Fashion month ended two weeks ago, but Doechii’s Paris takeover lives on. On day one, she had her PFW FW25 debut at Le Grand Dîner du Louvre, a fundraising event celebrating the new “Louvre Couture” exhibit. There, she paired a sparkling yellow Valentino gown with a makeup look to die for. “When she tried that dress on I was like ‘there’s nothing that we can really do to the face,” makeup artist Chelsea Uchenna tells ESSENCE exclusively. “The dress is the moment.”
With her hair slicked back, fresh, glassy cheeks were the ideal plus one. “We can do something with the lip, you know, a little bruised situation,” Uchenna says. Applying a brown shade of Danessa Myricks’s Color Fix Paint in the center of the lip and cupid’s bow, she finished the look with clear lip gloss, which she wore to a dinner afterwards as well. “I absolutely loved that look. She looked divine.”
Starting makeup at a young age, Ireland-born Uchenna got into makeup by watching her mother. “I would sit there and watch her do her makeup and scrummage through her makeup bag,” she says, playing in her black eyeliner and red cherry lipstick. After learning on her own face, “I started doing makeup on other people,” she says. “It kind of just fell onto me.” Since then, she’s worked with artists like Ayra Starr, Saweetie, and of course, Grammy Award-winning Doechii.
“Anyone who I meet and I’m inspired by them I’m always like ‘this is it’,” she says. During Paris fashion week, Doechii attended the Chloe show, which was one of her makeup artists favorite looks. “We pulled a lot of inspiration from Erykah Badu,” she says, pairing the makeup with Doechii’s 40-inch human hair micro braids. “She wanted an effortlessly blown out smokey, but not too dark [makeup look]” made up of warm browns, reds, plums and a little bit of sheen on the eyelids and brows.
Then, she turned up to the Tom Ford front row in a fringe cut mullet and smokey eye. “It was such a chaotic turnover because she had done like two things before that,” she says, wiping off the glam from a Louis Vuitton event and Acne Studios show. “We were in the car at the time,” she says. “I had like 10 minutes to change it from the Acne look, which was like a powdery green, kiki ‘90s kid funky, cool kind of vibe” to the cigarette-toting, blushed out Tom Ford look. The secret to fast-applying makeup? Makeup by Mario’s Master Mattes Eyeshadow Palette.
Doechii’s Canadian tuxedo was paired with a flashy gold stiletto manicure and head wrap for a performance at the Louvre. “I just wanted her to look as African as possible,” she says. “We added a lot of gold shimmer and made the lips frosty and bronze-y” stamped with rounded inner corners to channel the shape of the jewelry. While she wore Schiaparelli at the performance, she attended the House’s show in a bombshell beauty look. “I’m every woman, that’s what it gave,” Uchenna says.
With over seven looks throughout the week, the makeup was the final step in the process. “It was like ‘outfit, hair, makeup’,” she says, making the face fit into the mould. “While she’s trying on all of these outfits, that’s [the beauty team’s] time to brainstorm what we think would look good.” Working closely with Doechii’s hairstylist, Malcolm Marquez, Uchenna came in with a look just as strong. “We want to tell a cohesive [story].”
As for her favorite products? Beauty icons Danessa Myricks, Rihanna and Pat McGrath take the cake. But skin care is most important when it comes to makeup. “Keeping your skin all the way together is going to help your makeup look more flawless,” she says. “I am a huge advocate for double-cleansing because that’s the only way you’re going to get everything—spf, makeup, all the other stuff—off of your face.”