on her eyes, liner on her cheeks, blush on her lips. Product categories are only suggestions and trends don’t exist on her radar. She relies on instinct—just like she did in art class growing up. “I can see [something] and [know that] even though it doesn’t really make sense, even though it’s not conventional, it’s going to look nice,
because I’m going to maybe add a deep line to my lip, which is going to put it all together,” she says.
“That’s why, I think, I can do it without looking, as well. Because it’s just intuition,” she adds. Near the end of our conversation, Wood shares an idea for a would-be campaign she would write and direct, if she were to ever develop her own line of makeup products. “It would be a really young girl, maybe on the subway. [She’s] trying to conceal her blemishes, and it’s just not working in the way she wants,” Wood explains. “Then she surrenders and she’s like, ‘I’m going to do the multi-use technique.’ She’s got braces and she’s really amazing. She’s just, a bit of a ‘fuck it’ girl already,” she says. “Then [there would be] a really old lady with wrinkles,” Wood continues. “And she’s like, ‘I need to just stop trying to conceal these things, I just [need to] embrace [them] and give myself vibrancy,” and then, like, BLUSH!”
As she speaks, it’s clear that this isn’t just a strong suit, it’s second nature. Wood can’t help but to create and dream up visuals in her mind. She is a true artist—in every sense of the word. Faces are just her chosen canvas. For now.
Feature image courtesy of Emily Wood.
