Viral Beauty Expert Aditya Madiraju Recreates Rekha’s Iconic Makeup Look | Rock The Look

Hey guys, welcome to Billboard's Rock the Look. I'm Neha Joy, here with beauty expert Aditya Madhiraju. Okay, tell us, what iconic look are we recreating today? When you say iconic, the only person that comes to my mind is Rekha. Now Rekha is a 60s, 70s, 80s actress. She can act, she can sing, she can dance, she can emote. She's a diva, she's a princess, she's a queen. But she had a very specific look, like a matte face with a smoky eye, but with a white or a cream eyeliner. And I think back in the day, nobody did that. And that is so camp, and I think the world needs to know. So let's talk about why you wanted to choose this look in particular. I think this look in particular, it's like a matte face with a smoky eye, but you see the white liner. And I think this is so relevant even today. Yeah. Because you see this on TikTok all the time. I feel like she started this iconic makeup trend. Absolutely. How would you describe this? I would say like blurred porcelain skin with beautifully defined eyebrows, but not overdone. Very smoky eye, which is balanced out with a glossy lip. So glossy, matte, smoky, overall clear complexion. Yeah. Like, I think Rekha is everyone's dream girl. Yeah. Even today, she's 72, I think. And yeah, she recently, like two years ago, did a shoot with Boga Arabia. Yes. If I didn't know who she was, I would think she's the empress of some era. Also, I didn't realize how recent that shoot was. How recent that is. She looks exactly the same. Whatever skincare she has, that's what we need. That's what we want. We want Rekha's skincare. I know. So the eyebrow for me is a very defining feature on your face. Depending on how dark you go, how much you fill in, how much you hold back, it's going to define the rest of your makeup. Okay. So what did we do on the brows here? I'm using an Anastasia Beverly Hills brow pen. I filled it in with two different colors. I'm combing and diffusing the harsh lines as I'm going. And I'm trying to create a gradient where it's a little lighter and goes a bit darker as we hit the tail end. But at the same time, I am trying to hold back and not fill it completely so that we are a little bit closer to the reference image that we have. So how long have you been doing makeup? I think my journey with makeup started when I was a kid. I always say that I came out and then I came out with my makeup. So I think all these years of hiding who I am, growing up, especially in India, where at that point it was not okay to be gay, I think it was I needed an outlet. And I think painting, makeup, anything creative, art with color became my outlet. So I've always loved makeup. And my family's like always surprised. They're like, where did you even start with this? I'm like, I have no idea. But thank you, God, because this is the only thing I know how to do and I enjoy doing it. So yeah, I think it's childhood love affair. That's what it is. So we're going to head into skincare. I'm using two different things on you. I'm using a serum. I'm using a thick, thick moisturizer because I'm actually going to do your eyes next. So while the eyes do that, I'm going to marinate your skin in this. This is Augustanus Batter, the rich cream, one of my most favorite. Like he also created a bunch of things with Victoria Beckham and he's coming out with a line with Dua Lipa. Oh, no way. That's tea. Are there dupes for something like this? Like a good moisturizer, drugstore moisturizer that you think would work for something like this? L'Oreal. L'Oreal Revitalift. I absolutely love it. It is light. It is thick. It has hyaluronic acid, which is great for oily skin, dry skin, any skin. Are there any like standout red carpet looks that you love in terms of beauty? Oh yeah, absolutely. Like Doja Cat. Oh yeah. She slays. She is so good with her makeup. She gives it her all. And I love the fact that these pop singers and artists who actually are established singers don't shy away from the beauty aspect of it. Like Selena Gomez, her whole Rare Beauty line, the way she does her face is like the soft girl. Similarly, there is so many, right? Dua Lipa now. She has a very specific look. Her makeup artist is a good friend. And you can see how that inspired Dua's look quite a bit, right? Yeah. So it's like, I love the fact that the singers are finding their rhythm even in makeup. I am locking in her eyelids with a little bit of powder before I hit it with the powder eyeshadow. I love this new Patrick Ta eye palette. Have you seen this? This is the new one and this is medium, okay? This is beauty. It's brand new. And you know you're going home with this after this. This is yours. You guys, I feel like I just won a contest. If you have brown skin, this is the kind of palette you need. We are doing the smoke show. And the thing with eyeshadows is less is more. So you have to build it up very, very gradually. And if you're a beginner, always remember, hold the brush really, really far away. Less pressure, less stress on the eye. You have to be super gentle. Your client has to fall asleep. So I'm going to dip into this palette a little stronger now because I want to bring in the cool tone looks. This is Natasha Denona