Go On, Be Your High-Maintenance Self

For the past few years, minimalism has reigned supreme in the beauty industry. But now some cosmetics brands are championing maximalist makeup.

When the Israeli beauty brand Il Makiage relaunched in the United States this past June, it used what could politely be called a bold approach. “I’m one high-maintenance B,” read one ad in black lettering against a white background next to a photo of a woman in a white blazer balancing two phones and a couple martinis, her smoky eye and bold red lip the stuff of hours of work. Another declared, “My reservation is for whenever the f*** I get there.”

The models in the campaign ate burgers, drank champagne, and rode motorcycles, their high-impact makeup adding to their DGAF vibe. The message was clear: “Minimalism is dead,” which also happened to be an Il Makiage billboard in downtown Manhattan. And thus self-care, including cosmetics and other beauty products, was no longer antithetical to the feminist ethos of having it all. The message: You can have a successful career and a demanding makeup routine.

For the past few years in the beauty industry, minimalism has reigned supreme — both in the simple, and often pink-heavy, design of Millennial-targeted brands like Glossier, Milk, Drunk Elephant, Herbivore, and Oh Hii and in their dewy-skin, just-a-little-lip-gloss approach. “They all started to look the same in their own versions of effortless beauty,” says Courtney Scott, who worked on strategy at Huge, which did the Il Makiage campaign. “It was all the same message in one way or another: Less is more, don’t try too hard, skin is in. There was room to do something really bold.”

“It was all the same message in one way or another: Less is more, don’t try too hard, skin is in. There was room to do something really bold.”

For Jessica Matlin, a beauty editor and cohost with Jennifer Goldstein of the beauty podcast Fat Mascara, the idea of being high maintenance — and gleefully embracing it — is timely. “For that no-makeup makeup, ‘I woke up like this,’ off-duty model, French-girl look, it’s like, you’re naturally gorgeous and thin, maybe all you need is a lip balm and you look cute. But to a lot of people, that’s annoying. It’s a little more honest to say, ‘It takes me 17 products to look like this.’ Maybe that’s not as chic or cool to admit.”

Perhaps blame Instagram, where celebrities who used to swear they got their toned bodies and wrinkle-free skin from just water and sunscreen now show off their punishing gym routines and hours-long prep for red-carpet hair and makeup. And on YouTube, people who consider beauty a hobby are gleefully showing off their 12-step skincare routines, ombre lips, and artfully contoured cheeks as a skill they lovingly practice. “People aren’t shy about how they make themselves up or beautify themselves and display how they do that on Instagram,” Matlin says. “This couldn’t have happened without it.”

Il Makiage, which was founded in 1972 by makeup artist Ilana Harkavi and was later purchased by sister-and-brother team Shiran and Oran Holtzman, is a brand that offers 50 shades of foundation and 26 hues of long-lasting lipstick. The brand’s color-forward, full face of makeup recalls several other cultural trends: the revival of the 1980s aesthetic; the gender fluidity and campiness of drag, as seen on RuPaul’s “Drag Race” or the Kevin Murphy–produced “Pose”; the defiant sexuality of the bad bitch, as embodied by Rihanna, whose Fenty Beauty line is unapologetically maximalist.

High maintenance, Il Makiage CEO Oran Holtzman says, “is knowing exactly what you want and accepting nothing less.”

“When we put real women in front of the Il Makiage products, one of the big things we heard when they interacted with it was that it was special-events makeup that they weren’t sure they would wear every day,” Scott says. “Instead of seeing it as a barrier to overcome, we saw it as an exciting opportunity: Live every day like an event. Invite women to be bold and have fun in the way they adorn themselves every day because they like it and it makes them feel good.” The idea behind the campaign was to reclaim the idea of being high maintenance as being about having high standards for oneself and embracing it. High maintenance, Oran Holtzman says, “is knowing exactly what you want and accepting nothing less.”

Once the team at Huge established the idea of high maintenance, they decided to dig deeper. “It’s a broader story of owning the concept of high maintenance,”says Meghan Smart, a senior visual designer on the creative team. “Why am I high maintenance? Because I know what I deserve.”

She adds that the majority of the people working on the campaign were women: “When Il Makiage came and brought us makeup samples, we were all like children in the room. One of us put on a bright magenta lipstick and went into a meeting.”

High maintenance is the new synonym for having it all. Think of the rapper Cardi B onstage for much of this past year, pregnant, chart-topping, with long and pointy acrylic nails and a full face of makeup. And also having a sense of humor. Michelle Visage, the judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race, routinely admits to spending several hours on her own makeup, including so carefully contouring her décolletage that she sells T-shirts with what looks like a makeup imprint in the shape of breasts that reads “I Got a Hug from Michelle Visage.”

Il Makiage wanted the campaign to be memorable and push the envelope. Initial lines like “Please mind the gap between my standards and yours” were rejected by the MTA because they pushed just a little too far against the limits for what could be displayed in the subway. “This was, at the end of the day, a launch,” Smart says. “We needed something that would get people talking.”

Online, Il Makiage invited fans to “get extra with us.” And people responded, posting their own photos of the campaign with #mood or tagging friends. It felt gleeful and organic. “We asked our audience to submit their most high-maintenance moments,” says Jae Who, a junior art director who worked on the social campaign. “We got thousands of submissions, like ‘I took an Uber three blocks because it was raining’ and ‘My sneakers have their own closet.’”

“It felt like we had found a tone of voice that hadn’t been represented in beauty,” Scott says. “The client has been excited, and our holiday campaign of 100% high maintenance will show an evolution of this, allow the narrative to drive it forward.”

Crucially, what is feminist about the idea of the campaign is not the idea of piling on makeup or going foundation-free, but rather the concept that we don’t have to be one thing or the other. “The idea of being high-maintenance — whether with your makeup look, your hair, your skincare routine — is no longer considered some cardinal sin against feminism,” says Maura Lynch, a beauty writer and longtime industry observer. “Because, ultimately, it comes down to choice — you have a right to look however you please.” It’s not about claiming the tribe of high maintenance over no-makeup makeup, but embracing the fact that we can be all of those things, sometimes over the course of a single day.

Magenta is a publication of Huge.