‘My Family Members Have Been Hollywood Makeup Artists for 100-Plus Years—These Are 3 Tricks I Use Consistently’

In the makeup world, there are names that rattle off the tongue and really mean something: Pat McGrath, Kevyn Aucoin, the Westmore family. Each one has pushed forward how we think about and use makeup—however, the Westmore’s stand alone in having made Hollywood makeup a family business. Three generations have worked on-set perfecting tricks and techniques that today feel like “the rules” we should use when applying product. And McKenzie Westmore, an actress and entrepreneur, is no different.

When I log on to Zoom to speak with her, I’m nervous. My entire childhood, I watched Westmore on the show Passions where she played Sheridan Crane—seriously, I taped it every single day in Junior High…on a VCR…and then watched it when I got home from school. Not only did she prove to be a walking-talking angel of a human, but she was also really real about the business of makeup. “As an actress, I had a makeup artist there at the drop of a hat. I had somebody that could show up at my house at 6:00 a.m. and do my makeup,” she tells me. “I could be touched up every step of the way.”

Her challenge in creating Westmore Beauty was to take artist-level technique and bake it into every product sold in the line. The result is an assortment of no-fail makeup and skin care that are the next best thing to having a makeup artist by your side. Here, she shares the three tips her family taught her—and the accompanying products—that make makeup a cinch to apply and bring on pro-level results.