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Eszter Domonkos does makeup that makes you feel something

It’s hard to deny the greatness of what Eszter Domonkos does. It is finesse, and creativity, and expression, and movement, and color, and an explosion of feeling fitted to an eye or a lip. It looks simple and easy, like anyone can do it, until you actually sit in the chair and find yourself throwing away the eightieth makeup remover soaked cotton ball from the past ten minutes. It almost feels trivial, until you find yourself 200 posts in after 45 minutes of scrolling and stopping and admiring. It’s deceiving and beautiful, and maybe that’s what makes it great. Read ahead to hear how this makeup artist picks apart beauty, inspiration, and positivity. 

INTERVIEW  EKOM @e.kommm
ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF ESZTER DOMONKOS @eszterdomonkosmua

How would you describe what beauty feels and looks like to you?

It’s really hard for me to describe beauty. Ever since I started doing makeup on other people, I’ve never met a person who I thought looked ugly. I think doing makeup is a really intimate thing, I feel people’s faces with my fingers, I get really close to them, see every little detail, and I always find something that makes them beautiful. A rare eye color, a unique nose shape, naturally rosy cheeks, or maybe their personality, as I’m talking to them. Maybe it’s cliché, but beauty to me is uniqueness.

What inspired you to start using makeup as a form of expression?

I always loved drawing and I wanted to be an illustrator, but I didn’t get into art school. After that I was trying to find something else where I could still be creative and wouldn’t have to sit in an office 5 days a week. I don’t really know why, but I applied to a 1-year makeup course and I fell in love with it. I was never really interested in makeup before and I only owned one brush, a brow pencil, mascara, and a black eyeliner. During the course I realized that makeup wasn’t just about contouring, perfect smokey eyes, and red lips. I learned about creative makeup, saw runway shows, incredible editorial looks, and felt more inspired than ever.

Your looks mainly focus around the eyes and lips, with the most abstract looks focusing on the eyes. What is it about using these areas of your face as your canvas as opposed to your whole face?

I do almost every look for Instagram on myself, and I only ever put makeup on my eyes when I go out, so maybe this is one of the reasons I feel more comfortable doing eye looks. Also, I don’t really like how I look in most of the pictures I take of myself (I know, I see beauty in everyone, but I’m VERY critical of myself), so I rarely do full face looks for my IG. I know I will eventually get bored of doing mostly eyes/lips, so I’ll probably start creating more full face looks in the future.

You have talked about sometimes feeling uninspired. What do you do to get that creativity flowing once you’ve hit a block?

I’m a freelance makeup artist in real life, so there are times when I have a lot of time to experiment and create looks. There are other times I work 12 hours for 5 days straight and when I finally have some time for myself, I just feel worn out and uninspired. I try not to stress about coming up with new ideas, and I definitely don’t stress about posting daily anymore. After some time I always start to miss creating, so I sit down, grab an eyeliner and just start drawing a shape. Maybe I have to wipe it off 5 times because I hate it, but then I see something that I really like and I get excited again.

What has been your biggest challenge navigating this form of expression? Have you overcome it?

When I first started I was scared of people I know seeing my IG so I tried to keep it a secret. I thought they would make fun of me for making these weird looks, but a lot of them found my account anyway, and I received positive feedback from everyone. The positivity allowed me to become more confident, and I started posting two or three looks each day. It really helped me not to think so much about what other people might think of me.