Larisa Larina: “In New York you need to be able to do everything!”

We decided to talk to a talented artist and successful entrepreneur to find out how difficult it is to create your own brand of cosmetics, what trends dominate makeup in America and what it’s like to collaborate with Pat McGrath, participate in the coolest world exhibitions and introduce Kabuki’s own products.

– Larisa, you recently became a mother. Congratulations! How do you manage to combine work and motherhood at this stage?

- Thank you for your congratulations! With the advent of the baby, of course, my whole life changed dramatically. My schedule is quite busy now, since I spend most of my time with my child. I prepared in advance for the fact that during this period I would mainly be engaged in sales and I would not have the need to be away from the child. Therefore, now I am actively developing my brand, developing new products, doing advertising, and communicating with clients.

Our products are already sold in Argentina and Brazil. Our brand is also represented in Ukraine: we presented cosmetics at exhibitions, and there are already contractors who are engaged in sales in the country. But I’m betting on the American market: this is where we have the most clients at the moment.

I don’t work much with private clients now, and with the birth of my child I have become very demanding in this regard. But I continue to collaborate with several brands that are currently my regular clients.

– Which of your recent projects can you call the most interesting?

– One of my favorite projects is working with a hijab brand. They are very beautiful - even I wear them as scarves. I have been working with this brand for a very long time, their approach and vision are close to me. The brand's employees allow me to be myself and create images in my own style. The last shoot of the fall collection took place at the Plaza Hotel near Central Park - it was where Kevin from the movie Home Alone lived when he came to New York.

I also really love working with several private clients who trust me one hundred percent. With them I can use bright shadows, highlighters and sparkles in unlimited quantities. (Smiles.) The main thing is that the client likes the result.

But my greatest pride is working with Pat McGrath. I have repeatedly participated as part of her team at the Fashion show. I had to refuse to participate in the last two shows in Paris because of the baby. This decision was very difficult for me, because I am not used to turning down such offers, but the child is now my main priority. However, very soon Pat and I will be collaborating again as part of her personal brand.

Photographer: Jacenne Chloe. Model: Bibi Brady

– What images do you like to create most now – monochrome or colorful, colored?

– I still love everything bright, colorful and shiny, but I also like to create monochrome looks. More and more often I find myself thinking that I enjoy the process of applying makeup. Give me a beautiful girl with good skin, give me the opportunity to create, and I don’t care what kind of makeup I wear. I like everything! But more and more I am positioning myself as a makeup artist, capable of creating some kind of bright, spectacular image, doing something interesting and unusual - something that most people cannot do.

– Was it difficult to launch your own cosmetics brand in New York? How did you prepare for this and what steps did you take?

– I have wanted to launch my own brand for a very long time. This thought first came to me when I was working in a beauty salon. I was very bored there, and I kept thinking about how I could continue to grow and develop. And I decided that creating my own brand would be a good step forward. I started researching the market, seeing what was popular now. Moreover, I seem to feel what products will “go in” and what will be in demand in the near future.

And I created my own cosmetics brand LARINA MAKEUP, which I am very proud of. Launching it in America was not difficult at all. It is not necessary to register a brand immediately; the main thing is to pay taxes on income. Therefore, I am only doing official registration now.

Photo for the brand: Haute Hijab

I try to ensure that every new product has a wow effect! It’s especially nice to see how people are fans of your cosmetics and go crazy with the shades that I select with special care.

– There are a lot of shining products in your brand’s assortment. Where does this love for glitter come from?

– I really love shine and sparkle, and who doesn’t love them? (Smiles.) I love it when everything shimmers, lights up, shimmers, so I wanted to create just such products. At exhibitions, people cannot pass by these shining pigments, and then it is very difficult for them to choose just a few shades. (Smiles.) That’s why they bought the entire collection from us more than once.

– Larisa, you were one of the participants at the IMATS exhibition in New York this year. How did everything go? It must have been very exciting?

– Yes, in April we participated in the IMATS exhibition, and in May we presented our products at Makeupshow. Of course, I was very worried, because, firstly, I had a small child at home. Secondly, it was necessary to prepare everything for participation, and this is a lot of money, and you worry whether this whole undertaking will pay off. To make your stand look beautiful and presentable, you need to work out its design yourself, order printing, hire people to work with it - all this adds up to a lot of money. Of course, you need to pay for the stand itself and additionally for the use of electricity and Wi-Fi. Moreover, it was scary to go to such an event for the first time.

But, as they say, those who don’t take risks don’t drink champagne. Fortunately, everything paid off, it was very cool, I was completely delighted! I plan to continue participating in such exhibitions.

