How do you turn Eminem’s laundry into a career as a celebrity makeup artist and beauty entrepreneur? It’s complicated. First, you’ll need to score the laundry-room night shift in the costume department for 8 Mile. At least this is how it went down for AJ Crimson. Then work hard enough that the boss, Oscar-winning costume designer Mark Bridges, offers you his Los Angeles guest room so you can pursue your Hollywood-makeup-artist dreams. Then you buy a $250 Greyhound ticket out of Detroit and hit Sunset Plaza every day to network your way into a makeup gig with will.i.am. Parlay that into a regular post with will.i.am’s friend Fergie. Start touring as a makeup artist for Christina Milian, and Hilary Duff, and Estelle. That’s when you’ll want to meet Forest Whitaker’s wife, Keisha, and create a line of lip glosses with her that look so stunning on women of color, they catch Oprah’s attention.
A few years later, think bigger: What about foundation? “The girl a few shades warmer than Tyra Banks — she was always left out,” Crimson says. So you create AJ Crimson Beauty, 18 cream foundations, from super light to super dark, with deep, true pigments that don’t turn green or ashy. Viola Davis, Issa Rae, and Mary J. Blige will wear your foundations on the red carpet. But don’t stop there. Because you’d also love to create a place where women of color can try on absolutely any lipstick, or blush, or eye shadow, and trust that it will work on dark skin. So you open AJ Crimson Beauté Atelier, with one store in L.A. and another opening in New York City this month. It will be stocked only with lines, like yours, that cater to dark skin. And it will be a dream come true.
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In anticipation of his new atelier launch, we caught up Crimson to learn about the vision behind his beauty line, the importance of creating spaces for women of color, plus the one thing you should skip to achieve a flawless look.
Congrats on the expansion of AJ Crimson Beaute Atelier to NYC. Can you tell us about the vision behind this space?
"It’s a place for the girl who wants a luxury shopping experience but wants an affordable one at the same time. I want to give black women the kind of experience where you can come in, have a glass of champagne, have a consultant walk you through color, and try things on. We don’t use [the term] V.I.P., we use V.I.C, because they’re very important clients. We want her to come in and feel special. And not only do we celebrate black women, but we’re also never closing our doors on anyone else."
What inspired you to create AJ Crimson Beauty?
“I’ve worked with so many different types of girls over the years, from Fergie and Hillary Duff to Estelle and Brandy. I had noticed that I was carrying five different foundation kits with me to service each one of those girls...and I thought, Wow this is a lot of product to be carrying around all the time; I need something that can work for each girl so I don’t feel like I need a different formulation for each one. Also, when I was traveling with Estelle, we didn’t have a great contour color for her — and obviously you sometimes have to mix foundations to get the perfect realistic shade — but at the same time I felt it shouldn't be a hassle.
I believe Estelle inspired the movement of what AJ Crimson would be and what the brand is becoming. There are a lot of brands that I’ve used for years that I love, but everybody's missing a shade — that deepest color. Even with the new launches that have come out, no one makes a shade deeper than mine (#8). They’re showing this dark girl in their advertising but they’re not providing the products that truly match up. AJ Crimson Beauty is about the end of girls having to fit themselves into other people’s boxes — I wanted to build a box around that girl.
You’re buying the makeup to enhance your own beauty and I’m creating undetectable beauty. We’re using shades that complement the actual colors in your skin, so it still feels like your skin and brings out your inner glow. To top it off, it’s all natural, paraben-free, gluten free, has vitamins A and E, so you’re getting the pigment out of it but it's not damaging your skin."
What are your favorite products in the collection?
"My favorite offering is the AJ Crimson Artist Kit. You’re investing in a concealer, foundation, and contour palette — and you literally have everything you need all in one. The things you use more of you can easily pop out and replace instead of buying an entirely new compact because it’s all housed in one unit. It’s so convenient. I even use it for brows and as eyeliner (darkest color #8).
If you're somewhere between my complexion and Estelle's, you could buy the warm/deep palette and get everything done with that one palette. If you are Caucasian, Asian, Hispanic, or a light-skinned black girl, you can use the Fair/Tan kit, and you’ll have everything you need regardless of time of year.
As for color items, I really love my lipsticks. Crimson Rose is the perfect red. It’s a creamy, velvety matte that works on every skintone to the point where we can barely keep it in stock. There’s also a liquid lip called Ruby Who, 24-hour wear, deep red matte that doesn’t dry out your lips."
What’s the one mistake that you see women do when applying makeup?
"Women are using too many steps to get a completed look. They’re putting coverage where they don’t need it, overloading and clogging their skin with things that aren’t good for them — and that’s been one of the biggest takeaways that I’ve seen. People are doing too much [because the product is] cakey or ashy and they’re making excuses for it. You don’t need to make excuses for your beauty. You shouldn’t be forcing products to work. With the AJ Crimson line we’re giving you three brushes to get your entire face done in under four steps. You’re getting the feel of luxury down to the way [the makeup] feels on your skin — and that’s priceless."
Is color correcting necessary on darker skin tones?
"The only reason you have to color correct is if you have an extreme issue that can’t be taken care of by the foundation product that you’re using. I have a peach and deep-peach corrector that works really well on all skin tones, but we have to understand why and when we use it. The average woman of color, she’s normally lighter in the center of her face, warmer around the perimeter of her face, and she may have a skin issue (hyperpigmentation and unevenness). Do you need it all the time? Absolutely not. Sometimes it’s great to use it as a blush, sometimes it’s great to add another dimension of warmth to the skin. My technique is really unique because it tackles all of those things in three steps."
With the release of Fenty Beauty and Pat McGrath Labs, we’ve seen a lot more space for black businesses in the past year. Why do think it’s happening now?
"It's great seeing beauty brands that are being spearheaded by black people! Pat McGrath is global, there’s a fashion focus for her, and Fenty Beauty is beauty for all people of color. It's a win for all people in this space, but the conversation on black beauty didn’t just start a month or two ago when Fenty Beauty dropped. Fashion Fair has been speaking to black women and women of color for almost 40 years. I think you have a few things happening...You have a lot more black women speaking their mind about wanting to be included in the conversation because they spend so much [on beauty] every year, and the brands that they wanted to try were either ignoring them or leaving them behind because they were not historically speaking to them. So when an AJ Crimson comes along and we have this #8 shade, which is a deep color we’ve never seen before, it's huge."
Who is the one celebrity you'd love to glam?
"Janet Jackson. I feel like it would be something fresh and new for her. She’s the only person I’d get a little star struck by on the inside but I would tear her out! She’d be beat, but it’d be different than what you know Janet to be. I want to give her a 2030 AJ Crimson style of beauty."
A version of this article originally appeared in the November 2017 issue of Allure. To get your copy, head to newsstands or subscribe now.
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