Emily Wood Community24 Images
The Dazed Beauty Community is our ever-expanding encyclopaedia of creatives and emerging talent from across the world who are redefining the way we think about beauty. Discover them here.
There’s a mischief running through Emily Wood’s make-up. The artist has become known for her dreamlike, painterly looks, an aesthetic that she describes as “playful, evocative and bold” and feels like a natural evolution of the bold, disruptive make-up being done by people like Julia Fox and Aoife Cullen a few years ago. This is ”ugly beauty” made wearable for the everyday, a look for people who love Chappell Roan’s fearless approach but can’t commit to the full clowncore or Statue of Liberty aesthetic for a trip to the high street.
Unafraid of colour and never restricted by the usual codes of shade placement, Wood is more likely to use yellows and purples for blush and lime green for eyeshadow, than peaches and taupes. “Beauty is about curiosity and openness, especially to the parts of ourselves that are textured,” she says. Wood’s signature also involves heavily flushed cheeks, glossy lids, and a wildly chaotic method of application, which feels refreshing during a time of restrictive (and conservative) ’clean girl’ rules.
While having worked for big names – most recently doing make-up for singer Lola Young – Wood is a self-declared introvert and, more often than not, uses her own face as her canvas. It’s this openness to the world around her, and her refusal to chase trends, that gives Wood’s work its magic. “[I’ve tried to] let go of chasing what looks impressive, like front covers and doing make-up on big names and choosing work that actually feels good,” she says. “The real highlight has been working with people who make me feel safe and seen.”
One of those people is longtime friend, collaborator and photographer Lewis Vorn. The pair first met on a shoot in London, and then went on to develop their creative relationship alongside their friendship. “Emily’s like a magpie,” says Vorn. “She sees beauty in these little things no one else would notice.” The duo often shoot in each other’s flats, building stories from scraps and textures. “We’ve never really gone into something with concrete boundaries,” Vorn says. “We usually just start with a feeling or a memory – and that becomes the story.”
Below, we talk to the make-up artist about her early beauty memories and taking time for herself.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and where you grew up?
Emily Wood: I’m a make-up artist. I grew up in Stockport and moved to London eight years ago. Living in London gave me the space to think and feel more expansively, but I hope to never let go of that Stockport instinct to cut through the noise and stay rooted in what feels genuine.
How did you get into make-up?
Emily Wood: At first, I used make-up as a way to feel more at ease with myself. It’s always been a comforting ritual for me and a way to shift how I felt in my own skin. My mum encouraged me to take a make-up course, and that gave me the structure I needed to turn my interest into a craft. Around the same time, my amazing friend Logan, who is a photographer, was also just starting out. We were both drawn to eccentric styles, and I think having someone close who understood ‘the vision’ early on really shaped how I approach make-up now, as a form of storytelling and expression.
What’s your earliest beauty-related memory?
Emily Wood: Lying on my mum’s bed, watching her get ready for dates with my stepdad. She is the best woman. My mum has worn a frosted baby pink lip all day, every day since she was 17.
What does beauty mean to you?
Emily Wood: To me, beauty is about curiosity and openness, especially to the parts of ourselves that are textured.
What’s been your career highlight so far?
Emily Wood: I think it’s been letting go of chasing what looks impressive, like front covers and doing make-up on big names and choosing work that actually feels good. I’m hypersensitive and an introvert, and I thrive in spaces that are calm and genuine. The real highlight has been working with people who make me feel safe and seen. That shift led me to start filming outdoor make-up videos.
They began as a quiet escape and turned into something that completely changed my path. I didn’t expect them to resonate the way they have, but they’ve given me creative freedom and solitude. I now have a deeper connection to both my work and my community, and that has been the most unexpected and fulfilling part of it all.
Who is your beauty icon?
Emily Wood: Grace Jones. I love how she has embodied duality. Masculine and feminine, playful and powerful. The way she creates high-impact lids with pigment applied all the way up to her brow is perfect to me. I love how she makes the contouring around her cheeks and temples feel even more structural by adding bright, contrasting colours to highlight. She layers unexpected pairings like cool metallics and warm mattes. I admire how she made space for contradictions and didn’t ask permission. That’s what beauty is to me.
What is your current obsession?
Emily Wood: Right now, my obsession is deeply listening to my needs. Not in a surface self-care way, but in a very real and uncomfortable way. I used to brush it off when my therapist said that overextending yourself can actually make you physically unwell. But burnout hit me hard. So my obsession is solitude.
Spending time alone and practising not feeling guilty about it. I’ve been trying to give myself permission to truly rest and to let my best friends, the ones who see all the weird corners of me, support me, even when my hyper-independence resists it. I’m also completely consumed by this overwhelming awareness that we don’t have long here, and I want to spend my life doing what matters, not what looks good from the outside and that means letting go of ego and letting people down sometimes.
