Get To Know Eden Lattanzio, The Artist Behind Your Favorite Beauty Looks
Two weeks ago, I got a little table in a busy café in Heathrow and sat across from Eden Symone Lattanzio - the version of her on the Google Meet on my iPhone 12, that is - while she sat across from me in her bed in an Amsterdam hotel room. Eden has been away from our home in LA for weeks, and will continue to be away for as many more: Amsterdam is just one stop on the European leg of the world tour she’s currently accompanying, on which Eden is doing the makeup for the dancers. Considering its scale and success, many would consider this tour the gig of a lifetime, but at 25, Eden’s pulled it off in what she still considers - not for lack of experience; more likely a symptom of fundamental humility - the infancy of her career.
PHOTOGRAPHY SARAH PARDINI @sarahpardini
INTERVIEW SOAP COLLINS @soaprunsfast
HAIRSTYLIST LISA-MARIE POWELL @sheardeath
One of the preeminent figures of the makeup world today, Eden’s prowess (and client list) precedes her. In innumerable cities and on innumerable faces Eden has cultivated an immediately recognizable style and finger on the pulse for which she’s coveted by the titans of fashion, music, and celebrity - more members of the pop elite included, as this isn’t her first tour. One of those innumerable faces is myself: a few years ago, I was booked for the first shoot I (and the brand booking me) would do, and Eden was our veteran artist - she’d already made significant headway in fashion makeup following cosmetology school and a stint at the Sephora bar. Since that shoot, we’ve routinely worked together and I’ve been fortunate enough to have a front row seat to the meteoric ascent of her career. At the same time, she’s become one of my best and truest friends, and the 90% of my brain that I reserve for my pride in her lit up when Submission asked me if I would conduct the interview for her profile.
So, with the horrible service accessible to me in an airport and an inability to figure out how to record a Google Meet session, I hung out on the phone with one of my best friends, this time furiously scribbling notes and prodding her with carefully rehearsed interrogations about her childhood.
Tell me about your upbringing, your family. Was anyone in your immediate life an inspiration for the career you have now? Did they encourage your artistry? Where did you draw inspiration from in your daily life?
I’m from the tiniest town in Arizona you could imagine, around 900 people. I’m the oldest of 6 kids so it’s a very big family among a small town energy, which meant a lot of “keep yourself entertained, make your own fun, find something to do.” My parents always said there’s no excuse for being bored. I had lots of hobbies growing up: in high school I got into fashion and beauty through the internet and youtube and getting into YouTubers and fashion shows online, and started following artists' makeup tutorials to get ready for school and looked so crazy. The town being small made it a pretty safe space. Kids would tease a little but I’d been around them my whole life so it was harmless and I could just be a weirdo. I loved watching my mom get cute and funky - she’s a young mom and when she'd glam up to go to the city with my dad it was always fun to watch. Looking back, I notice that as I’m getting ready now I’ll look at something and be like, “oh my god, this is totally something my mom would've worn.” Original hipster vibes.
So you’d say your mom is among your biggest style inspirations?
I would say yeah, there’s so many things she very intentionally exposed me to when i was younger. When I'd ask her to put on High School Musical, she put on Björk and all this important funky weirdo girl music. That was very formative and a concerted effort on her behalf to expose me to culture - specifically women artists who were weird and cool.
It’s reminding me of that tweet that mentioned Cool Parent Privilege - that there’s a unique experience afforded to kids raised by cool parents that gives them the privilege of not having to work to be cool as adults.
I think about it all the time. I was in the car on the way to school listening to Radiohead and Daniel Johnston and Arcade Fire.
You were also pretty hugely into pop icons like Katy and Gaga.
Totally! Those girls raised me. I was into all kinds of stuff; I was really into heavy music too. It must have been the internet and friends in middle school that exposed me to it. I was going to heavy shows every weekend when i was still living in Tucson
Do you think that scene had a big influence on your style, makeup or otherwise?
For a period. I was definitely one of the kookiest looking girlies in the scene. Around that time I was in beauty school and I was cutting or coloring my hair nearly every day. My classmates were using me as a test model; I’d shave my eyebrows off and have 25mm lashes and dots all over my face but that was a space I could do that and nobody cared. It’s an alternative experimental scene.
