Behind the Image is an ongoing MODELS.com series taking a more personal look at both established and emerging creative talent.
Crystabel Efemena Riley by Ben Toms | Image courtesy of Julian Watson Agency
Crystabel Efemena Riley, Makeup Artist
Based: London, England
Representation: Julian Watson Agency
How did you first discover your passion for makeup, and what drew you specifically into the beauty world?
When I first moved to London as a late teenager, my friend and I wanted to start a band, so I volunteered to be the drummer and the makeup artist—neither of which I had any idea how to do. However, I loved painting and improvising and immediately understood how to send subliminal messages with makeup.
How would you describe your work? What’s your trademark?
Although I love painting, I don’t see people as a canvas. I spend a lot of time with the skin itself, and I’m really interested in the microbiome and how the materials I’m working with connect with that. I love the feeling of colors coming out of the skin and the features extending and building the story.
Sustainability has been a significant focus in your work, from creating the first ‘Eco Beauty’ course at the London College of Fashion to introducing zero-waste practices backstage during London Fashion Week. What initially sparked your commitment to sustainability in beauty?
It came from various reactions and extremely sensitive skin, and slowly, I wanted to make my whole kit very considered. That consideration expanded from using organic ingredients and products to uplifting brands that were focused on reducing overall impact with packaging, labor, and ethics. I then naturally started to look at how I was working personally. When I began keying teams for fashion week, it meant I had to solidify and communicate those ideas.
How has your sustainability journey influenced your approach to makeup artistry, and what do you envision as the industry’s next big steps in this space?
It’s forced me to find new ways to do things and get much deeper into particular materials to create stories. If I’m presented with references, I can see how it’s normally done but I’ll try and recreate my version of it. For the Di Petsa AW24 show, a traditional way of making tears would be with a product that is a mix of pig’s bones and liquid plastic. No judgment with regard to that, but I was really keen to find a new way that related to me. After working with molten metals for a New Year’s Eve ritual, I re-melted it and realized it was infinitely recyclable and actually a hypoallergenic metal. I really love this cyclic version of connecting work to my life and finding new ways. One of the next steps in this space will be the increased use of fermentation technologies to make lower-impact ingredients. I’ve even come across new ideas of using carbon capture as starting materials for biomaterials. It’s really amazing how these new ideas of traceability and transparency in marketing stories can actually influence how things are made.
What inspires your creative process and influences your artistic vision?
Spending time listening to the team and gathering information before seeing how make-up can help build that story. The casting is always a focal point, as well as the skin, features, and personality. I do use image references and also I sometimes do small tests to experiment with new materials. But talking together with the team inspires a lot of what might then happen.
What have you watched/heard/read lately that has inspired you?
I’ve been trying to revive the lost art of reading and reduce the quick dopamine hits of current media forms- which is not that easy, actually. For a recent personal project in Brussels, me and my friends put together a reader, which included classics like Derrida’s The Law of Genre, and also an essay about Black African Dances in early modern Spain. I also read an amazing book that came out this year called Clay – A Human History. Some parts about the Nigerian Potter Ladi Kwali opened up some family stories; my granny used to harvest her own clay from the river, make hand-built clay pots, bury them in the soil in front of her house, then ‘light fire’ and sell them in the market – no one had ever mentioned this. Everything is just so casual, but to us later generations, what the elders did feels really profound – especially when their voices are not written or heard.
What have been the biggest challenges you have faced professionally?
Coming to the realization that the space of ethics is mirky and complicated and things can’t always be quantified in a clear binary way – of ‘this’ is better than ‘that’. I like clarity and depth, and the deeper you get into topics, the more complicated and ambiguous they can get.
What do you love about what you do?
The profound sea of faces and energies of people. I can’t get my head around the fact that none are the same; it’s really amazing! I love being part of bringing this into whatever stories will be told that day.
Who do you think is one to watch?
My joint first assistants, Temi Adelekan and Tina Khatri, are wonderful, and I’m excited about their futures.
Selected Work
Peipei Tang by Ben Toms | Image courtesy of Julian Watson Agency
Atmos Magazine Vol 05: Hive Covers
I used abundant natural material, sand, and then I tinted it with pigments that matched Moss’ colour. I love and have learned so much from working with Ben Toms and Robbie Spencer.
Adual Akol by Erika Kamano | Image courtesy of Julian Watson Agency
Nautical Nonsense
I love this composition and the ambiguity of the rest of the body – and with a deep aquatic/metallic lip to match.
Tasha Malek by Ekua King | Image courtesy of Julian Watson Agency
My Body is My Temple
“MY BODY IS MY TEMPLE” Ekua’s title says it all.
Camille Chifflot by Gwénaëlle Trannoy | Image courtesy of Julian Watson Agency
No One Tells You This
We were looking for something surreal to add to the story, so we worked with these facial decorations. We were shooting in Paris but it felt very much part of the activities in my home in London – preparations and experimentations of edible play dough with my daughter. I love how the blue spirulina, used as pigment, brings out the green in Camille’s eyes.
Elodie Di Patrizi by Giovanni Corabi | Image courtesy of Julian Watson Agency
Vogue Italia February 2023 Covers
This was my first cover for Vogue Italia with Giovanni Corabi and Ellie Grace Cumming. It was shot in Lake Como. When I look at this picture, I remember hearing the sounds of the ancient church bells traveling across the lake and intermingling with our Bluetooth speaker. I loved the incorporation of different technologies. Gio took not even a single digital image, so purely staring at Elodie’s face whilst hearing those dissonant sounds was actually amazing!
