this week


What a week!

Diane Nikolic, fashion make-up artist of the year, is eager for all women to look their best. Interview by Zillah Bugeja

I adore fashion make-up, the intention being to make someone look beautiful. Special effects stuff doesn’t give me a high at all. I’ve been a full-time make-up artist for three years now. I’m also a beauty therapist but only do a little nowadays.

From age six, my mother bought me this doll which was a full-size face, to put make-up on. I’ve always been fascinated by it. I knew what I wanted to do straight away, I’d draw faces and would draw make-up on them too. My parents realised that this was my goal. My father has brought me up so well. They are great parents, mum with her kisses, and dad for being there for me no matter what.

I work with a passion. If I don’t go to work I’m dead. There was a time when I needed to take time out and spent two weeks at home, but my husband told me to ‘go out and do something’. When I do sit down to relax, I watch the TV and search for make-up ideas, my mind doesn’t stop. I’ve just worked on a music video that should be aired soon on MTV. It was for an up-and-coming artist called Soraya who’s big in the club scene in London.

In the morning I need ten minutes for myself, to have a cup of tea and smoke a cigarette. Then I get my son Tristjan up and prepare him for school. It takes me a long time sometimes to decide what I’m going to wear, then I spend about 15 minutes on my make-up. I can’t afford to go out without it because it represents what I do, and I have to do it well because it has to last all day. It makes me feel good, but I’m not the kind of woman who won’t be seen without it.

I do my chores quickly, then I head into Audiovision. I do the make-up for Ray Calleja’s programme from 11.30am till 12am then from 3.15pm to 5.30pm, five days a week I work on Claudette Pace’s programme. I also work as floor manager because I hate being idle – as far as the make-up goes, once it’s done I only have to powder every now and again. Floor managing is quite a responsibility, the presenter depends on you to cue Claudette, and at the same time you learn more about TV. During my free time I’ll do wedding make-up or a photo shoot, but I am trying to take a break.

My day usually ends at about 9pm, quite a long day. So in the weekends I dedicate as much time as possible to my son. My husband backs me up in my work completely, and I know there’ll be a time when I have to do that for him.

Actually I’ve planned my future, I’ll go to art lessons and hopefully study art as well. At the moment painting is a hobby, seeing as I don’t have much time for it. But I can’t let go of art, if the face fails to fascinate me I’m sure I can take it out in painting. You have to get a certain high from your work. When I was doing beauty therapy the high just left, it wasn’t fair on clients to do a half-hearted job.

I’ve studied make-up here and in Manchester, however it’s got to be in you. Nowadays make-up is more about creating a shape than just adding colour, it’s about shading. The industry is giving us some really good make-up. The more natural colours create natural shadows, so it’s easy to create a shape.

Maltese women have a fear that they shouldn’t wear so much make-up in the morning. I’ve jut come back from Yugoslavia and the streets are like a fashion show. If a woman has heavy eye make-up, that’s just her look, she doesn’t care if anyone thinks it’s too much. Why should women just wear make-up in the evening? You need to experiment, make-up is part of a woman’s appearance as much as clothes and shoes are.

The young Maltese women are great when it comes to make-up. I love seeing a woman who looks good, I enjoy thinking, that’s a lovely Maltese girl. I don’t care about a woman’s weight, that’s not the issue, just a little bit of care, that’s what I like.

The Maltese woman has a tendency to dark circles – because we’re not at all lazy – but why do you have to go out looking like you’re tired? You have to cheat with make-up, it’s legal and everything, so go for it girl!

When you look good, you feel good, and you get more confidence.

Max Factor is my sponsor. Then I buy special make-up for TV, it’s great that it is available here now.

I was really inspired in Belgrade. It doesn’t matter what time of day, they look sexy. I wish I could see more of this in Malta. Every woman should dedicate a little bit of time every day to herself. She takes care of so many things, half an hour is important. You never get a second chance to make a first impression!

The skin isn’t that important, the features are what’s going to make you. If you have pigmentation and dark circles, you need to cover them up, it’s rare to find perfect skin. But I have a thing about eyebrows. You can look angry or shocked if you have a bad eyebrow shape. And I can’t stand them being messy or needing to be plucked. I don’t mind if they’re not touched, but if you do touch them, keep it up.

I like to make a woman as feminine as possible. I hate liquid eyeliner, for example, it looks so hard. I want a woman to look as sexy as possible, that smoky eye look, nicely blended, that’s still quite strong.

I also like to see a woman grow old gracefully, I don’t mind wrinkles. What matters is how you take care of yourself. I admire women who look strong and are ready to face the world. You do need to put on a cream to prevent extra wrinkles from forming. And I like to advise clients to buy only what they can afford – it’s only fair. Sometimes you can look in your fridge and find things that can do the job. I had done that on Sellili, so there’s no excuse for not taking care of your skin.

The sun does cause horrible wrinkles, as does alcohol. A woman shouldn’t drink a lot of alcohol, you’ll see it in th skin, and if you add it to late nights… we need eight hours of ‘beauty sleep’, it’s true. It’s important to feed your skin after having a child too.

I keep up-to-date with the fashion world by watching MTV, it’s always the latest stuff, and what I see I can do. I do try and go on courses when they’re available and I eat up what TV gives me, the fashion TV station too. The market is going to show you the new colours, then you have to create, I believe you should have your own style.

With make-up men can be a bit more fussy than women. It’s fun to do drag queens though, they let me do my job and let me really create. And they really show appreciation.

Ray for instance is lovely to work with. He’s attentive and I can’t have a lazy day with him. He’s a perfectionist in his job which keeps me on my guard. I may forget things like a towel, and he’ll chide me in a sweet way.

With Claudette you have to be fast. She’s not fussy, but because she’s so busy I have to work quite fast. I enjoy doing her, I’m always trying to experiment with colour on her. Sometimes she doesn’t even look at what I’m doing, she trusts me. But I can’t experiment with myself as much, I get a bit excited, and I’m more used to doing make-up on others now. I was a judge on Miss Maltese Islands and I really wanted to try something different on myself, but I was too excited to do so. I like natural lips on myself, I’ve tried a light pink or dark colours and they are just not me. I like that natural look, but I’m not going to tell anyone about my special lip-gloss, I have to keep something secret.