This Montreal-Based Makeup Artist Wants You to Feel Good in Your Skin

“Makeup was a passion from early on,” Vanessa Ortiz says. A childhood spent in her mother’s Montreal beauty salon instilled a love of all things beauty in Ortiz from a young age, and she originally thought she might pursue a career in hair. She ultimately completed her aesthetics certification before switching to makeup. “I started assisting a few makeup artists around Montreal and getting my name out there while I was working with my mom in her salon. Things started rolling for me, and I found myself thriving.”

Ortiz, who was recently appointed Clarins Canada’s first national makeup artist, has done a bit of everything throughout her 20-year career, from working backstage at New York Fashion Week and doing bridal makeup to training makeup artists at Montreal’s iconic Cirque du Soleil. Teaching is another passion that she has fostered, completing a bachelor’s degree in adult education in the early years of her career so she could teach her beloved trade. It’s a professional skill that has been integral at nearly every juncture of her career since, not only when doing jobs like corporate education for big-name brands, but also when she’s gently guiding a client in her chair about how to create a particular look. “It’s validating to show somebody that they can easily, with a couple steps in the morning, boost their self-esteem and confidence.”

It’s that human connection that drew Ortiz to working with Clarins. “Recently, I started missing the connection with people, and the transformation of real-life women coming into themselves through the makeup,” she says of the decision to return to a more client-focused role.

Here, we speak with Ortiz about her professional journey, why bridal makeup has a special place in her heart, and the holiday makeup trend that anyone can master.

When did you discover your love of beauty?

I grew up in my mom’s beauty salon, and I knew early on that I wanted to follow in her footsteps and work in something related. Originally I wanted to do hair, but I was born with just one hand, and for me, the manipulation of bigger tools was sometimes an obstacle. And so I decided I wanted to do anything beauty-related.

You mentioned that you were born with one hand. Have you had to find ways to adapt when it comes to makeup artistry?

Yes and no. Because I was born this way, when people ask me ‘How do you do certain things?’ it’s almost like, well, ‘How do you?’ Because I don’t know what I would do with five extra fingers. They would kind of just be in the way. [Laughs] I’ve always found my way of doing things, maybe differently, but I don’t think that I’ve ever, luckily, had a moment in my life where I couldn’t do something.

I used to wonder when working on a client if she was going to feel uncomfortable with me using my hand. And as the years progressed, and I did more and more clients—and I’ve been doing this now for 20 years—I realized that people are as comfortable as you are with it. Once I started being really confident with myself and my craft and kind of saying, ‘This is me,’ people naturally responded positively.

How would you describe your approach to makeup? What’s your style?

On myself, I love full glam. I love over-the-top makeup. But I think that what has helped me in my career is the idea that whoever is sitting in my chair, I want them to feel the most confident and that I’m not trying to represent myself or my style. I want to know, what do you find most beautiful about yourself that you want to bring out?

Every time somebody leaves a service, I want them to feel extremely confident walking out. This is what I love about the craft—you can feel someone’s shoulders starting to relax as they look in the mirror and they like what they see. You can see the different bounce in their step when they walk away, and they’re so happy with the way they look.

Where do you find creative inspiration?

For me, it’s really about the person in my chair—I get inspired by stories. They’ll tell me about their background and their history with makeup, and I get so inspired. Sometimes they’ll say things like ‘I have so many products, and I never use them.’ And I’ll ask them why, and I often hear ‘Because I’m scared of makeup, and I don’t want to look like a clown.’

You’ve done makeup in a lot of different environments, from New York Fashion Week runway to bridal. What do you love about these different spaces? Do you have a favourite?

I love the fact that I can switch from space to space—that keeps it fresh and exciting every time. But I have a soft spot in my heart for bridal because it’s such an important day in a person’s life, and being part of it is always an honour. You’re going to look at your picture for the rest of your life, and I was part of it.

You also do a lot of different faces when you do a bridal contract—maybe the mother of the bride, who might be feeling a little bit in the shadows. Sometimes they tell me, ‘Oh, it’s the first time I ever got my makeup done.’ It’s always exciting.

Are there any holiday-ready makeup trends you’re loving?

A little touch of grunge on the eyes is coming back with a fury. Everything’s a bit more smoked out. And what’s nice is, if you’re not very good with eye makeup, the looks that are trending are easy to smudge with your finger. Charcoals, deep browns—just a little smudge of a pencil on the lid at the lash line with a touch of highlight in the centre of the eye and a classic red lip. Clarins is so known for our red lip, and the Joli Rouge lip is beautiful for the holidays.

I like the idea of the smudged-out brown liner. It sounds foolproof if you’re not exactly the most artistic.

I think a lot of our products that are a bit less pigmented, like our brow pencils, are foolproof. Because not everybody’s a makeup artist. And if you have an extremely pigmented brow pencil, it’s very easy to create some Cruella de Vil brows [laughs], whereas if it’s a wax-based pencil that just has to be warmed up with the heat of your skin, you can easily create something natural and beautiful.

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