It’s nice when people from all over the world come up to you and say that they know and love the brand’s cosmetics, thank you for its creation and express their warmest feelings. Also during the event we found many partners from all over the world for further cooperation.

– At one of the exhibitions you met the legendary makeup artist Kabuki. Tell us about this incident.

– We met Kabuki at the Makeupshow pre-party. We talked a little, and then he came up to me at the stand during the exhibition. What impressed me most was his humility. When a makeup artist of this level, who has worked with Michael Jackson and other world stars, is so easy and pleasant to talk to... It’s very unexpected; meeting such people in our field is very rare.

He really liked my pigments, he was already going to buy them, but I, naturally, gave them to him. He refused until the last minute and said that he was uncomfortable. The next day he came to the stand again to thank me. After some time, I found out that he used my pigments to create looks for the Met Gala. (Smiles.)

– What is the difference between studying makeup in the USA and studying in Ukraine?

– The differences are cardinal. In Ukraine, makeup training is a combination of creativity, creativity and soul. But here in America, these are more schemes and methods that are necessary to work in a particular area. There is no creative approach here, and makeup lessons in schools are taught by mediocre masters - not very successful, advanced or popular. But famous makeup artists, for the most part, work and receive good money for it, and very rarely conduct their master classes.

In addition, opening your own school here is much more difficult than in Ukraine. And the main problem is renting premises. To rent a simple office with one or two rooms in Manhattan, you need to make four to five insurance payments in advance, a rental amount of approximately three thousand dollars, and also pay for the work of a broker. And it is most often possible to rent a room for at least three years.

When I first moved to New York, I really wanted to open my own school. But now I’m very glad that I didn’t do this, because I would have made a lot of mistakes: at that time I didn’t know a lot. But there's still more to come!

Photographer: Artem Yakubenko

– How do you personally learn and improve at this professional stage?

– I study using online materials that can be found on the Internet. Thus, I am always aware of the latest trends and can learn some new tricks. What does this have to do with both makeup and business, its promotion, and in this area I still have to grow and grow.

I also always watch and attend master classes that interest me. For example, I enjoyed attending Lottie’s master class: she creates advertising campaigns for many famous beauty and fashion brands. This was the most expensive master class in my life. (Laughs.) Also here I attended master classes with Danessa Myrichs, Alessandro Alcantara and Nam Vo.

– You are planning to hold a big master class in New York in October. What will it be like?

– This will be a general master class with another makeup artist. With a great program. We have plans to make a real show out of it: this is the format of master classes that is popular in America. It will include four large shows, as well as live entertainment, delicious food, champagne and cocktails. We want to break the stereotype that in the USA there is nowhere and no one to learn makeup from.

– Are there any difficulties in working with American clients?

– When I first arrived, of course, there was a language barrier. One of the reasons why I joined the salon was the opportunity to improve my English. And although I knew it at a fairly good level, for example, taking orders for cosmetics and talking about their features over the phone was very difficult. Now I have no problem communicating in English with people in person and on the phone.

Even if I don’t understand something, I can ask again as many times as necessary without feeling any discomfort. People here are accepting of it because there are a lot of immigrants in New York. Everyone tries to be polite and tolerant.

– What trends are currently dominant in makeup in the USA?

– The USA is a country that brings together people from different parts of the world – North and South America, Europe and Asia. And each population group has its own preferences and needs, so there is no single popular makeup style here. But there are certain trends that dominate in each of the areas - wedding, fashion, commercial or client makeup.

Bridal makeup in America is now quite intense: a dense tone, careful correction, powdered skin, long eyelashes, expressive eye makeup in brown shades and nude lips. This is, one might say, a classic wedding makeup.

Photo for the brand: Haute Hijab

It is on wedding makeup that you can make very good money in America. Firstly, people here take the wedding ceremony much more seriously than in Ukraine, and are ready to invest a lot of money in the celebration. Moreover, the makeup artist paints not only the bride, but also her bridesmaids, of whom there are usually five or six people. Even if you do average makeup for $100–$150 for each of the girls plus wedding makeup for the bride for $250–300, then you get a good amount in a morning.

If we talk about advertising shoots, the most popular is light nude makeup in natural shades - an invisible layer of foundation, natural eyebrows, neat eyelashes and a slight dewy glow on the skin.

There is complete diversity in client makeup. Dark-skinned girls love either classic light makeup, not very bright, without shading, or very intense makeup with false eyelashes, glitter and a dense tone. Girls from eastern countries have their own preferences - dense tone, black expressive arrows on the upper and lower eyelids, shading of shadows in brown tones, elongated eye shape, sparkles, nude lips.

In New York, you need to be able to do everything to satisfy any client request and do your job efficiently!

The article was first published in MAKEUP&YOU Professional magazine.