Make-up artist Natasha Moor, founder of the eponymous cosmetics brand, talks about being stocked at Sephora, her mission to empower women and her charitable initiative #DoMoor
As many a bride will concur, Indian weddings are like marathons: four-day affairs with countless outfit changes, extravagant jewellery, multiple dance performances, upwards of 300 guests, mountains of food and copious amounts of alcohol. It takes an army to bring these functions to life and with so many moving parts they can often feel incredibly overwhelming. As the go-to make-up artist for countless brides, Natasha Moor has become a fairy godmother of sorts, lending a sense of calm to otherwise frenetic events.
A search on Instagram using the hashtag #MakeupbyNatashaMoor will return more than 1,000 images of women in complete Indian formalwear with radiant complexions credited to Moor. “Brides usually book me eight months to a year in advance. In some cases, they don’t even have a confirmed venue. I’ve even had a few brides reach out before they had their grooms,” says the 30-year-old ascendant beauty mogul.
Before the pandemic, Moor was jetting around the globe to clients in Whistler, Bali, New York, Florence, London, Turkey, Lisbon and Oman. “I was on a plane every week and it was exhilarating and fulfilling.” While travel is off-limits and large-scale weddings are out of the question, Moor remains connected to her community by continuing to post make-up tutorials and inspirational messages for her more than 60,000 Instagram followers.
The self-professed workaholic says a career as a make-up artist wasn’t always her intention. After graduating from London College of Fashion in 2011, Moor returned to her hometown of Hong Kong to work in PR and marketing. Working for an entertainment start-up, she was tasked with casting and hiring models, writing scripts—and doing make-up. “I quickly realised make-up brought me happiness and a sense of calm and confidence,” she says. The experience proved life-changing. Within a year, she had quit her job and headed to the US to enrol on her first cosmetology course at the Lia Schorr Institute in New York.
By then equipped with the necessary tools and experience, she created her own lipstick in 2016 that gained popularity through successful pop-up shops. In 2018, she launched Natasha Moor Cosmetics. A year later, Sephora came knocking. Moor’s lip colours can now be found in the cosmetics giant’s Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines stores, as well as on her official website. What started as a lipstick brand has evolved into a range of beauty essentials, including correctors and concealers, with product names intended to uplift and inspire, such as Take Control, a contour stick; Kohl it Magic, an eyeliner; and Moor Power, a mascara.
“I used to question whether make-up could really change or impact a person’s confidence,” she says. It was during a stint volunteering her skills at women’s shelters in California in 2017 that she says she had her “A-ha!” moment. “I was doing mini makeovers for victims of abuse to build their self-esteem through make-up,” she says. “The excitement on their faces when they looked in the mirror made me realise that this is why I do what I do.” In 2017, she started #DoMoor, a philanthropic initiative supporting women in need and funding education for orphaned children.
While she plans to expand her business into India and the US later this year, make-up is just the tip of the iceberg for Moor, who feels her profession has the potential to be much more. “I want to continue to create products that empower women and make them feel beautiful. I believe if you have a voice, you should use it wisely,” she adds.
See also: The Psychology Of The Glow-Up: How Makeup Can Help Lift Your Mood
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