Sang Jeon is making a name for himself as a celebrity makeup artist whose clients include stars, singers, models, influencers and CEOs from around the world.
He did the makeup of 2NE1’s CL and Minzy for their recent performance at Coachella 2022 in California on April 16.
In an interview with Manila Bulletin, Sang Jeon revealed how he became a makeup artist, how he did CL and Minzy’s makeup for Coachela, clients and his top five choices for most beautiful celebrities.
Sang Jeon said his career started after going to a beauty high school in South Korea.
“Went to beauty high school and after graduating from high school, I worked as an assistant at Total Beauty Salon in Seoul and started working as a freelance makeup artist after finishing my military service,” he said.
He added, “I have loved watching all the American reality shows ever since when I was 11 or 12. (Even though I really really didn’t understand what they were saying but I just loved to watch their life and stuff).”
“My ‘Oh I wanna work and live in LA’ moment was when I watched the reality show called ‘Rachel Zoe’s Fab Life’ and obviously, when I graduated from high school, I told my parents that there was no big financial difference in studying in the US with that money rather than going to college in Korea, but they couldn't support me so I had to start working right away, and time flies,” Sang Jeon said.
He added, “As a freelancer, I've been working well, but one day, I suddenly thought, ‘Oh, my life would be boring if I lived to death like this,’ and I prepared to move to the United States right away. But boom. The coronavirus broke out three months after moving to the US. It's a lie to say that it wasn't hard, but I'm proud of myself for enduring it well. Period.”
Sang Jeon has worked in different fields including magazines, red carpets, galas, music videos commercials.
These include 2NE1’s CL for Vogue, Donnie Yen for the “Mulan” premiere, Clara Lee for the Shanghai International Film Festival, Korean-American rapper Jessi for the Grammys and Cherie for Netflix’s “Bling Empire” Agnez Mo, Jessi, Michelle Phan, Lil Cherry, Raline Shah, Ryan Destiny and Arden Cho.
He has also worked for brands such as Bioderma Korea, Neutrogena, Pony Effect, Clio, Dear Dahlia, Fila, Nike, North Face, Anastasia Beverly Hills, Sigma Beauty, Huda Beauty and Jason Wu Beauty.
Sang Jeon did the makeup of 2NE1’s CL and Minzy for their recent performance at Coachella 2022 in California.
CL, Minzy, Dara and Park Bom surprised fans when they performed “I Am the Best” at Coachella, a reunion after seven years.
“For CL, when I saw the outfit and the stage vibes, I was thinking of doing 70’s punk makeup vibes. We did have some test moments before the real Coachella and since her outfit and her wet hair were already kinda loud we went for like lite 70s punk vibes for her makeup and I loved it,” said Sang Jeon.
For Minzy, he said, “we actually did a pretty natural makeup look for the first rehearsal and after the rehearsal we realized we could go more off so we ended up doing a graphic liner look with glitter at her eye corner.”
“And with Minzy’s outfit being the only one of the girls to show bare skin (shoulder and arm) so I made sure to also give her the ultimate glow using shimmer products,” he added.
Sang Jeon was happy on how CL and Minzy’s makeup turned out and said he was honored to be part of 2NE1’s Coachella performance.
“I think everything went really well! They literally killed it and they looked good! I’m sooooo honored to be part of this historic moment for Korean artists at Coachella!” he said.
When asked for his list of five most beautiful celebrities, Sang Jeon named BLACKPINK’s Lisa and Jennie, Hwasa, Bella Hadid and Nicki Minaj.