It’s hard to describe Emily Wood. Being unclassifiable is part of her essence, and that makes the 29-year-old stand out from other makeup artists who populate social media with tutorials on how to apply the products they promote. In fact, she doesn’t even define herself as a makeup artist. “Face decorator” reads her bios on Instagram and TikTok, where she is followed by a total of nearly 310,000 people.
“When I started to do makeup seven years ago, it was seen as kind of insignificant, like, ‘I am stuck and I don’t know what to do. I’m not smart enough to do anything else, so I’m going to be a makeup artist.’ Other people’s opinions would make me feel like it was unimportant,” says Wood by phone, regarding the reason she initially avoided the term.
“I just identify with ‘face decorator.’ I’m using my face as my chosen canvas. That’s how I see my eyeshadows and my pigments and my liners and stuff — they’re very much like my crayons and pens and paints. For years, makeup was for me something that I would pick up to conceal my spots and make me feel more pretty and, you know, fit in. Then I got to a place where I was like, ‘Oh no, this is art, this is my form of art.’ Face decorator just landed,” she remembers.
She sounds just as spontaneous over the phone as she does in her videos — equally fast-talking, so much so that at times it is hard to keep up with her broad Mancunian accent — and just as witty and open. In most of her posts, she applies her makeup with one hand while holding her phone in selfie mode with the other, whether she is walking down the street, travelling on a plane or taking a stroll through the countryside. But she never films from her bedroom, as is typical of many content creators of this kind.
“I always loved doing my makeup outside. That started when I was in a really bad place with my mental health and was just forcing myself to get out,” says Wood.
Wood has three unquestionable role models. One of them is her grandmother Sylvia, who is by far the person who has most often lent her face as a canvas for Wood’s social media videos.
“She’s just turned 88. She’s amazing. She really inspired me growing up — she’s always worn makeup in such a gorgeous, kind of grounding way,“ says Wood. ”It’s part of her morning ritual while she’s getting ready, with the TV on, she’s doing her makeup in bed with a roller in. She’s the best.”
The other is her mother Alison. “Her frosted pink lip is everything to her,” says Wood. “She wears it every single day, and she’s got a full drawer of these frosted baby-pink lipsticks, in case they get discontinued. She’s always had her same makeup; her frosted pink lip, loads of mascara, blusher on the nose and it just works. And I very much do that as well. That’s my go-to makeup placement on my everyday vibe.”
They are not stars of the small or big screen, but the women in her family — the ones she has lived with and grown up around — who have inspired her original approach to beauty. The third person she mentions, however, is different, because she is both: a relative and a celebrity. Her older sister is BAFTA-winning actress Aimee Lou Wood, 32, known for her roles in Sex Education and the third season of The White Lotus.
“My sister inspires me, because she will wear no makeup a lot of the time, and it makes me feel like I could be that brave. Especially because people know her, and she’s learned to not feel like she has to conceal and wear makeup,” Emily says.
In a joint interview the sisters gave to NOTION in 2019, Aimee says bravery is a quality that she’s actually learned from her younger sister.
“Emily has taught me so much — especially about being braver with my emotions and allowing myself to be vulnerable to the right people,” the actress says.
The two share an obvious physical resemblance — “there are people who get me confused with her,” admits the face decorator — and probably many other qualities that are less apparent at first glance. Yet each has built her career independently, with her own style and ambitions.
“My plans for the future are that I would love to create a line with a brand. I would love to do that. Other than that, I’m pretty happy with my flow right now,” says Wood, who has recently been living between London and New York.
Just like she doesn’t consider herself a makeup artist, she also doesn’t identify as an influencer. But it’s undeniable that in recent months, her social media following has grown nonstop. She recognizes that in part, this has been driven by her sister’s boom in popularity.
“You want to keep your algorithm alive, but this very much started as me just doing my art. I am such a quality over quantity person with my work,” she says. “I don’t think it will make any difference if I end up getting two million followers; I still think I will be able to manage — even with the odd comment now and again,” she says.
What she is equally certain about is that fame and celebrities hold little appeal for her.
“I’d love to work with Unseen Beauty, I think their kind of approach to makeup is very beautiful and scrupled and imperfect. Or with Half Magic, whose founder is Euphoria’s makeup artist,” she says. “But I don’t really have any cravings to work with a celebrity.”
Among the well-known faces she has made up — or, as she might put it, turned into a canvas — are her sister, of course, and singer Lola Young, whom she considers a close friend.
“Lola obviously speaks back publicly [Young has been open about her struggles with addiction and mental health]. Me and her are amazing together because we get each other,” Wood says.
But she prefers the freedom that comes with not being tied to any one person, especially someone with the demanding schedule that most celebrities have.
“I love my own time, I love my own autonomy, I love having control of my own routine. I love not having to be in an environment where I can’t just be. There are new layers that get added to things when you have a famous sibling, because I see a whole different side of celebrity culture,” says Wood, who is currently working with brands like 19/99 Beauty and Fresh.
“Their approach to makeup is very aligned with mine; there are literally no rules. They give you freedom and playfulness, and they are so inclusive and make the right decisions when it comes to casting. For me, it’s really important that brands align with my vision,” she says.
Another hallmark of her work is her use of vivid colours, with bold combinations of yellows, purples, pinks and greens.
“I’m just doing what instinctively feels right for me when I pair those colors together,” says Wood. “But I guess ultimately, I’m helping people feel like they don’t have to conform as much and don’t have to use makeup in a way that’s really strict and prescriptive. Makeup can be very multi-use. That’s something that I would want people to learn through my work, that you don’t have to have all the right, most expensive things to create a playful look.”
When she was nine years old, Wood found out she has dyslexia. “I realized that it was so integral to my approach and the way I apply my makeup,” she says. “It’s not even like I’m trying to be rebellious — it’s because I can’t follow instructions.”
She also recently learned that she has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), a diagnosis she says helps explain her “need to not work in groups.”
“I love community and I think it’s really important, and I want to contribute that into my work life again at some point, but a few years ago, after being on set with a load of new people every day, having to perform and highly mask, I got physically unwell. I was like, ‘I have something genuinely, severely wrong with me,’ and it was neurodiverse burnout,” she says.
Wood believes that the success of her creative content — and its growing popularity — has largely come from understanding herself and the way she works best.
“My creative content came along because it meant I got to choose who I was around, my family and friends and my boyfriend, and I didn’t have to be around these people in the fashion industry and have to be like ‘yay!’” she shares.
In one of her recent videos, Wood is applying makeup on a plane while her boyfriend sits next to her, copying — and parodying — her every move. “Scribbles on the plane,” she captioned the clip. The couple laughs and plays around, perfectly capturing the sense of ease she has spent so long searching for and has now turned into one of her calling cards.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition
