Posts Tagged ‘Shu uemura’
Shu Uemura (1928 – 2008)
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
Shu Uemura, international cosmetic brand and subsidiary of L’Oreal, all started with Japanese makeup artist Shu Uemura. Shu Uemura helped pioneer the concept of the makeup artist and merged makeup and art through his bi-annual mode makeup collections and on-stage makeup performances. He got his first big break by his miraculous transformation of Shirley MacLaine into a Japanese beauty in the 1962 American movie “My Geisha”. This launched a makeup artist career with films in Japan and Hollywood, including work with celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe, and Lucille Ball. Uemura founded the company Japan Makeup Inc based on skincare. In 1962, Uemura developed his first product (Unmask), a cleansing oil that removes makeup without stripping moisture, that is still sold today. He returned to Japan to teach what he learned, opening a school for makeup artists in Tokyo. In 1983, Uemura re-launched his brand under his own name and opened a cosmetics boutique which was unique in its gallery-like interior. Customers would get the feeling that they were walking through an ar
tist’s studio rather than a store. Large tester counters made it easy for customers to interact with the products. Uemura wanted ‘no barrier between sales clerks and customers’. His main concept was that every woman is captivatingly unique. His brand, renamed Shu Uemura, expanded to include handmade makeup brushes, perfumes, and fake eyelashes. Uemura passed away in 2008 of pneumonia, but his legacy lives on today in 125 boutiques worldwide (half of them are in Japan).
Tags: beauty, biography, history, Shu uemura
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