Life & Work with Justin Mayfield

Today we’d like to introduce you to Justin Mayfield.

Hi Justin, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I knew I wanted to be a make-up artist from a young age. Seeing Rick Baker’s section in Michael Jackson’s “The making of Thriller” was very inspirational to me. I was already a fan of horror entertainment and seeing that creating it was an actual career profession was all my heart needed to understand what I was meant to do. I’ve been a Los Angeles resident for ten years now primarily working in red carpet and commercials. In 2016, I founded ” I Wore Lipstick” @iworelipstick a C3 nonprofit devoted to creating opportunity for the “lipstick community”. We’ve had great success lending a hand with organizations such as The Trans Wellness Center and The Covenant House. We provide year-round cosmetic and hygiene donations and produce our own professional headshot event with the Trans job fair. I Wore Lipstick brings in a team of professional hair and make-up artists to provide an empathetic glam service to the participants, Then each receives a free professional headshot taken by a celebrity photographer.

For many, this is their first time receiving this sort of treatment as their authentic selves and is such a beautiful experience for everyone involved. This year we will launch our first scholarship grant to help pay for a community member to attend cosmetology school! Next year we are hoping to create a grant for makeup school as well. Sadly, 2022 saw the end of my cosmetics line ADVEKET, creators of Gender Fluid Beauty. The line was founded to help provide funds to I Wore Lipstick as well as products and to help promote the nonprofit message. In those aspects, we succeeded. The pandemic and recent saturation of the beauty industry were simply more than a tiny independent line could survive. However, ADVEKET’s closure freed me up to explore my other lifelong passion, the horror genre. It’s become a new mission for “I Wore Lipstick” to participate in creating inclusive horror content as a further means to create opportunity for the community.

This year with my best friend Josh Dooley, I created Doom’s Gateway @doomsgateway. A micro production company with a mission to create inclusive horror content that doesn’t rely on stereotypes or tropes and is safe for younger viewers to enjoy. We wrapped our first short film, “Mercy” this spring. A PG zombie film about a community’s reaction to the impending apocalypse. This film will serve as proof of concept for what inclusive horror can look like.

I also created my first drag persona BellaLu Ghostly @bellalu_ghostly, who’s been fully embraced by the horror community of TikTok. Through this character, I am able to discuss the genre through comedy and at times, song. Through BellaLu Ghostly, I’ve been able to gauge the horror community’s interest in seeing the type of content I want to create and the reception has been marvelous.

Finally, I have co-created a horror podcast with my friend of over two decades Auriane de Rudder titled “Why Horror” @whyhorrorpodcast aimed to look at the movies, fans and professionals who populate the genre. Asking Why they chose this genre? Why they love it? Simply WHY?

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
A bumpy road with twists and turns is more like it. Navigating owning an independent cosmetics line during the pandemic was honestly one of the hardest tasks I’ve ever had to face. Watching something you’ve poured your heart, souls and savings into end is simply devastating. Making the decision to look beyond makeup artistry, my lifelong dream career was also difficult. Not to mention just turning 40 to add to the changes happening. I truly feel like many people have experienced this one some level coming out of the pandemic. It’s made us take a hard look at our lives and ask what truly makes us happy? What will both sustain and fulfill us going forward? For me, I believe that path is in the horror community. It is not as if make-up isn’t a huge part of the industry anyway. There’s no leaving being a makeup artist for me. Getting to direct and co-write a film this year opened up a whole new form of creativity for me. Being responsible for producing something of that magnitude was absolutely incredible.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am so proud of my twenty-two years as a professional make-up artist. It has taken me around the world and allowed me to create some incredible art. In this new chapter in my story, I am so excited by the opportunities that I Wore Lipstick will be able to create with our first and future grants. I have such high hopes of creating inclusive horror and having I Wore Lipstick help create opportunities for the community to get paying jobs in entertainment.

Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
I personally try to learn from everyone I encounter in my journey. I think the terms “mentor” and “networking” are hard to define in the age of social media. People don’t need to meet face to face at mixers the way we used to. Instagram and TikTok have become the place people can congregate to without the stresses and inconveniences of going out. Especially in a post-pandemic world. I must say, I have found a level of love and acceptance as BellaLu Ghostly on TikTok. It’s something I don’t think I’ve ever experienced in real life.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @justinmayfieldart