EM PLAYER
Em Player Artistry strives to focus on the creative over corrective properties of makeup. Whether that is creating a more confident you, an avant-garde look, a character, or a creepy monster, Em Player views makeup as art on a human canvas. Makeup is a tool for creation, not a crutch to fix things that were never broken. Art is made up of the “imperfections,” and Em Player Artistry finds the beauty in these and uses makeup to expand upon it, rather than using makeup to enforce harmful beauty standards. Celebrate the weird! Nothing is more boring than assimilating into archaic ideas of what is beautiful.
– Richard Phillips
The Artist
Em Player is an NYC based makeup artist specializing in creative avant garde editorial looks. Her love of makeup is intrinsic to her nature, starting in toddlerhood stealing her mothers makeup to create extravagant looks on her younger sister. Through this early obsession, she developed her talents quickly and started her career very young. At the age of fourteen, Em worked as an assistant for NC based company Meraki Beauty. With this company she did makeup for weddings, photoshoots, runways, and events, advancing from assistant to full fledged artist at fifteen. Attending Appalachian State University, Em continued her work with Meraki Beauty as she began to explore her other interests. Moving away from a conservative southern city to a more expressive environment, Em began to further explore her style as she became involved in the local punk music scene. Being surrounded by musicians and other artists, her creativity began to expand outside of the realm of traditional beauty makeup that she learned at Meraki Beauty.
Later in her collegiate career, Em took her first studio art class and quickly excelled. She spent her next semester gaining a classical artistic training in Florence, Italy, greatly expanding her artistic knowledge in the heart of the Renaissance movement. Through classes like color theory, life drawing, and oil painting, her artistic abilities flourished. Upon returning to the United States, she applied this knowledge to makeup, blending her classic artistic training, punk influences, and beauty makeup experience into a unique artistic perspective. She continued to work with Meraki Beauty, while doing avant garde makeup for student magazines and band photoshoots and live performances.
After graduating with a BA from Appalachian State, Em Player moved to New York City and attended the master program at Makeup Designory. Through this rigorous program, she received a more well-rounded formal education in makeup. During this training she developed her skills in character design, hair artistry, beauty makeup, special effects, and editorial avant garde looks. Through various methods of education and experience, Em Player has honed her talents into a unique artistic voice that strives to innovate through art on the human canvas.
