You'll want to make a calendar note for October 1st.
Date September 21, 2020
The passion that celebrity makeup artist Mario Dedivanovic has for makeup artistry and products is palpable – even through a Zoom screen and some 350 miles away. Today, Dedivanovic presented the first drop in his namesake beauty line, Makeup By Mario, to a group of press from Canada and the US ahead of its official launch next month. And as you would expect, it’s good.
The line has been in the making since 2017, Dedivanovic shares, noting that the Master Mattes palette was the very first product he started working on. As for his inspiration, Dedivanovic shares a rather unexpected source: the shades are inspired by the colours found in our bodies on a microscopic level.
The brand will launch with an eye collection, comprised of 21 products in total, with Dedivanovic confirming more products are on their way and that “there is a full brand coming” whilst staying quiet on further details. Products in the first drop include several eyeshadow palettes (separated by texture: mattes, metallics and metals), a primer palette, pencils (which Dedivanovic says for him are “one of the most transformative things in makeup), five brushes (though he notes at several points during the call that many of the products can be applied with just your fingers), a liquid liner that has an impressive 15-minute dry time so you can adjust as needed, a product called the Master Crystal Reflector which has a global exclusive formula and is available in three shades, each of which beautifully reflect the light, a nourishing translucent highlighter called the Master Secret Glow, and biodegradable makeup wipes made with 100 per cent cucumber water so there’s no oily residue left behind.
The products are housed in beautiful sleek white packaging. On choosing the hue for the line, Dedivanovic said that white “felt like the future. It felt pure and my process of making this line come to life has been with such pure intentions so this felt like [the right choice].”
At one point, Dedivanovic, who said he’s been “dreaming of this for 20 years,” teared up when talking about the work that has gone into the brand – including the R&D and product development processes which were made infinitely more difficult because he wasn’t working off a ‘benchmark’ product (i.e. another product he was trying to replicate for his own line). Noting that the line is entirely self-funded with no investors (he joked that if it fails he’ll be moving back in with his parents), Dedivanovic shared, “I put my life and soul into this. I wanted it to be affordable and not just for artists – I considered the everyday woman and want to make things easier for them.” For example, those of us that struggle with perfecting a winged eye might finally be able to nail the elusive look as the pencils have been designed with a custom brush specifically to address the challenges associated with creating a winged eye.
Dedivanovic is also quick to stress that whilst he has an association with glam makeup, he loves a natural look, too. And many of the products in this first drop have been designed with that approach in mind. There’s an ease to the products, a grab-and-go quality to them that is impressive given the level of effort and input that’s gone into creating them. “I wanted to present these core products and formulas and leave it up to whoever is using it to dip in and play and use their own judgement with their own style of makeup,” he says of the line.
Makeup By Mario will launch on October 1 in Canada exclusively at Sephora.