With wildly creative designs and out-of-this-world detail, celebrity makeup artist Jo Baker is known for imagining all sorts of magical eye-makeup looks that Picasso would be hard-pressed to recreate.
The only problem? The enviable, want-to-copy-them masterpieces (cue the Sharon Stone, Lucy Boyton, Natasha Lyonne best-of glam moments) can be a tad difficult for the rest of us wielding an eyeliner to make happen.
Until now.
Enter Baker’s latest endeavor, BAKEUP by Jo Baker, which launches today. The brand-new, digital-first brand aims to “push the boundaries of beauty experimentation and self-expression by reimagining beauty in the multiverse.” Co-created by Baker and recording artist Grace Gaustad, BAKEUP is “on a mission to allow every face to tell its own unique story—from the mirror to the metaverse, or somewhere in between.”
While that might sound a little far-out for those of us who are more “mature” than millennial, the gender-fluid brand is steadfast that it really is for everyone. It first launched digitally (think avatar and AR filters), but it’s now available in real life—in the form of three credit card-sized high-performance, high-payoff eyeshadow palettes and a “Playbox” filled with self-adhesive prismatic gems and stickers that can be used on the face and body. (A creamy cleansing balm and a micellar water are also on the way come February.)
As Baker shares, the line is rooted in “artistry, beauty and freedom of self-expression,” but it’s also incredibly mindful about what it’s bringing to the beauty space (i.e., it’s conscious of waste and it has thoroughly thought-out what it will launch and if it’s something that’s not already out there). Likewise, it’s intended to give the user a bit of mindfulness in return—whether that’s taking a moment at the end of the day while washing your face or harnessing the expressive and emotive power of color.
She also assures me that, yes, even someone as stiff as me can pull off the “embellishments” as she applies a tiny gold fleck to the corner of my eye. It doesn’t make me as instantaneously cool as Sharon Stone, but it does add a simple avant-garde adornment that looks fun and pops right off without fuss when I’m ready to go back to my old boring self.
