It’s not until Anne Sophie Costa explains that her background is in graphic design, that you understand why her Instagram is so good.
An extension of her website, blog and indeed, her thoughts, there you will find Nike ticks colliding with clouds and selfies entering a fourth dimension. Less ‘here’s me looking gorge in the bathroom mirror’, more Nick Knight shoots a Diesel campaign on his iPhone.
And as the Lisbon born make-up artist tells it, she nearly entered the profession full time. “I was already taking the graphic design course, so I didn’t have the courage to ask more money of my mom. But the make up artist keep calling me during half a year,” she says of the follow up to her initial assistant stint.
“One day mom was at my place, and Joana Moreira the make up artist called me. So my mom said, ‘If she keeps calling you after half a year it’s because she saw something in you, I will pay the course and let’s not talk about it’. “ And that was that.
Today Costa contributes to numerous titles – Clash among them – as well as doing commercial jobs for the likes of Topshop and Alex Mattsson (she makes a cameo in the designer’s AW14 video).
Her dream face to make up would be either Karlie Kloss or Lara Stone, and her favourite shoot to date saw her in Paris for Nylon: “It was exciting to travel, and was a night shoot, so it was quite intense shooting in places like Sacre Coeur around 11pm! But fun! The team were super nice and cool! It all worked really well!”
Her enthusiasm for the path she did take is evident both in her punctuation and on set spirit (of which there is plenty). Her real passion though, lies in the shows – “what we pass the whole season waiting for.”
For SS14 she painted faces for several designers such as Belstaff, while this season’s lucky ones remain in discussion.
“Some are calm, some are crazy,” she explains. “There’s a certain personality type that just really loves being backstage. There’s so much chaos between the loud music and models running around and clothes flying and the pressure of getting the show done, that it’s almost like you’re a paramedic or something. In all this chaos you have to focus. It’s this weird fantasy world that needs so much focus.”
The only negative she notes is the people getting in her way, “Season to season the photographers are becoming more and more intense.”
On show versus shoot she suggests, “It’s a totally different experience. Shows are what a make up artist is waiting for! At least me! Its fun and exciting, we also are creating trends! It’s the experience to get involved with some of the biggest make-up artists and learn from them.”
Away from the day job there is Tropic of Ariel. While Beyonce has Sasha Fierce and Caleb Followill once tread the boards as Rooster, Costa has her own alter ego in Ariel Noom.
“(The) name came from first, Ariel, The Little Mermaid, because of my experience of life its like ‘you can take my voice, I will get legs’ and vice versa. I always will get a way to make me happy whatever is on the way. Also it’s one of my favourite Disney movies! Second, Ariel is the fourth largest of the 27 known moons of Uranus. And Noom is moon backwards, as I am a very moon person and get really influenced by the moon.”
Ariel Noom lets her other skills flourish, taking a non-too formal approach to techniques and the like; melting outlines and pixelating profile pictures.
“Also,” she adds. “I am Portuguese, very TROPICAL! “
Words: Zoe Whitfield
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