Daniel Martin Is Tatcha's New Global Director Of Artistry And Education

All it takes is glancing at your own reflection in a mirror to know that skincare is king these days. Makeup artist Daniel Martin has long been a fan of the skin-first approach to beauty too, favouring a natural glow over a smoky eye for his celebrity and royal clientele. After six years with Dior Beauty and nearly four years with Honest Beauty, Martin is now joining luxury skincare brand Tatcha as the first-ever Global Director of Artistry and Education.

"This the next step for me to part of a brand in a bigger way," Martin tells BAZAAR.com. "It's going to be a lot more than just Global Creative Director—I am actually going to help implement education with their team."

Mastering the art of makeup starts with the foundation of skin, after all. For Martin, going back to education is actually going back to his roots—it's how we got his start in the industry. It wasn't before long that Martin started working with celebrity clients—including Nina Dobrev, Elisabeth Moss, Jessica Alba, Gemma Chan, and Meghan Markle—who look to Martin not just for his artistic eye, but also as a loyal friend and beauty expert.

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"My work is so much about skin and taking care of skin, it's never about a crazy eye or crazy lip or anything funky," he says. "It's about the appreciation of skin and using color as the accessory to skin. It's always been in my DNA, so it was symbiotic how all kind of happened."

This new role with Tatcha was a long time coming. The artist was first introduced to Tatcha by founder Vicky Tsai a decade ago, when she sent him the brand's first product to test— the Original Aburatorigami blotting papers. They soon began collaborating together on products like the Kyoto Red Silk Lipstick and best-selling Silk Canvas Primer. For fans of Tatcha's primers and lipsticks, Martin's new role will bring new and innovative makeup your way.

"We can expect more color but in a different way. I really want to focus on innovation. There's just so much makeup. Especially at the price point that we're at, it needs to be special, it needs to be iconic, it needs to be remembered. I need to figure out how to bridge that so it's appreciated," he says. "Because everything is formulated in Japan and she has her own team, this is where I want to get into the DNA and really figure out how we can take the heritage of artistry from Japan and innovate it and make it sustainable, make it eco, and make it as cool as possible and modern without losing the integrity."

But first, Martin redesigned the product that started his love affair with the brand: the blotting papers. Launching today on Tatcha.com and Sephora.com, the 10th-anniversary Original Aburatorigami Blotting Papers are done in a new, horizontal size and shape that make it easy to carry in a clutch.

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The makeup artist has carried the blotting papers in his kit for a decade, but he's also converted his celebrity clients to be Tatcha skincare fanatics, too. "Elisabeth Moss loves the Water Cream and Dewy Skin Cream franchise, Nina Dobrev loves the Dewy Skin Mist, and Jessica Alba is a fan of the Dewy Skin Cream as well," says Martin. It's been previously reported that Markle is also a fan of Tatcha's Rice Polish exfoliator.

Martin is personally a big fan of the brand's soothing Indigo line for his own skin. "I feel like the Indigo line doesn't get a lot of love because it's formulated for someone who has eczema. But if you have redness or really sensitive skin, the Indigo line is great. It's really, really aroma-neutral, it takes care of your skin, you don't feel it when it's on," he adds. "Tatcha is the most innovative skincare brand on the market right now. It's very thoughtful, it's very conscious, and it's a brand based on simplicity and good skincare rituals and how to take care of your skin."

We asked Martin—are the days of wearing a full-face of makeup really over? "The ones who wore makeup everyday, I think you're not going to see them in full drag anymore because they spent the last three months letting their skin breathe. They're not going to go back to wearing makeup again, and if they do it's just to dress themselves up to feel good to be outside to see whomever," he says. "I think the ones who didn't wear makeup, who spent this time learning how to do makeup, are going to show off what they've learned. It's almost kind of like this liberation and coming out party. Like I figured out a cat-eye, now let me show you. Especially if my ass is wearing a mask."

However, the love of makeup doesn't just go away because we're wearing it less. It will evolve into a form of experimentation and self-care. "I feel like when you have that time with yourself to do makeup, it makes you feel good," he says. That doesn't mean the makeup we do use has to be absent of skincare benefits. "This is the first time there's going to be a skincare brand that has a makeup artist out in the field that's going to help them integrate skincare and makeup together," he adds. To us, that is the future of makeup, and Martin and Tatcha are leading the charge.

This article originally appeared on Harper's BAZAAR US.

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