You’ve always had such a keen and tasteful eye, and really carved out something that is inimitably you, while being grounded in a profound fashion history knowledge and innate coolness. That all being said, it seems like in the last few weeks you’ve attained this ultimate level of pure chic, high-fashion cunt. To what do you think you can attribute that evolution?
I'm having fun with my style! I’m in Europe, I’m shopping vintage, it’s fall. My sister commented on my instagram recently and was like “ope, it’s October, Eden’s posting again.” I’m a hermit when its hot, I can’t wait til fall so i can start dressing myself. When it gets colder I get to go there a little bit, and I'm single for the first time in a long time so I'm feeling cutesy and flirting with the world.
Along those lines, how have you noticed your style change throughout the years? In what ways do you think your job - the creative aspect, the travel, your peers - has influenced those changes?
It’s kinda cliché but I get to work with artists and creatives every day, how could you not be inspired by that? They care so much about what they do and a lot of the people I’ve gotten close with on tour or in life or at work are people who live and breathe it and want to do it because they want to do it, not for notoriety or clout or whatever, but just make shit to make it. Like Sarah Pardini for example. Some of our best work we did in her apartment for fun. When i get to set and people pull references of my work, it’s stuff i did for fun with my friends. So of course that’s inspiring. But I would say a lot of my style references are from what I watch and consume. Watching Buffy for the first time this year influenced what i have been listening to recently, early 2000s whimsy goth girl rock, and then that stuff lends itself to old music videos, and I’m watching those going “oh, that’s a cute top idea, I'll go vintage shopping and find something like it.”
I’m glad you brought up Buffy - one of my next questions actually is about all the cool stuff you consume. As someone so strongly drawn to so many different artistic media, what is the most important reference or source of inspiration for you outside of makeup, or even outside of fashion? Do you draw inspiration from sources that aren’t visual media at all?
I’m not typically a big tv/movie watcher, I usually pick one thing and hyper-fixate on it. Something obscure or something everybody’s already watched and I’m just catching up, like Buffy, or True Blood. That’s one thing I love about reading books so much - I’m not limited by what somebody else thinks something looks like, or some production budget - it can look like whatever it looks like in my head, it’s just me and the author. Sometimes I’ll read a book and I don’t like the way an outfit is described so I’ll restyle it in my head. I'm reading Dracula right now.
The genre you seem to prefer is so tangible in the way you express yourself, and seems so personal and unaffected by outside influence. Tweemo princess and girl-about-town: you tour with pop royalty, you regularly do glam for it-girl fashionistas and trendsetters - setting many of those trends yourself - and you carry an inimitably alluring and mysterious aura everywhere that you are tastemaking. You also carve your own path in your everyday interests and look, and are a standout anywhere you go. As someone who both has such a niche and honed personal style and also a keen finger on the pulse and seat at the center of culture, do you find your techniques influenced by the trends that often surround your field - like skinny or bleached brows, or a rounded cupid's bow? In what ways have you noticed certain trends staying with you long-term?
I think it’s kind of cyclical. It’s interesting because with those kinds of trends a lot of time - like skinny brows - I was already doing that. I started doing it in beauty school in 2018 - not on an “I was doing it first” way, but it’s interesting how as time goes on, as a culture of the people interested in beauty, we go on these waves of what is cool and popular, what we are trying out in shoots, which makes its way to the consumer, which makes its way to the general public. Skinny brows have been on sets for years and are just making their way to the general public. We will reference similar things, with one use of it being inspired by Pam Anderson and one inspired by Angelina Jolie. They’re two different sides of the same spectrum. Maybe you’re a frostie lip girl and one reference is Lil Kim and one is Pam. A lot of times people will be like “you’re copying me,” but actually, we are all copying each other, and copying the same original, in our own way. Sometimes it’s hard to remember to break out of that and be like - let me get off my phone and find something real, like people outside or an old movie.
I got affected by the fake freckle epidemic years ago, and it’s still something I incorporate into my everyday makeup.
There's lots of things like that. Like, okay, I learned a new technique with the cupid’s bow thing, I might not do it on everybody anymore, it’s not for everyone, but that technique of like slight angle adjustments, undetectable shaping, can make or break a lip shape and make a big difference in the whole composition of a look, just with little tweaks. You can take concepts and plug them in in a more understated, intentional way.
