On the faces created by Sam, a makeup artist moving between Moscow and St. Petersburg, enclosed curved planes take shape. A dense mass of deep burgundy cascades from the eyebrows down below the chin, while crimson lips multiply into three and float across the cheeks. Rather than accentuating or enhancing facial features, Sam disregards their boundaries entirely, treating the face as a surface upon which form is laid. With a background in fine arts and no formal makeup training, Sam applies even foundation with a brush directly onto bare skin, bypassing the sponge altogether.
"I simply pick up the color I need in the texture I need, and place it where it belongs," Sam explains. The face becomes a canvas, and the curved planes are sculptures placed atop it. The borders of eyelids, cheekbones, and lips no longer serve as guides. Instead, color and texture flow freely, and form is reborn on the skin. Sam's work, unbounded by traditional makeup rules, reads closer to pure visual art.
Even within the same curved shape, the materials and textures evolve every time. The wet sheen of a sheet mask, paper-dry mattes, crimson powder smudged across lips, glasslike gloss, and the black tattoos etched onto Sam's own hands. Within a single face, texture keeps shifting. Sam has noted a clear aversion to static textures, because "a fluid texture is alive; a fixed texture is dead."
Under Sam's hands, the face is not a simple surface. It is a site where volume and plane, color and texture, fixity and flow coexist. Conventional standards of beauty lose their meaning here. Instead, form itself speaks. How do you see the face?
"I simply pick up the color I need in the texture I need, and place it where it belongs," Sam explains. The face becomes a canvas, and the curved planes are sculptures placed atop it. The borders of eyelids, cheekbones, and lips no longer serve as guides. Instead, color and texture flow freely, and form is reborn on the skin. Sam's work, unbounded by traditional makeup rules, reads closer to pure visual art.
Even within the same curved shape, the materials and textures evolve every time. The wet sheen of a sheet mask, paper-dry mattes, crimson powder smudged across lips, glasslike gloss, and the black tattoos etched onto Sam's own hands. Within a single face, texture keeps shifting. Sam has noted a clear aversion to static textures, because "a fluid texture is alive; a fixed texture is dead."
Under Sam's hands, the face is not a simple surface. It is a site where volume and plane, color and texture, fixity and flow coexist. Conventional standards of beauty lose their meaning here. Instead, form itself speaks. How do you see the face?
FAQ
Where is makeup artist Sam based?
Sam is a makeup artist working between Moscow and Saint Petersburg, Russia. She studied fine art and is self-taught in makeup, known for painting curved planes across the face in a highly unconventional approach.
What defines Sam's makeup style?
Sam ignores facial features instead of enhancing them, treating the face like a canvas. Burgundy masses flow from brow to chin, lips multiply and float across cheeks—she applies curved planes freely and even uses brushes instead of sponges for foundation.
Why does Sam dislike fixed textures?
Sam believes 'moving textures are alive; fixed textures are dead.' She continuously shifts between wet shine, skin-pack gloss, matte, powder, and lip gloss on a single face, favoring fluid, ever-changing textures over static finishes.
