The business of beauty: Dolce & Gabbana The Make Up global appeal

Just how important Pat McGrath is gets clearer when it is time to meet her. Short of lifting my arms over my head in front of a body scanner, I jump all the necessary hoops, which include walking with an escort until I reach her suite.

For someone whose profession has less to do with security operations and more to do with cosmetic applications, I am nonplussed. Still I pacify myself with the knowledge that she is the world-renowned make-up artist with celebrity clients of top ilk like Madonna, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Aniston, Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Lopez and Sarah Jessica Parker.

Thus far the hole-and-corner mission has been well executed from the first email stating McGrath, the global cosmetics creative design director for Procter and Gamble, was going to be in Dubai for less than 24 hours to launch Dolce & Gabbana The Make Up, a cosmetic line she co-created, and that we journalists had a sliver of her time.

Her résumé, I infer, would probably read like a list of the world's who's who. I was told she has worked with leading make-up brands and fashion houses including Prada, Louis Vuitton, Calvin Klein, Christian Dior, John Galliano, Lanvin, Stella McCartney, Versace, Valentino, Giorgio Armani and YSL.

I was also told McGrath wants to be super prepared for our interview and would like to know the questions beforehand. (I could almost hear the tocsin bells of caution.)

This furore surrounding McGrath's visit, if one were to take the reductionist approach, explains the fuss about beauty, how deeply we invest in it, how much we depend on it and how important it is.

I reckon it would be interesting to find out what McGrath thinks of beauty. Will her thoughts resound to the old maxim of beauty being only skin-deep or will she espouse the comment made by British newspaper columnist and writer A A Gill "… beauty is not in the eye of the beholder; it is in the eyeliner of the beholden"?

The suite, post being escorted and post walking through McGrath's retinue, is decked up in tinsel. Not really, but the panoply of the sleekest, shiniest, glossiest D&G make-up products coruscates in the mid-morning sunlight. I adjust to the glamorous dazzle and finally get to greet McGrath. Her voice is rotund and raspy like a warm brew of toasted cocoa beans. With no time to waste, we exchange hurried pleasantries, and get straight to the interview.

She begins to talk. My first observation - a startling one at that - is her simplicity. She is dressed in a black top and skirt, her hair is swept neatly with a hair band, and her face is clear of colour. My second observation is the lack of pretension, evident from a mere gesture of smearing a shade of lipstick on my hand, trying to convince me of its deep plum tone.

And effortlessly, the cloak of her important status rends and reveals the real person.

I ask McGrath, an old-timer in the beauty industry, "What is the one aspect that continues to remain challenging in make-up?"

She replies, "Make-up is always challenging whether it is designing a line or applying it. At the same time, it is always fun. I have been lucky to work with Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana [of D&G] for ten years, and I know what colours would work and apply well. In make-up you also have to introduce brave colours so women can have fun with them."

"Surely application is easier?" I voice my quasi-assumption, adding, "it must have gotten easier with time."

A soft chortle follows her response. "I don't think any woman picks up make-up and goes, ‘This is easy'. There is always the challenge of how one should apply. Should she wet the brush? For me it is easy, but then, I always question… it is never automatic because every person has a different face."

Though McGrath isn't wearing make-up when we meet, she says she enjoys wearing it when she "goes out at night". And even with her experience she admits she isn't the kind of woman who can apply make-up and drive simultaneously. "I can do my make-up very easily, but I need to look in the mirror - always."

Her experience brings with it a little unpleasantness, especially when her professional expertise shadows her personal life with friends seeking her advice on beauty. Most times she doesn't mind it, but says, "Sometimes I do. You don't want to be always at work!"

Turns out this proclivity to solicit free advice isn't limited to her circle of friend but it spills to the general public. She says, "People always ask me in the street, on the plane… It is OK at times to tell them what to do or what to wear, but at three in the morning on an aeroplane, it can get a little too much."

Having said that I wonder if she can ever shut down her working mode. More specifically can she stop herself from looking around argus-eyed, spotting every feathered eyeliner and smudged lipstick. (Mentally I wonder if I have put on my own blusher correctly.)

"Do you assess women critically when you meet or see them?" I ask.

She replies with a laugh, "Oh no!"

What McGrath does is look for what is right. She says she isn't a negative person and rarely sees make-up that is "atrocious". She ascribes this positive aspect to the proliferation of beauty advice. "Women know a lot more. They are obsessed with what is in fashion. We [beauty experts] are interviewed constantly on how to put on a lipstick and I know people read it. There are so many ‘how tos'. Women know how to [apply make-up] and I see that quality."

What was it like when women didn't know better? If anyone McGrath should know. She has been in the industry long enough to witness the progress from pasty and cakey formulations to smooth as silk textures. She says she feels great about being part of this evolution. "You know how it was like ten years ago… One is always trying to improve with technology."

So when asked to collaborate on the D&G make-up range of products for the face, eyes, lips and nails, she found it easy on two accounts. She says she knows what women want and she has enjoyed a long-standing working relationship with Dolce and Gabbana.

"When you love cosmetics, you know what women are going to like. Make-up is enjoyable, joyful; it isn't science or mathematics. I also know what the D&G woman represented; I know what colours the brand wanted. The main challenge was to ensure that the products applied well. They [designers Dolce and Gabbana] sent me ideas from flowers and fabrics. We exchanged ideas and worked with different colours."

Speaking of colours, I am tempted to ask whether she thinks the beauty industry will ever reach its saturation point where we would one day recycle the same colours.

In my mind I contextualise the question with what French literary critic Georges Polti theorised. He said that all situations in any story or drama are supposed to fall into any of 36 plots categorised by him, hinting that no one could ever come up with a 37th plot. Will the Pantone palette of the beauty world ever be theorised this way?

"Will you ever see the day where you will be forced to work with existing colours because there are no more colours to work with?" I ask her.

She shakes her head from side to side, saying, "No, no. There will always be something new. Colours are inexhaustible. I am absolutely sure that the same can be said for textures."

On the same futuristic note I ask her, "Any thoughts on make-up of the future?"

"There will be more technologies and [who] knows what would happen in 20 years. Maybe there will be plastic surgery in a tube or your face could change when you sit in front of a computer. But the best part about make-up is how it allows you to do what you want. That is the beauty of cosmetics - you can change your mind when you want to. A woman may like red lipstick, nude or try a red stain. And wipe it off."

Dolce & Gabbana The Make Up

Pat McGrath, the global cosmetics creative design director for Procter and Gamble, was in Dubai for the launch of Dolce & Gabbana The Make Up. When asked whether the cosmetic arm of the brand will be able to build on its fashion industry reputation, she says it definitely will. She also speaks about the cosmetic line's global appeal. "There are colours for everybody. Also the formulas are very sophisticated."