6 Lessons Sir John Learned On His Way to Becoming Beyoncé's Go-To Makeup Artist

You may recognize Sir John as Beyonce's main makeup man. (If you're looking for assistants, Sir John, call us.) But before he got a regular gig glamming up the inhumanly beautiful celebrity who is also quite possibly the most revered woman alive, he paid his dues. He assisted British makeup phenom Charlotte Tilbury for years, learning and lugging makeup kits when they traveled and doing absolutely anything that needed doing behind the scenes at shoots. “I used to carry Charlotte’s luggage,” Sir John says. “I understand what it’s like before you’re in front of cameras.” And he’s using his started-from-the-bottom experience to coach makeup artist hopefuls as a mentor on Lifetime’s new American Beauty Star series, which premieres this Thursday, September 21. Happily, he offered to distill his best advice for Allure:

1. Keep a strict no-gossip policy
No gossiping, about your client or with your client. If you maintain a healthy professional distance between with your client, and respect their privacy, they’ll trust and hire you for years to come, Sir John says. “This doesn’t mean you can’t laugh and joke and have fun,” he says. “But gossip opens the door for you to get burned; you’ll no longer have a relationship.”

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2. Try this strategy for fair pay
“I don’t want my client to see me drunk, no matter how cool we are,” Sir John says. And that goes for their inner circle, too. “I keep in mind that her husband is not my friend. I call him Mr. Carter. I don’t call him Jay.” While it might seem a little too extreme (I mean, who would pass up the opportunity to buddy up to Beyonce and Jay?), Sir John promises a professional attitude pays off. Literally. “If your client sees you as a friend, and not an artist, they won’t pay you premium rates. They won’t lobby for you to get the best rooms at hotels.”

3. Don’t do it for the gram
It’s your work, yes, and you want it to look good, but it’s also your job to achieve the goal you were hired for. “A celebrity’s hair and makeup is also a brand,” Sir John says. So, even though it’s tempting to fight for a look that’ll get you a lot of likes, “sometimes I have to take a backseat so the hair can be the focus of the look. When you have that sense of humility, the clients take notice.”

4. Focus on what’s under the makeup
The one thing that’ll ruin your perfectly executed holographic eye or lip look faster than you can scrawl on a cat eye: Caked-on foundation and an over-the-top false lash situation. “I tell the girls and guys in the show that it’s okay to embrace the trends,” Sir John says. “But the skin should be minimal, editorial. And too much lash cheapens a look. I see people do two and three-pair stacked lashes — it’s cute for the club, but don’t send your girl down the red carpet like that,” he adds. And that goes for mascara, too. Just stick to four or five coats, or it’ll be too obvious.

5. Make sure your makeup kit is inclusive
“You should not blink or think twice if you see different skin colors or ethnicities,” Sir John says. This means making sure you have foundations, contour colors, and concealers that’ll work on the darkest-of-dark to the lightest-of-light skin, and practicing on friends with facial features of every description. And keep in mind that no one’s skin is the same color all over, and adjust accordingly. “No matter where you’re from, you’re not one color from forehead to chin,’ he says.

6. Enhance a every client’s individuality
Unless it’s Halloween, the goal of makeup should never be to make a woman look like someone else entirely. “Everyone has the same look on Instagram now — it looks like every girl has the same brow, the same lips, the same cheeks,” Sir John says. “I want to see a bit more uniqueness.”

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