This week I sat down with Ellen Malone — makeup artist, beauty content creator, and reigning Australian and New Zealand Beauty and Fashion Creator of the Year. She's also, quietly, a trained opera singer who's performed at the Sydney Opera House and played the lead in Carmen. Yes, really.
We got into everything. Her start on a Mac counter at 20, the year she completely flopped online before anything took off, the real numbers behind influencer pay, and the makeup technique she thinks the whole industry has been teaching wrong.
We cover:
Winning Creator of the Year and why the win itself hit different to the metrics
Why "creative careers choose you," and Ellen's double life as an opera singer
The real earnings gap between male and female influencers in Australia
Why "natural" is the most useless brief a client can give you
Her first ever wedding, done via six buses and a train with a metal fold-out kit
Getting hired at Mac at 20 with no formal training and having to prove herself
Her hot take that 80% of artists can't colour match properly
The real history of underpainting, and why she thinks a whole generation of artists were taught it wrong
The wedding that got called off mid-makeup (and why it had nothing to do with the makeup)
Why she'll never tell you her best client stories
How COVID, a redundancy, and a full year of flopping led to her actual career
Her current kit favourites, from an underrated blush trio to a foundation for mature, textured skin.
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