Andrew Dahling‘s magnificence awakening started at age 8, when he was left house alone for the primary time: He snuck into his mother’s makeup bag, and later acquired caught attempting (unsuccessfully) to rub off waterproof mascara. Whereas his mother and father have been “gagged and shocked” once they discovered him, Dahling remembers that second as the start of his magnificence path.
“Once I was a child, I went by means of this period the place all I drew have been girls with tons of make-up and massive lips and massive eyes,” he tells Fashionista. “Glamour and ladies at all times fascinated me, and I used to be enamored by the world of make-up, hair and trend from an early age.”
Picture: Steven Ferdman/Getty Photographs
However small-town Kentucky wasn’t precisely essentially the most creatively inspiring atmosphere rising up. “There weren’t any actual weirdos,” Dahling says. “The emo youngsters have been essentially the most avant-garde…however they have been simply unhappy and chainsmoking all day.”
So he turned to the web: He discovered group inside numerous on-line subcultures and on Tumblr. He watched documentaries about Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, membership child tradition and London’s ’80s punk scene. Lady Gaga was one other formative determine in Dahling’s upbringing: “I keep in mind being screamed at by my household on a regular basis as a result of I might watch the identical music video for ‘Marry the Evening’ again and again and over,” he laughs.
Popular culture not solely helped Dahling escape into different worlds, however it additionally helped form his love for magnificence. “I grew to like the facility behind make-up, particularly while you’re homosexual and also you develop up and also you’re on this solitary confinement psyche the place you are any person else for everybody else,” he explains. “So that you create this fantasy world inside your head and make-up is a approach to materialize that fantasy that you’ve within you into actual life.”
As he acquired older and extra assured together with his make-up abilities, it was time to place them to the check. Dahling landed his first-ever job as a cashier at Ulta Magnificence. “Hated it,” he remembers. So he grew to become a “counter woman” at Dillard’s. “Hated it,” he says. His subsequent stint doing wedding make-up? “Hated it” as nicely. It wasn’t till he packed his luggage and moved to New York Metropolis that he lastly landed a job he liked working retail at MAC Cosmetics.
In 2019, Dahling dove into freelancing, permitting him to lastly decide to creating the make-up appears he loves, which he describes as “architectural,” “graphic” and “past recognition.”
“I do not suppose my function right here is to create extra of the identical,” he says of his method to his craft. “Making folks fairly is okay, however I wish to make folks appear like a strolling piece of artwork.”
That ethos has been on full show by means of his collaborations with Chappell Roan. He first labored with the artist for her 2024 Governor’s Ball efficiency, the place she hit the stage in inexperienced physique paint, dressed because the Statue of Liberty. Dahling remembers that second as a turning level in his profession and one among his finest works up to now.
“She actually broke open an area for pop divas and popular culture, and for people who find themselves in music usually to specific themselves in new methods,” Dahling says. “Each time I give it some thought, I begin to cry just a little bit as a result of it was such an vital second for everybody concerned — for her, for tradition, for the gays. I simply do not suppose that can ever be capable to be recreated.”
Ever since then, he and Roan have been locked in. Different standout moments to come back out of their collaborative partnership and friendship embody the performer’s swan-inspired look on “The Tonight Present” and her “Pink Pony Membership” glam on the 2025 Grammys.
“She’s so prepared to sacrifice consolation for the sake of artwork,” Dahling says of Roan. “Going ahead, we’re centered extra on persevering with the story and fantasy of Chappell Roan by means of the lens of who she is and creating completely different universes that also really feel genuine to her inventive spirit.”
Chappell Roan at “The Tonight Present Starring Jimmy Fallon.” Make-up by Dahling. (Picture by: Todd Owyoung/NBC through Getty Photographs)
One other spotlight of Dahling’s profession has been MAC Cosmetics’ most up-to-date Viva Glam marketing campaign that includes Roan because the face, with Dahling overseeing her make-up appears. “Everybody at MAC…is simply so all the way down to help artistry, which is so refreshing,” he says.
For Dahling, it is also a full circle second to go from working at a MAC counter to being a key artist for one among its campaigns. “I assumed I used to be going to have to maneuver again house so many occasions,” he shares. “I used to be a real ravenous artist. I had no thought what was going to occur. So to be right here and have this chance is insane — particularly with MAC, a model that mainly made my life occur after I moved to New York.”
Dahling placing make-up on Chappell Roan for the Mac Cosmetics Viva Glam 2026 marketing campaign. Picture: Courtesy of Mac Cosmetics
He hopes that his artistry serves as a reminder for aspiring make-up artists to remain true to themselves and never really feel pressured to cater to social media or trade calls for. “It’s a must to enable your self to take time and house away from the remainder of the world and the remainder of social media and the trade to seek out your individual voice,” he says. “In case you do not take that point and also you’re always consuming, your thoughts’s going to be so clouded that you just’re by no means going to have the ability to faucet into who you’re as an artist.”
With the Viva Glam marketing campaign and one other skilled mission (that he “cannot speak about”) wrapped, Dahling plans to make use of his upcoming free time to prioritize private initiatives.
“I am simply centered on reconnecting with the make-up I personally like to do, which is the bizarre membership child stuff,” he says. “I’ve simply been so centered on constructing my profession. So positively look out as a result of my Instagram will likely be flooded quickly with actually loopy avant-garde stuff.”
