Celebrity Makeup Artist Max May Taught Me the Secret to No Makeup Makeup

You’ve probably seen an instructional video on how to do ‘no makeup’ makeup on your TikTok FYP. The hashtag #nomakeupmakeup on the app has 106.2k posts while #nomakeupmakeuplook has 12.3k. The look isn’t new — Google searches for it peaked in March 2023 — but it continues to trend.

So what is no makeup makeup? It has a few interpretations but one of its definitions by Lisa Eldrige, makeup artist and YouTuber with over 2 million followers, is a makeup look that “genuinely looks like you aren’t wearing any makeup in daylight, in real life”.

Sounds ideal, right? It’s what I’ve been striving to do with my makeup but, with half-Indian skin, I haven’t been confident I’ve been doing right. So when I was given the chance to interview Australian celebrity makeup artist Max May at the launch of Naked Sundays’ Beauty Screen SPF50 Foundation, I jumped at the chance.

One of our country’s most famous makeup artists, May has created looks for Jodi Gordon, Elle Ferguson and most recently Drew Barrymore. I wanted to know from him — how could I get that no makeup-makeup look on skin like mine?  

May gave me his recommendations for what colour eyeshadow and how to apply my blush. He also taught me how to pick colours for my skin generally and the key to nailing no makeup makeup — whatever your skin tone. Here’s what he said.

Learn Your Skin Undertone

This is advice for everyone: find your undertone. It could be red, yellow or green or, in deeper skin tones, purple or red. May said my undertone was green.

“It’s a tricky one and not everyone can see undertones,” he says. “Most makeup artists will be able to tell you but generally if you look at your veins and see the colour, that should help you determine it.”

Undertones are important — more important than your skin colour. May says he never thinks about how dark or light skin is when he’s doing makeup on it. Instead, he’s thinking about the undertone, what he sees in the face and the ultimate makeup goal. “I’m thinking about what colours are going to complement that tone of skin rather than its depth,” he says.

Steer Clear of Dark Makeup

“When I’m working with deeper skin tones, I’m not going to go darker than what’s there because it’s going to shut everything down,” May says. “So I try to work with tones similar to what I’m seeing in the skin. If the skin’s got a nice warm brown around it, I’m going to play with that tone so that it looks like it belongs there.”

For eyeshadows for my skin and eye colour (brown) to get that no makeup makeup look, he suggested browns, reds and burgundies. These colours would help to bring out the yellow.

“That’s going to give them more of a lighter look so there’s going to be more depth and variation in that eye,” he says.

Consider Underblush

When putting makeup on darker skin, May likes to underblush, a technique where you apply cream blusher in a sandwich between foundation and concealer — though May does it a little differently. May says when he finishes makeup with blush, he finds it sits too much on top.

“Underblushing is so you get that ‘lit from within’ colour and it doesn’t sit on skin too much,” he says. “I like to let it come through whatever I’m using as a base so I’ll lay down my cream blush and then I do my concealer around it or slightly over it. I’ll do my foundation on top.”

Highlight What You Like and Ignore What You Don’t

Finally May shared the key to the no makeup makeup look – for any skin colour. It’s to highlight what you like about your face and bring those out and not to worry about the things you’re not. “I find that puts those things you don’t like out of focus,” he says.

In my case it means focusing on my brows, eyelids and lashes, highlighting, and not worrying about the dark circles under my eyes, attempting to cover them with heavy concealer. May suggests I may even want to bring in a blush to distract from the circles.

 “With no makeup makeup, you have to play with the things you like so that when you look at yourself, the result is enjoyable,” he says. “You’re seeing the things you like rather than the things you don’t like.”

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