about-face is an Editorial Makeup Artist's Dream
about-face, which has launched at SpaceNK last month, is the rare celebrity brand that earns space in a pro kit. Founded by Halsey, the Grammy-nominated singer and visual artist, the line is built from an artist’s eye and a performer’s grit. The Quadruple threat that is Halsey, (being a singer, songwriter, visual artist/painter and entrepreneur), has been painting her own makeup for the stage, red carpet and cover looks, treating makeup like pigment on canvas and building techniques that survive heat, sweat and long days on set. That discipline runs through the about-face’s textures, payoff and wear.
From the start, about-face positioned itself as high-performance colour that refuses to fade under pressure. The brand’s messaging is clear on vegan, cleanly formulated and certified cruelty-free standards, but the formulas behave like true workhorses, designed to lock on and hold through the realities of filming, runway and live performance. The Matte Fluid Eye Paint, for example, delivers an opaque, one-swipe laydown that dries to a smooth, budge-resistant finish you can shear, stack or sculpt without patchiness. It is the kind of product that turns a 30-minute eye into a five-minute one on a busy call sheet.
Jeanne Chavez, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, puts it plainly: “From the start, our mission has been clear: bold, high-saturation (or impact) color that wears comfortably through the day or night. This isn’t ‘clean girl’ makeup. It’s the opposite. Every formula we create is a challenge to the industry’s comfort zone. We demand high-impact pigment, long wear, and real comfort, without ever compromising our vegan and cruelty-free standards. Our labs know that when we arrive, it’s going to be an intense session—pushing pigment to its absolute limits, right to the edge without breaking the equipment! Yet we play by the rules, the strict ones. We meet our Federal and States requirements along with EU standards. So while our formulas play hard, they’re also clean, vegan, and certified cruelty-free.”
That philosophy explains why the range leans into creams and liquids with serious payoff. In editorial, creams buy you speed and blend time while keeping skin believable under macro lenses. about-face’s cream and liquid formats behave like painter’s mediums, taking to fingers, brushes or spatulas and layering cleanly over skincare or base without pilling. For colour stories, the saturation means fewer passes to camera-ready. For restraint, the sheerness you can achieve with a damp brush or a dot under moisturiser lets you retreat to a whisper of colour without muddying the skin. Halsey’s own practice of treating makeup like painting is the brand’s advantage here, because the products have been pressure-tested on tour and in editorial contexts where fall-out, creasing or dulled tones simply are not acceptable.
Makeup artist (or as she likes to say - ‘face decorator’), Emily Wood captures the duality many pros want in a kit: “It’s makeup that can go all the way there - bold and experimental but it also knows how to tone it down. There’s just as much room for minimalism in about-Face as there is for maximalist looks !” That range matters. A morning beauty still life might call for a cool wash and vinyl skin, while the afternoon requires a saturated eye and a lacquered mouth that will live through hot lights. The same products can handle both briefings.
Crucially, the brand has its own DNA. The colour language is not derivative of the usual nudes-plus-rose playbook. You see cool sapphires, cyber greens and bruisy berries sitting alongside refined neutrals, with undertones that register modern on camera rather than flat. Textures feel considered for set work: the matte liquids dry down without chalkiness, metallics read as refined reflection rather than chunky sparkle, and skin products like highlighters deliver sheen that photographs as structure, not glitter. For MUA teams, that means less fiddling between frames and fewer workarounds in post. Longevity is built in, so you can power through a full run day with minimal intervention. And because the core eye paints, shadow sticks and skin toppers layer without lifting, you can pivot looks quickly on set, moving from graphic blocks to diffused stains without re-basing the face.
Editorial and occasion work both benefit from this architecture. On a bridal fashion story, the eye paints offer crease-proof definition that photographs cleanly through the last exit. For music videos and performance press, the chroma holds under sweat and stage heat. For beauty pages, the creams keep skin reading like skin, even under unforgiving light. Halsey’s own festival tutorials have shown how these pigments build and blend at speed, proof that the brand designs for real-world pace as much as for payoff.
In a crowded market, many launches chase the same soft-focus minimalism. about-face moved in the opposite direction and built a system that respects artistry, speed and stamina. It is unapologetically pigment-forward, yet surprisingly versatile when you want to dial it down. For working artists, that makes it a perfect toolbox that behaves the way you need it to when the clock is ticking and the brief changes at the monitor. Halsey set out to bridge a gap between the freedom of a painter’s palette and the demands of professional makeup. about-face delivers on that promise with products that serve the artist first and the algorithm second. If your work lives under lights, in print or on a moving subject, this brand earns its place in the belt.
