If you’ve heard of contouring (that’s all of us, then), you have Mario Dedivanovic to thank for it. The powerhouse makeup artist, better known as Makeup By Mario, brought the technique to the mainstream when he and his famous client, Kim Kardashian, started posting behind the scenes snippets of the makeup looks they created together, just as social media began to take off.?
These days #contouring has over 1 billion views on TikTok and Mario has his own eponymous brand, Makeup By Mario, under his beauty belt. Chatting to him as he celebrates the launch of Sephora into the UK (which offers the most extensive range of his products here), it’s clear he’s kept his humility. He’s modest about the work and dedication it took to get his brand onto the shelves of the beauty store where he started his career as a fragrance consultant. And, he laughs when I bring up that Met Gala moment in 2021, when Kim covered his beautiful artistry with a head-to-toe morph suit, ¡°that was pretty funny,¡± he admits.
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But obviously, I used the opportunity to pat him down for product recommendations and pro tips. His top hack for beautiful makeup, it turns out, is pretty simple, as he explains below¡
How would you describe your makeup style in three words?
I would say glamorous, polished and balanced. I work a lot to create balance on the face ¨C balance and harmony.
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What¡¯s the one major mistake you see people making with their makeup?
Oh boy. People always ask me this actually. I feel bad to mention anything, but maybe foundation colours or textures being slightly off. I think that’s mainly due to when people apply and they’re not in the proper lighting. So it’s an innocent mistake, we¡¯re all guilty of it sometimes.
What¡¯s your top tip for incredible makeup?
I’d say softening and blending. Everything that I do on the face, and every product that I apply, I go in a very soft, sheer layer, and then I blend everything. I don’t like to see any harsh lines. That’s how you sort of make the makeup look like it’s meant for you, and that you were born with it. That¡¯s also why I have brushes on the ends of a lot of my products ¨C so the lip pencil, the eye pencil, the sculpting stick, they have a brush on them to soften the line. So the line is designed based off my techniques. I create these products that are very easy to use and effortless. But, yeah, if I had to choose just one simple tip, it¡¯s blending everything that you put on your face.
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What¡¯s your favourite makeup look you¡¯ve ever created and why?
This is hard because they’re all so personal. I’d say one of my favourites would be the Met Gala look from 2018 ¨C the one with the gold Versace dress and the super cat smokey eye. That was one of my favourites. And then, I also love the Met Gala Thierry Mugler look. The wet look. Both went pretty viral, so those are two of my favourites, but there¡¯s so many.
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What¡¯s been your biggest beauty disaster?
Many years ago I had a client who came straight off a flight and had a red carpet in New Jersey. By the time she landed and got to the hotel, we had to be at the event in like 30 minutes, and so we had to glam in the backseat of a car with her head laying on my lap and only the car light for light. Basically we had like 20 or 30 minutes to do a full makeup. So that, I would say, was probably the biggest disaster, but we made it work. She actually looked great.
What beauty trends are you really excited for right now?
I’m excited for little pops of colour. And I’m excited for this whole grunge vibe I’m getting. I’m known for a more polished look, but there’s definitely elements of grunge that I include in my makeup to sort of make it look a little bit more lived in. So I’m starting to see these little elements now on TikTok and stuff and it’s really exciting for me. I think also just the younger generation has a little bit more of a more relaxed approach to artistry and don¡¯t feel like they have to be so perfect. They kind of mess things up a little bit and have fun.
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How do you feel about TikTok?
I enjoy it. I love to see the trends. I love to see what everyone’s doing. A lot of them obviously are not groundbreaking or new things ¨C they’re the things that have been done so many times before that they kind of pick up and have these moments on TikTok. What I love is to see this younger generation who is quite different from my generation ¨C like the Instagram generation ¨C in that they’re more uninhibited and just free. It’s not about being so perfect, they don’t really care so much about the lighting and their angles, they’re just having fun and being comfortable in their skin. And I love to see that. They’re hungry for newness, They’re hungry to have new techniques and they’re hungry for education. Right. They want to be taught, but they also like to teach their followers. So I think that’s great as well.
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How do you feel about your Y2K looks being referenced?
I’m like, geez, is it already time? Cuz you know, things happen usually in a 20 year cycle, so I guess it¡¯s time? But to me it feels like Y2K was like two years ago.
Can you share any sneaky secrets about what¡¯s next for the brand?
