Beauty4Beauty encourages beauty brands to provide job opportunities for makeup artists, hairstylists, manicurists and other beauty professionals impacted by the strikes.
In an effort to assist the professional beauty community impacted by loss of income due to the ongoing WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, Sahara Lotti, founder, CEO, and inventor of Lashify, celebrity and television makeup artist Matin Maulawizada and Ellen Maguire, founder of Coterie Global announce the launch of Beauty4Beauty, an industry-wide initiative that encourages beauty brands and affiliated companies to provide unemployed and underemployed professional makeup artists, hair stylists, and manicurists with meaningful work opportunities for the duration of the strikes.
United in Support
Brands joining Beauty4Beauty will hire professional beauty artists impacted by the strikes for projects including social media and web content, photo shoots, paid advertising, PR events and more. Lashify has committed an initial $20,000 and Icelandic biotech skincare brand Bioeffect has committed an initial $15K, both earmarked for celebrity makeup artists. Indie haircare brand Iles Formula, founded by celebrity and session hair stylist Wendy Iles has committed an initial $3K to professional hair stylists to create tutorial video content. Should the strikes persist, brands have the option of increasing their contributions to provide further relief.
“Even before I had my own brand I worked as a celebrity hair stylist for red carpet premieres, press junkets, film festivals and the like – and I still do,” says Wendy Iles, Founder, Iles Formula. “Iles Formula is an independent, family run brand. I’m so grateful to the hairstylists who use our products and talk about them in the press – without any compensation. They do it because they love it, and so in return, we very much felt compelled to support Beauty4Beauty. I hope that brands – of all sizes – will step up to show support and appreciation for professional beauty artists at this financially compromising time.”
How are the strikes impacting the beauty artist community?
For the first time since 1960, the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA), the Screen Actors Guild, and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) unions are all on strike, with key issues ranging from fair pay to the impact of artificial intelligence. The Make-up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild is part of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE). While IATSE is not on strike, most of its members have been out of work for several months as production schedules slowed in anticipation of an impending strike.
Union and non-union beauty artists who work with celebrities for red carpet, press junkets, television appearances, film festivals, etc., have experienced a dramatic loss in income due to the strikes – with no end in sight. There’s a prohibition on celebrity talent promoting any of their upcoming films, tv, or streaming projects which means their beauty teams don’t work either. The indefinite postponement of the 2023 EMMY Awards, a marquis event for the beauty community, is the most recent blow to struggling artists.
Featured image: Getty