What It's Like to Do a Magazine Cover

Here is a montage of some of the many magazine covers I did while working as a makeup artist in the 1980s and 1990s. In those days, working as a freelance makeup artist and being able to say you had a cover was the greatest thing in the world. It was how you made it. You never knew that a shoot was guaranteed to land on the cover, it was always considered a “cover try.” Most of the time, there would be a spread inside to tell the rest of the cover story. If your work was on the cover, it was a big deal.

My first cover was Jerry Hall for British Cosmopolitan in 1985. I was a nervous wreck and I remember her as very kind. I didn’t really have a style then or any clue to what I was doing. My next British Cosmopolitan cover was with Nancy Donahue, who was one of the it models of the moment. She had a really angelic face. I remember I did a smokey eye. And I can now admit that the blush was badly applied, but could pass for contouring today.

There was an Elle cover in 1994 that I did with three models and it was a big deal. Doing three faces for a single cover was really fun.

I did a Tique cover with supermodel Renee Simonsen in 185. I decided to try a bright blue mascara on her. In those days, I would experiment and play with things even though I was personally never really into makeup and just wore brown lipstick.