Obviously the launch into the UK on Sephora. But, we also have some incredible products coming. Actually, my most special collections are coming soon. We have two things coming this year and I can’t really say what it is, but both of them are incredibly special to me. The one that’s launching later in the year is like my first¡ I call it ¡®The Masterpiece¡¯. It’s a complexion product that I’m extremely excited for the world to try. It’s something I dreamed of for so many years, even well before the brand. But the formula itself just hit it on the head. It’s the perfect, dream formula that I could have imagined ¨C well, it came out even better than I imagined ¨C so I’m really excited.
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Is there a product you¡¯re most proud of?
It’s like asking a mom who’s your favourite child? Right? We work so hard on developing these products for so many years, so it’s hard for me to choose one. I think the one launching later this year would be my favourite one. But if I had to choose some of the existing line, I would say the Master Mattes palette. It’s the number one palette in North America. Hopefully it¡¯ll be the same in the UK soon. But, that product is one that I worked on for a long time. It has a lot of research behind it, so it just makes me really proud to know that it slowly became the number one palette.?
I remember during the creation of that palette people were like: ¡®Are you sure about this? It’s not what the consumer is used to¡¯. I think people were used to these really uber-soft, uber-silky, hyper-pigmented eyeshadows and it’s not about that for me. I don’t like to put on heavy pigment. I like to put on soft layers and then build if necessary. That palette really allows you to do that ¨C with the amount of product and pigment the brush picks up. The formula feels slightly more hard. But I just knew in my heart that it was going to catch on and that people would love it. And so to see that become our most popular product has made me really proud.
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Where should UK fans start ¨C what are a couple of heroes you recommend they try?
The Soft Sculpt collection: it consists of a lot of products, but anything from that collection I think is really amazing for skin. You know, they’re really modern formulas, very elegant, sort of effortless products. So Soft Sculpt I think definitely would be one of them. The Moisture Glow Plumping Lip Serum. That’s really big for us in the States as well. And then actually my lip pencils, I love! And our eye liners do incredibly well too. The Master Pigment Pro Eyeliners are a go-to for me.
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What¡¯s been the most memorable moment of your career?
The launch of the brand. It was not easy to do. It was a 20 year dream and so much work had been put into it. I worked my entire career for that, you know? When I started at Sephora in 2000, that was definitely the goal. There were a lot of artistry brands there, like NARS and Laura Mercier, and so I connected to those brands. It gave me hope and a purpose. I’m like, okay, well if I’ve worked really hard, for many years, the way these artists did, I’m gonna be able to have my own brand one day, too. And so from the very beginning, that was my set goal. To be in Sephora, it¡¯s a full circle moment.
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You and Kim really helped to change the game in makeup, what’s that been like??
It came as a shock. We didn’t set out to do that, it just kind of happened. We were just having fun and sharing selfies and techniques. I still can¡¯t believe it sometimes, like how far, globally, these things went. I think people just resonated with the looks we did. A big part of it, obviously, is Kim and her reach and influence. I think girls just naturally are very inspired and influenced by her. And timing had something to do with it, too. It was the beginning of the social media craze. She had a blog and then was posting #bts. Celebrities didn’t do that. Celebs didn’t randomly take a photo in the middle of makeup and then post it to the world. But she did. And we saw an effect from that.
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Kim is one of your biggest hype-queen’s, what’s that like?
Yeah, she¡¯s super supportive, because she’s a glam girl. She loves it. She loves the process of getting ready. She loves the process of makeup and hair and she loves to share it with the world as well.
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Contouring can be a little contentious, what¡¯s your response to that?
Just have fun with it. I think take away the intimidation and the stress. It doesn’t have to be intense the way we do it for stage, or television, or red carpets. There’s simple ways to do contour. It doesn’t have to be this perfectly symmetrical thing. ?But people love it and I think it will always be popular.
How has your makeup style has evolved since you started?
There’s always similarities. If you look throughout the years, there’s always an element of relatability to my makeup. Things can be quite glamorous, but I always make sure to soften things so that everything is very balanced, and that kind of stays consistent. But, it’s constantly evolving. For example, I used to do really light under-eyes. That white under eye had a moment back in the day. I don’t do that anymore. So there’s consistency, but definitely the overall style has changed I think, throughout the years.
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Where do you find inspiration for the beauty looks you create?
Obviously we take into consideration where the client’s going, what they’re doing, what they’re wearing. Is it daytime? Is it nighttime? But for me, really, I’m inspired most by their bareface. That’s when everything comes to me ¨C when my client is sitting in front of me with nothing on. I never know exactly what I’m gonna do beforehand. As soon as I start sort of brushing in the eyebrow and I start kind of touching the face, that’s when everything starts to come to me.
For more from Fashion’s Beauty Editor, Elle Turner, follow her on Instagram @elleturneruk