Eye Sculpt Texture Tone palette. You see how this shade, this shade is a bit more cool tone. This is more neutral. These are warms. So it's a good match. So I think I'm going to use this to really tight line near the lash line to bring in that grayness. But there is like overall warmth in the base. So you do mix like cool tones and warm tones. Yeah, absolutely. That's our body too, right? Like that's just naturally how nature works. Yeah, like there are no rules in terms of sticking to one versus the other. There's no rules, but there is technique. As long as you know the technique, break the rules. So and you can see how there is depth here, depth here. There's a bit of a shade here and I'm building it out into a smoky eye. I'm going to go in with Makeup By Mario's Master Pigment Pro in the shade is Perfect Brown. So this is how we add the smoke. I take it on a clean canvas or on the back of the hand. I use my back of the hand for everything. So by then you'll see how crazy my hand looks. The crazier your hand looks, the better your makeup is. That's my theory. And this is brown, not black. This is the perfect brown, not just any brown. So I'm going to take it on this brush and this is how we're going to create that smoke that she has, but not that intense. Okay. Because this is Neha, that's Rekha, we gotta modify. It's all about adding the depth at the right places and let the smoke like look natural on your eye rather than forced. Adding a little bit of black as well to intensify it. Before I do the lashes, I'm going to tight line your eye. These are Velour under lashes. Different brands make it, but they go under because they have stickiness right on the top here. So they stick under. I used to struggle with the regular lashes because it's hard to get them to sit. These are so easy. This is the 80% done eye look. So her face is completely primed right now. I use One Size Secure, the blur. Anything that smooths the face, fills in the pores. What pores? But you know, it creates a beautiful canvas for foundation. This is really, really good. So talk to me a little bit about how we found my shade or the shade matching for this. We prayed to the gods of foundations. Yes. No, actually. That number one. Yeah. No, I took Laura Mercier, which is actually your foundation, which is beautiful. I love this one, right? Then I went in with one of my most favorite palettes from Make Up For Ever HD Skin Palette and I mixed them together to create the perfect base. It's so hard. I'm always mixing and matching. I know people do that a lot, but it's tough to find one depending on your undertone and skin tone in general. How do you feel about inclusivity and diversity in the beauty space now as compared to before? Oh, it's much better because we have been so loud. I mean, in the creator community, at least, we have all been so loud. The fact that we are missing it and we need it, that brands are finally listening. Like, it's time. It's time we got the right shades with the right undertone because we are the consumers and we're ready to buy. But why are you not selling it to us, you know? The whole conversation got really deep, especially during COVID, if you remember. And here we are. Today we have shades. It feels like it comes so naturally to you to be able to know what works for someone else's face. And you talked about a little bit how beauty was always something that you loved. Was there a specific moment or experience or maybe it was watching something of Rekha's or maybe another Bollywood actress, your own mom. What was the kind of inspiration for getting into beauty? See, that's such a deep question because whenever I think of what really inspired me, it all comes down to the fact that I was told that I, as a man, cannot wear makeup. I should not get into this. And I was a rebellious kid. So when someone tells you, don't do it, you definitely want to do it, right? But then for a very long time, I thought that's why I did the dancing or I did beauty because people said, don't do it. But it was much later that I realized that, I think in my 30s, to be honest, that I genuinely actually love it. So talk a little bit about color correction when it comes to under eyes. Yeah, no, absolutely. I use a lot of color correctors. There are really good drugstore color correctors like e.l.f. This is what I usually like to do. Once the color corrector dries down a bit, I take a little bit of powder and you can see I'm taking like a peach powder because it's close to the color corrector's color. And I'm going to just press on it. So the color corrector is mattified and it doesn't mix with the concealer. That's what happens when you add too much color corrector, the concealer mixes and everything turns orange. And then people are like, why is my makeup looking orange? This is one of my most favorite things that I use. It's Makeup By Mario Soft Sculpt Skin Enhancer. So it looks super dark here, but it sheers out beautifully on the hand and just add the right amount of depth. It's like somewhere between a bronzer and a foundation. You're just going to lift up those cheekbones, add the shadow in there, get it to sit beautifully on your face. And we're done. This is a blush and a bronzer mix. It's from Danessa Myricks and the