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WHAT’S NEWS
“I look like a musician but I’m actually
a makeup artist,” reads Raisa Flowers’s
Instagram bio. It’s an appropriate
assessment: Flowers, who is from Mount
Vernon, New York, has a style that bears
the hallmarks of a performer—bleached
brows, piercings, colored contacts
and more. Drawing outside the prover-
bial lines is what has made her the go-to
makeup artist for musicians Junglepussy
and Kelela and a model at Rihanna’s
Savage x Fenty presentations. The fuel for
her self-described “futuristic” looks—
luminous skin with pops of color applied
in a painterly fashion—comes mostly
from Flowers’s community of friends. “I
was a club kid...so the people [around me]
had looks that were more exaggerated,”
she says. The 20-something Flowers spent
a few years backstage working with Pat
McGrath’s team, and recent campaigns
with Paloma Elsesser for Mejuri and Joan
Smalls for Brother Vellies demonstrate
her ability to do natural makeup, too. But
her creative sensibility remains with the
beauty boundary-pushers, like her dream
subject, Missy Elliott.
RAISA
FLOWERS
- What’s your nighttime
skin routine?
[It starts with] double
cleansing with Glow
Recipe Papaya Sorbet
Enzyme Cleansing Balm,
then Tatcha Rice Wash. - What are some major
career moments thus far?
Opening the Savage x
Fenty show [shown]. My
Garage magazine cover
with Zendaya. Winning
the Essence makeup artist
of the year award in 2020. - What makeup is in
your personal rotation?
Fenty Beauty Pro Filt’r
Instant Retouch Setting
Powder in Hazelnut and
Nutmeg [shown]; Fenty
Beauty Gloss Bomb; NARS
Sheer Glow Foundation in
Manaus; Pat McGrath Skin
Fetish: Sublime Perfection
Concealer in Medium
Deep; Pat McGrath Skin
Fetish Highlighter +
Balm Duo in Bronze; and
Milani Color Statement
Lipstick in Bahama Beige. - What music do you
listen to while working?
Kelela, Junglepussy,
Amber Mark [shown],
Actress, Yves Tumor. - What’s the last great
book you read?
I have been listening to
bell hooks’s The Will to
Change, and it’s amazing. - What are some of your
favorite hotels?
The Lutetia in Paris
[shown], 1 West
Hollywood hotel,
Rosewood London and
the NoMo SoHo in NYC. - What was the last
great show you saw?
Slave Play, by Jeremy O.
Harris, on Broadway. - What are your essen-
tial skin-care products?
Black Girl Sunscreen is
a favorite because I gotta
protect my face. - What’s your essential
getaway?
The Caribbean. That’s
where my family is from. - What are three things
getting you through this
diffi cult time?
My family and friends,
cooking and makeup.
675423(^9) COURTESY OF RAISA FLOWERS; COURTESY OF GLOW RECIPE; KEVIN MAZUR/GETTY CONTRIBUTOR; FENTY BEAUTY; EMI RECORDS/INTERSCOPE RECORDS
; COURTESY OF HÔTEL
LUTETIA; MATTHEW MURPHY; NUTINK/SHUTTERSTOCK; SEAN PAVONE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; TONEY BOWEN PHOTOGRAPHY; WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS
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