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Plus, how to get the look yourself.
Madonna really needs no introduction. (However, if you want to learn more, I can’t recommend Bandsplain’s 22-hour Madonna series enough.) You may not be as familiar with her current go-to makeup artist, Marcelo Gutierrez, who has been crucial for shaping the glitter-tinged looks of Confessions II. Gutierrez is a longtime fixture in New York’s editorial scene, with countless magazine covers and runway shows under his belt, and has been a longtime favorite of cool girls like Charli XCX, Lily Rose Depp, Paloma Elsesser, and Madonna’s daughter, Lola Leon.
It’s Leon who actually connected the pair, who have been cooking up some majorly iconic looks for the past few years, from Madonna’s fantastical 2026 Met Gala look to all her viral Confessions II moments. Of course, the pair also collaborated on Madonna’s Kiko Milano campaign, with Gutierrez serving as the brand’s Global Makeup Artist.
In honor of Confessions Summer, we caught up with Gutierrez to chat the essential dance floor look and more.
On Working With Madonna
“ Working with Madonna has been an incredible journey. She is a living icon, and learning from someone who has both invented the wheel and challenges all systems around her is something I’ll never take it for granted. No detail is too small. We’ve been working together for about two years now, and it came quite organically really through her daughter Lola, as we’ve been friends for many years before that.”
On Shaping the ‘Confessions II’ Era
“It really happened pretty organically and seamlessly as we started our collaborative journey together and shaping her beauty. The look was both a real merging of how she wanted to feel and present herself along with the ideas that I was presenting to her. I wanted something that felt just as timeless and sophisticated while keeping that iconic playfulness Madonna is known for. We love cinema, we love paintings, we love showgirls from the ‘70s and ‘60s.”
The ‘Confessions II’ Makeup Bluprint
“It’s really about keeping the skin extremely beautiful, alive, and sophisticated. And attracting most of the attention to her eyes. We use a combination of taupes, cool tones, blues, and lilacs with hints of white and pearl and diamond reflects to mesmerize when she’s both on camera and on stage.”
On Shooting the Kiko Campaign
“My favorite memory from that day was really coming together again with the team that shot the album cover and focusing on working together to create moments that were specific to beauty and really celebrating Madonna and really the collaboration that we’ve worked on together, which means so much to me.
“The standout products for me during the campaign were most definitely the high-pigment eyeshadows and the 3D Hydra Lipgloss! The eyeshadows just have so much incredible payoff and pigment that it’s so easy to build a seamless airbrushed look with little effort. The lip glosses are, of course, so iconic and incredibly comfortable to wear with such an expensive shade range.”
On How to Get Your Own ‘Confessions II’ Look
“Shop Kiko! Put on some beautiful blush, a little lilac in the eyes, and plenty of mascara and a little sparkle on the lid.”
Read the original article on Byrdie
