Bio

 

Aya Iwakami –

Aya has been working as a makeup for more than a decade, starting her career in Tokyo, currently based in New York.
She has a lot of experience for hairstyling as well.
Besides makeup artist, she have a career working as a beauty-editor assistant for Madame FIGARO Japon & VOGUE Japan, which derives her creativity on her work.
Currently contributes Madame FIGARO Japon as a beauty blogger as a makeup artist.

Aya started her first career in a complete different field – as a paralegal at law firm, due to her family’s wish. Although Aya was so passionate about makeup, she decided to persue her dream.

After 6 years of paralegal job, shifting her career, her passion led her to learn almost all makeup skills through actual jobs and assisting jobs. She joined more than 50+ fashion show makeup teams globally, in NY, Paris and Milan, including Dior and Fendi show (Peter Philips team), Marc Jacobs and Ralph Lauren (Diane Kendal team),  SHISEIDO team etc.

From her desire to improve her makeup skills, from a bigger perspective to create a fascinating makeup design, in 2018, she completed a one-year art design course in Los Angeles school, where she learned design theory and logic. She is adept at adding logic to her sensibility to design makeup that is in balance with fashion and best suits the theme of the shoot.

In 2023, Aya won a 3rd award out of around 273 entries in the Makeup Photo Contest (Professional Category) at a prestigious Japanese contest, The One, which is judged by top makeup artists in Japan, including UDA and Yuya Nara.

She have done many editorial jobs such as T: The New York Times Style magazine cover for Willem Dafoe, and Wall Street Journal cover for top architect Jeanne Gang, as well as ELLE, HYPEBEAST, Harper’s Bazaar, ODDA, L’officiel, Notion, and LULA.

Besides the makeup artist job, she has a few years of career working as a beauty-editor assistant for the magazine VOGUE Japan & Madame FIGARO Japon. During this, she absorbed an enormous knowledge of high fashion trends and editorial shoots, which has led to her sophisticated editorial makeup she creates.Today, she still contributes to Madame FIGARO Japon online as a beauty writer/analyzer to guide the beauty trend.

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Contact: aya.i.mua@gmail.com
Instagram: @ayaiwakami

EDITORIALS

T: The New York Times Style magazine (cover) / ELLE TAIWAN / HYPEBEAST / Harper’s Bazzar Vietnam / L’officiel Philippines / Wall Street Journal(cover) / New York Times / Beauty Scene / Notion magazine / ODDA magazine / LULA Japan / DEW magazine / TEETH magazine etc

CLIENTS

【Beauty】

KISS
Rahua
The KLOG
Kitsch
LAGOM
GLAMUP
Shiko Skincare

Crabtree & Evelin, etc

【Fashion】

NOAH
NOAH x PUMA
Brooks Brothers
Bad Binch Tongtong
Another Tomorrow
Gelato Pique
BEHNO
HOUGA
DAWANG
Vincetta
Mashell Goodluck
Sundae School
AARYAH jewelry, etc

【Others】

Macy’s
Broadway Musical (Mrs. Doubtfire)
Broadway Musical (Grand Horizons)
RIZIN, etc

【Shows】

– Mashell Goodluck SS25 (worked as a key makeup artist)
– Comfelie (worked as a key makeup artist)

– FENDI FW25 (Peter Philips team)
– Dior AW24 (Peter Philips team)
– Bally FW25 (Lucia Pica team)
– Ralph Lauren FW25 (Diane Kendal team)
– Calvin Klein FW25 (Diane Kendal team)
– Marc Jacobs SS24 (Diane Kendal team)
– Chloe AW24 (Aaron de May team)
– Tory Burch FW25 (Diane Kendal team)
– Tommy Hilfiger SS25 (Diane Kendal team)
– Carven SS25 (Lauren Parsons team)
– Marni AW24 (Yadim team)  …… and many other shows.