beauty is that it looks like this. So what do you think this is? It could be anything that you want. Yeah, I would say it's more of like a bronzer contour, right? But this is technically a blush. Yeah. So I'm just going to use it as a blush and just add a bit color here. Also, you want to make sure there's a smooth flow of color from your concealer to your blush to your bronzer. And it kind of helps when you use a deeper blush like this because you're lifting the face and there is less separation between the concealer and the bronzer. Powder bronzer, this is Armani. We love a beautiful satin finish. So when did you start first wearing makeup? That's such a funny question because I don't remember. But the truth is that I think when I started making money because I didn't have to justify to anyone that why am I buying a mascara? Like why does a guy need a mascara? So I think I would say when I moved to the U.S. in 2010. Oh, wow. Yeah, I was working off campus. And you know, you make some money when you work off campus. And I was like, yeah, finally, I can do what I want to do. And I think the first thing that I bought was a mascara. That's why I keep saying that mascara is not makeup. It's a way of life, basically. Because that was like your first. That was like your way into expressing yourself through makeup. Exactly. Wow. Yeah. So I think that was the beginning. But as I said, I've always seen my mom since I was a kid wear makeup, rock amazing makeup looks. Like she didn't wear too much makeup. Honestly, she didn't wear anything other than lipstick. But that lipstick had an impression on me because my first lip kit with Anastasia Beverly Hills was inspired by my mother. Well, I know you said that, you know, the reason why you really wanted to get into this is because you were told that there wasn't a space for you in the beauty world. Exactly. When was that moment for you? When did you feel, I finally feel like there's a space for me here? I think the credit has to go to my husband, to be honest. He's a huge supporter. And I think he always told me that you got this, like people love you for this one. So your husband was your, was the... He's my everything. He's like the best thing that happened to me. You know what I really love? Second skin. And that happens when you melt the powders and the creams together. So we're going to do that. You take the creams, you layer the powders on top, you let them sit so they melt in with your natural body oils and heat. And then you go ahead with a setting spray, which is dewy. And you melt all those layers to create one layer, which looks like porcelain Barbie doll. I'm using Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless. And I like to drench the face right now. And we don't talk, we don't move. We respect the makeup because the makeup respects you. But we're going to take this up one more notch. We're going to go matte, right? So Danessa Maddox Yummy Skin. It's literally powder in liquid format. And this will mattify your face even more. Okay, so we're going to make it dewy and then we're going to make it matte. So it's a roll, right? Like you can make it dewy and melt it in. Then you make it matte and set it. And then you add back the highlighter on top to make it dewy again. You guys, okay, I'm ready. It's a sandwich. That's what it is. A makeup sandwich. And you don't need a lot of this because you don't want to look like over-powdered cream. Like you still want to look like porcelain skin. Now is the time we bring in the drama. The white eyeliner or the cream eyeliner. This is Urban Decay. This is what it looks like. And this is a Signature Waterline. Okay, so this is the key to this look. This is it. The whole look is centered around this, right? Oh my god, like the depth. Like this is what you call the brandy eyes, I think. With like the baby doll laughing too. Yes, yes, yes. That is beautiful. So we are at the lip stage and it's a beautiful, beautiful cool tone lip. I don't know if you can see it, but it's very, it's nude. But it's like a mauve cool tone nude. So I'm going with Makeup By Mario. The shade is called Dark Chocolate. So I love overlining the lip, which basically means I'm going to bring it up a little above her natural lip line onto the hydration line. And I'm going to just shade the lip liner right there. Diffusing out the lip liner completely. A lip liner honestly does 90% of the job in your lip combo. So finding the perfect shade is very, very important. Rekha's lip is more cool tone. I am going a tiny bit warmer to suit Neha's undertone. We're now going to go in with a darker shade from Kylie Cosmetics. I think this one is called Coco and it's a little bit more cool. So with that, I'm going to line the lip again to add that depth. And the beauty is that this matches the smokiness on her eye so beautifully. So this is MAC. And the shade is called Signature Move. It's now getting into a little bit more cool tone. I'm going to add it right in the center to create that satin finish. This is MAC lip gloss in the shade Bittersweet. Every brown girl loves MAC. So this is like a rite of passage. Setting spray. The final one. Close your eyes. Inspired by this look, I give you Neha. Okay, thank you guys so much. This is Billboard's Rekha.