Regarding your style evolution, I’m curious where you see yourself on your own timeline. While people grow and change through the course of their entire lives, some people find that a certain point in their life marks the separation between the person (or people) they were, and the person they become and will remain. Do you feel, creatively, that point has already occurred in your work? If so, what would you say marks the biggest difference?
I do feel like there are 2 things: do I feel like that for myself, and do I feel it in my artistry and work. As far as artistry and work goes, it’s hard to see it for myself. Sometimes people can recognize work as mine but I can't, or maybe on that set I felt out of my comfort zone or the look wasn’t my own brief. There is a certain touch I do have that is mine and probably will always be mine. But as far as locking into my niche and knowing what I do and being booked for that, I don’t think I’m there yet. Which is good, because I don't want to rush my artistry. I want to find it when it comes and not force a style. I’m in a pause moment right now, a phase of my artistry where I'm taking in more than I'm putting out. Building my reference book and making more interpersonal connections versus getting to set and running the show. It’s a reflective building phase. In work and my personal life.
So you’re taking in more inspiration than ever these days. Who is your ultimate aesthetic inspiration, real or fictional?
Ultimate is a tough word. It changes every 6 months, like, “okay, I’m being this girl now.” In the past couple years, Kristen Ritter has been a big personal inspiration. When I got dressed up, I was like, “what little weirdo outfits was she doing?” Wynona Ryder has always been a big one, especially on my haircuts as a teen. Recently I was getting into these cartoony illustrations - this artist called Dame Darcy who makes these funky little comics in the early 2000’s and her little illustrations of spooky girls are so cute. The Emily Strange, Lenore type of little cartoon girly has been a big thing for me. Since I am traveling currently, my entire wardrobe I have with me goes together: all complimentary colors and shapes I can mix and match for months. I feel like a cartoon character.
This tour you’re on seems like a perfect match with your style, but that’s not always the case. How do you find the tours you do are fits for you creatively? How do you find they challenge you?I’ve found I've been very lucky to work with people who appreciate my artistry and want it to be a part of the glamour journey. I know sometimes that’s not the case, but when I was on tour with JT for example, every day the glam was different. It was not a tour look; one day we’re building glitter lashes and the next it was like a Janet Jackson music video reference: a black smokey eye with gloss, and so on. That was challenging because touring with my ever-changing full kit was a lot but it was totally worth it. We had so many iconic looks. I love her to death and working with her is such a blessing. She pushes me creatively and I push her creatively. Currently, being on a bigger scale international tour with a set look, it’s been more of fine-tuning and finding inspiration from the person I’m working on and making each look fit the person's face in a way that’s cohesive but also consistent with the overall vibe.
"The relationship between the person in the chair and myself is so intimate; I’m so lucky to have that relationship, whether it be my best friends or just any creative, interesting people I get to work with. It’s fun and interesting to get to know someone and be the guardian of the facade someone presents to the world. To be responsible for that is a lot of trust and one of the coolest parts of my job that I wasn’t expecting."
Right, the faces you’re working on for this tour are all different but require the same look - and notably, aren’t models, but stage dancers. While you often do glam for stage performers like musicians, makeup for athletes, like makeup for theater, calls for different techniques. Tell me a bit about how you tailor your technique to achieve the look you desire as well suiting it for performance. What are the differences? What kind of trial and error goes into making sure it stays on, and how the effect is made for an audience?
With any job or client that I do consistently, it’s always, “what if we tried it this way? Maybe it’ll last longer, or maybe their skin will like it better.” It’s about how we make it effective and streamlined quickly, things of that nature. In the past year or so I’ve worked so much with dancers, and because dancers are athletes and they sweat and move and aren’t necessarily always thinking about not messing up their makeup or if their lip is going to come off in costume - they have a performance-first, physical job - having to keep an eye on that so they can do their job and I can do mine is a fun challenge. It’s more about dramatic effect from far away & longevity, which has been a great learning experience. Maybe skin doesn't have to look as poreless and skin-like as it would for a beauty campaign but if it has the impact we want and lasts for a full 3-hour show or 12 hr video shoot then we did what we came to do.
