MARTINA DEROSA ︎

Meet the young makeup artist who is flipping the role of art and fashion in her discipline turning every look into a surprising work of art






What do you do? I always thought of myself as a creative person, I always drew and painted but never excelled at any of those, before I found my artistic medium of expression through makeup and now I feel like this is what I have to do for myself.


Are you successful? I’m not just thinking about success as being famous and having money, to me success is feeling satisfied thinking about where I came from and what I’m doing now. So I already feel successful in a way because I came from nothing literally and seeing that in just 2 years I’m in this position, it makes me feel good about it and it makes me work even harder to go further with it.


What makes you relevant? I’m not sure I’m relevant even if I like to think I am, I try to give a different perspective on my art and the mix of my backgrounds and what I studied in the past is what makes me and my style interesting and relevant.


With a razor sharp voice punctuated by peaks of excitement and softly lulled by a sweet and familiar Italian accent, Martina answers our call with an energetic “Ciao!”. Her voice is the only thing I can visualise while she explains how devastated her skin is from all the makeups she’s doing during these days, and goes on washing her face. 


“One day I was at CSM and right outside the gates there was this guy looking for a makeup artist and I said I could do it even if I wasn’t one, so it all started”explains Martina Derosa who is now part time Art Curation graduate student at Central Saint Martins and part time makeup artist for MAC Carnaby Street. Makeup is often underrated when discussing visual arts but in Martina’s works everything is treated like a unique piece of art and meticulously curated — from Magritte inspired face paint, to her late-baroque look and surrealist makeup inspired by Dalì. Organising makeup exhibitions such as “The Obsession Economy: from the Historical Self-portrait to the Constructed Selfie” or “Club Kids x Love Me” at the Carnaby MAC store is just the beginning of a plan that goes on in her graduate project and in her future plans: creating exhibitions that combine her two great loves, art and makeup.

Either framed in a rectangle or laid on a pedestal, art often feels constructed and far less genuine and relevant than what Martina creates when spontaneously combines all her passions, including fashion.





“Fashion is one of my biggest inspirations style wise” goes on Martina explaining her understanding of textures and fabrics and how the tactile and artistic element of her work is closer to Van Gogh than to any other makeup artist. “I have all my products in front of me and I just start without knowing how it will end” explains “it’s almost subconscious sometimes and I only see it when the finished work is there in front of me”. For her latest works inspired by Maison Margiela AW 2020 runway she studied everything from the designer, to the materials and techniques used and finally decided to translate the “artisanal” and craft nature of the collection in a makeup created without any tools other than her hands to add continuity between the designer’s concept and her look. 

“I like to transfer to my looks textures that are not necessarily strictly linked to makeup. I like to manipulate products and change their appearance and create custom colours mixing stuff and when I do this, I clearly see my artist approach to makeup” illustrates Martina.


Is she making any money out of it? “I’m just happy to challenge myself for now but obviously I’m planning to turn this into money someday” she replies laughing, closing her ordinary story of success.

WORDS BY CHIARA