Makeup Artist Bob Scott Shares How Makeup Is a Tool of Self-Affirmation

Although Pride celebrations will look different this month — shifting from parades to Zoom parties — the makeup is sure to be the same: colorful, fanciful, and fun. We asked five makeup artists and creators to share their dream Pride looks and how they're using makeup as an artistic medium to not only explore their identities but also cope during this difficult time in our new series, Pride in Place.

Although makeup artist Bob Scott, who works with the likes of Barbie Ferreira, Dara, and MJ Rodriguez, finds planning ahead for Pride stressful, they created this dreamy, sheer rainbow look for Allure. Scott tells allure.com's beauty editor Devon Abelman how makeup affirms who they are and blasts who they are out loud, even when they are staying at home in New York City.

Makeup and self-care are rituals of self-affirmation in our daily lives. For some people, makeup is how they get through every day. For some people, makeup is just a way to have fun and express themselves. For me, it's about color, feeling vibrant, and trying to enhance that on my face. Makeup for Pride is about amping up your everyday. It's being your loudest self and being as bright and as bold as you want to be. Some people throw glitter all over themselves, and it looks awesome because it's just fun. There are no rules on how you can do that.

I don't wear a ton of makeup day-to-day, but I do like to wear makeup for special occasions. Especially for Pride, I would definitely be wearing makeup. And if I do, it's something like this — a little jelly, definitely watercolor feelings. Something that I can sort of throw on and not really have to think about for the rest of the day. If a gem falls, whatever. I think the blush and the loosely blended eye shadow will fade away nicely throughout a night or a day, wherever I'm wearing it.

I picked up some colors that felt like they went with what I was going to wear and what colors I'm feeling generally now. I really like a soft blue. As you can see, my apartment is that soft blue. I love lime green and that rich magenta fuchsia. And on the daily at home, I'm wearing orange, like, every single day, so I tried to put as much orange in there as I could, but it blends into my skin. The yellow accents it. I ended up with the whole rainbow because those are all the colors I like right now.

"Makeup for Pride is about amping up your everyday. It's being your loudest self and being as bright and as bold as you want to be."

The pink, orange, yellow are all from the Ben Nye Lumiere Brilliants Palette. The pastel blue is the Make Up For Ever Artist Color Pencil in 208 Unlimited Blue with a limited-edition Illamasqua powder blue eye shadow on top. The purple is the same Make Up For Ever Artist pencil but in 902 Versatile Violet. I lined the inside of my eye with [it too]. And the lime green from a limited-edition Urban Decay palette. To make them look jelly, I blended them onto bare skin. If you put concealer under them, they'll look more solid and a little bit more pastel.

Then, I put Surratt's Halogram Eyeshadow in Cosmos all over everything as a highlighter for contrast. I didn't put on mascara because I don't like wearing it. The crystals are Swarovski. I had those from the days when everybody wanted gems. [I glued them on with] the Makeup Atelier's lash adhesive, which dries really fast and stays a really long time.

I've been indulging in my skin-care routine [while staying home]. Going through a lot more steps and taking a lot more time with it, like letting my serum sink in. Thankfully, right now, I'm not breaking out, so I didn't have to do a lot to my skin. I only used a little bit of Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage to cover a couple of blemishes.

"We will all be on Zoom probably dressed exactly the same, to be honest. It'll still be a good Pride."

My water polo team, Team New York Aquatics, is the world's largest LGBTQ aquatics team, so we are in the [New York City] Pride parade every year. We get there really early in the morning to get in line and wait to start marching. It's really fun and a bit sweaty normally. We're out in the sun all day, so I'm probably just wearing sunblock and my Speedo.

After that, I would definitely go to a friend's house and start the other fun part of Pride — like barbecues. Hopefully, somebody is doing something a little bit more intimate. Sometimes, the big parties can be a little difficult to get into because the tickets sell out so quickly. Or, it's such a big crowd that I kind of want to stay in Brooklyn and do something fun with my closer group of friends. We'll always go to one of the warehouse parties or something, that night or that weekend — if they were happening, obviously, this year is going to be very different. We will all be on Zoom probably dressed exactly the same, to be honest. It'll still be a good Pride. If it's nice and sunny out, I'll go to my roof and play some music and dance a little bit.

"We always find a way to form a community and support each other."

Pride is about community. It's about being with people who are like you, who love you, and who see you for who you are and who you've always been, despite not being recognized necessarily your entire life or not being validated your entire life or being loved your entire life. So we come together with our chosen family — or with our given families if we're lucky enough to have families to accept us. To be able to at least see each other via Zoom this year will be great. That's one way we've been keeping together this entire time. We always find a way to form a community and support each other.

And Pride is a celebration. It didn't start that way because it's commemorative — in New York City at least — of the Stonewall riots, which were not a celebration by any means. Now, we get together, we honor our ancestors, and we hopefully show up for younger generations to see what is possible if you believe in not just what is possible if you believe, but also how good life can be out of the closet living with Pride.

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Originally Appeared on Allure