Customizing the look seems like such an important part of a beat - whether that be customizing it for use or for the client’s features. Personally, when you and I work together, I feel the happiest because I'm with you but also because you know me so well that you can make something up and make it look made for me without having to guess or ask. Do you find that the longer you work with some of your clients, like routine celebs or the dancers on long tours, that getting to know them is a benefit to the result of their look? How do you watch your work change on them as you get to know them?
Absolutely! That’s one of the most fun parts of it. Like okay, I know this person and what they like about themselves and what they don’t. I do like to push people and be like, “trust me, let’s try it, you’re gonna like it,” while simultaneously compromising and being like, “okay, did you notice I did your brows how you like? Now try this new lip.” I do care that they like their makeup, but it’s also important to me that I feel excited about it or that it’s cool or interesting or the vision we go for is there. The relationship between the person in the chair and myself is so intimate; I’m so lucky to have that relationship, whether it be my best friends or just any creative, interesting people I get to work with. It’s fun and interesting to get to know someone and be the guardian of the facade someone presents to the world. To be responsible for that is a lot of trust and one of the coolest parts of my job that I wasn’t expecting. The hugest part of this job is the trust. In my case, the mutual trust to push them to a certain degree to try something interesting.
It’s touching that you feel so grateful for the intimacy and trust in your work. What’s the absolute biggest blessing about your job?
The biggest blessing is the travel I get to do. As exhausting as it is, I’m so lucky to travel. I’ve always wanted to, and not everyone in the world - especially people from small towns like me - get to travel like this. To be working and then to hear, “oh we need you in Paris and your hotel is paid and you get 2 days off and you get to do what you love”? I do not take it for granted at all.
Give me something you can’t stand in beauty and something you can’t go without?
I can’t live without skin prep, and I hate soap brows where all the hairs are standing straight up. I don’t understand it.
Tell me about your favorite beat you’ve ever seen. Do you ever incorporate it into your own work? How often do you incorporate it into your own look?
I’ve got three. My favorite movie ever and the most beautiful woman on screen: Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge, with that long eyebrow to her hairline. I think about it every time I do makeup. Lady Gaga in the video for Alejandro with that little bob, that was by Val Garland.
Blind Mag from Repo: The Genetic Opera. When I saw that double lash with her contact lenses… Oh my god. My day has yet to come where I do that exact look, but that one is incredible.
"I think that’s where the industry is going. You need to be a jack of all trades and be able to do a no-makeup skin look with perfect mascara, not one crumb out of place, while also being able to do a quick and dirty silver body paint on set, messy and in 5 seconds, with drag makeup and gluestick eyebrows. Being able to pull out either weapon is what’s so fun to me."
You’re constantly taking mental notes about makeup looks and inspiration. Did you always notice that? Tell me about the origins of your drive to pursue a career in beauty. Some artists might recall noticing the joy engendered by making someone feel beautiful; some might, like many painters, seek to externalize emotions, with makeup as their medium; some might be excited by the world of fashion and beauty and seek to join it. Where did you fit at your beginning? Where do you fit now?
Originally, I loved the world of high fashion and wanted to be a part of it, but that has evolved. I don’t know if that’s necessarily where my head is at now. Now it’s a little bit more of loving to make images with my friends, and that’s where I have the most fun. Like working with you and Sarah and making something because we have these references in our head of things we love and have something of our own that we need to get out.
How does your career now differ from where you thought it might lead when you began your journey? How is it similar?
I think I am still at the beginning, so the answer will constantly change. But at the start I wanted to do movies and be on film sets doing SFX, sculpting monsters and creatures. When I got to LA and started doing beauty makeup and was having so much fun with it, that was the initial change. Then later on I wanted to work on teams and do fashion week, and being in that world was my focus for a bit. But I’ve found that I kind of need a little bit of variety - doing a bit here and a bit there, and I think that’s where the industry is going. You need to be a jack of all trades and be able to do a no-makeup skin look with perfect mascara, not one crumb out of place, while also being able to do a quick and dirty silver body paint on set, messy and in 5 seconds, with drag makeup and gluestick eyebrows. Being able to pull out either weapon is what’s so fun to me. So I don’t have a specific vision for where I want to be now, I’m just enjoying the variety and hope I get to keep doing that.
What did you have for dinner last night?
A room/service veggie burger with french fries and a glass of red wine while I watched the L word and knitted a scarf.