Subscribe: Apple Podcasts • Stitcher • Google Play • Spotify
In 2000, Mario Dedivanovic was working the retail floor at Sephora. Now, his own eponymous brand can be found on its shelves.
On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, celebrity makeup artist and brand founder Dedivanovic sat down to discuss his epic career journey, which has included becoming a top celebrity makeup artist and launching his brand Makeup by Mario in 2020.
The conversation, of course, includes Kim Kardashian. Fans of her reality shows have likely seen him by her side in glam session scenes throughout the years. While most closely associated with Kardashian, he’s had a long list of high-caliber clients including Jennifer Lopez, Salma Hayek, Kate Bosworth, Demi Lovato and Naomie Harris.
Below are a few highlights from the episode, which have been lightly edited for clarity.
How he first started working with Kim
“I got a call from a photographer friend of mine at the last minute in the evening time. He said, ‘Hey, I have a shoot for a cover of a local magazine with a girl named Kim Kardashian, and I need you to do this.’ I said, ‘No,’ because I had a job the next day. … Long story short, he eventually convinced me. … I remember she walked into the shoot, and I remember looking at her and just feeling her energy — I’m very sensitive to energies and very intuitive. And No. 1, I remember thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, she is so beautiful.’”
The social trend cycle
“I’m very active on social media. But for the brand, I always tell my team and my product development team, ‘We are not a brand that focuses on trends or tries to follow or jump on trends.’ We create classic, timeless products that are going to be, hopefully, still on the market for decades to come. That is what our primary focus is.
I like to be aware of the trends, and I can also spot trends very easily coming up. I just have an intuition. And I’m always telling the team, ‘Oh, this is going to be big in a few months.’ I think it’s all fascinating, especially revolving around social media, but I definitely am not the one to create something based on a trend or structure the business around that. We have more of an artistic approach.”
Makeup’s comeback
“Makeup is going to start picking up. We went through this whole phase of ‘skin care, skin care, skin care.’ Now, I think people are going to start playing again — but not the way we saw it in 2015, 2016, 2017. … Things are gonna be done quicker and easier, but more playful. People definitely want to start using products on the lips and eyes and cheeks. Then in terms of the makeup industry, we’re going to definitely see some really beautiful innovations coming and lots of lighter products, moving away from the super full coverage and the super, super long-lasting. We’re gonna be seeing a lot of the blending of the worlds of skin care and makeup in one.”
