💥AMG Creates💥

Project: Artistique Liquid Highlighter for Surratt Beauty Creative Direction: Anne-Marie Guarnieri 💥AMG Notes: I am in the process of upgrading my portfolio and site and Substack (and hopefully the rest of my life), and I didn’t want to forget to post these projects because they’re good and they also happen to best-selling products that I helped develop. (Good job, me!) I’m on record about how much I love highlighter, it’s a top-5 must-have beauty product for me. If I’m wearing makeup, I’m wearing highlighter. I did a lot of testing for this formula (shades, component, competitors), and it ended up being pretty good. It’s not overly shimmery, it’s not greasy, it wears well throughout the day. Although the component’s origin story is cool (it was modeled after a bingo dauber), I have grown to think it would have been even better in a tube or a bottle, like Rare Beauty’s Luminizer. Customers complain about it, but it hasn’t stopped them from buying it. Consumers are funny that way. Photos: Ruo Bing Li and Alana Taylor Slutsky Prop Styling: Anne Kohlhagen
 Makeup: Kirin Bhatty
 Makeup Assistant: Julie Rose
 Hair: Joey George
 Hair Assistant: Harley Beman
 Nails: Shirley Cheng
 Model: Billie Nyak
 Art Direction: Tyler Dunn

Project: Expressioniste Brow Pomade for Surratt Beauty Creative Direction: Anne-Marie Guarnieri 💥AMG Notes: I am in the process of upgrading my portfolio and site and Substack (and hopefully the rest of my life), and I didn’t want to forget to post these projects because they’re good and they also happen to best-selling products that I helped develop. (Good job, me!) I prefer dense, full eyebrows. This is partially because I lived through the over-plucked 90s era; there were no guarantees that those razor-thin, sad brows would actually grow back. So when mine finally did, I vowed to leave them mostly alone, trends be-damed. And when they need to be filled in or I want them to look fuller, I prefer a brow pomade or a similar formula to a pencil, all day long. (I really do not love a brow pencil, and I have tried A LOT of them.) Creating a tinted version of Surratt’s cult favorite clear brow pomade was a no-brainer. I think I threw the idea out there in a staff meeting at some point during the pandemic, and the next thing I knew, our product developer Makiko Hagio had samples in my mailbox. What makes this one especially good: The brush is bristly, like a little toothbrush, so you can coat each and every brow hair. And the tint covers grays really well. Glossier Boy Brow comes close, but I don’t love its brush (too short/stubby) and the formula is thicker, which makes it a little harder to work with. Video/Photo: Ruo Bing Li and Alana Taylor Slutsky Prop Styling: Anne Kohlhagen
 Makeup: William Scott 
Hair: Rubi Aguilar 
 Nails: Shirley Cheng 
 Model: Meng Zheng
 Art Direction: Tyler Dunn

Project: Beyond Beige Eye Quad for Surratt Beauty Creative Direction: Anne-Marie Guarnieri 💥AMG Notes: I am in the process of upgrading my portfolio and site and Substack (and hopefully the rest of my life), and I didn’t want to forget to post these projects because they’re good and they also happen to best-selling products that I helped develop. (Good job, me!) Beyond Beige, I named it as a bit of an inside joke because at the time, the brand had nearly 50 eyeshadow shades, approximately 3/4 of which were beige or beige adjacent, including something like 10 variants of peach. (Looking back, that is insane.) Initially, it didn’t seem like a problem, because a core tenet of the brand was being your own makeup artist, creating a custom palette, not forcing you buy pre-selected options, etc. However, consumers told us time and again that they were overwhelmed by the number of shade options, and actually DID want something pre-filled. Beyond Beige contains 4 neutral shadows that makeup artists told us they used most often, across a variety of skin tones, and what do you know, it became an almost instant top-seller. Sometimes the customer IS right. Photos: Ruo Bing Li and Tyler Dunn Makeup: William Scott Hair: Rubi Aguilar Nails: Shirley Cheng Model: Ashley Karah
Art Direction: Tyler Dunn

Project: Display units for Surratt Creative Direction: Anne-Marie Guarnieri 💥AMG Notes: I was cleaning up my photos folder recently and found these (not very good) images of display units I helped design for Surratt. This area of the business was new territory for me, as I certainly had no prior experience producing this kind of thing, but I did what I do with any project I’m given and just figured it out. A thing I didn’t appreciate at the time: These displays are hyper-specific and SO EXPENSIVE. I’m talking hundreds to thousands of dollars, depending on the size/configuration, and how much space your brand can afford in a given retailer. Another thing I didn’t know: When you’re exited from a retailer, these displays get trashed. They’re custom built, so if the brand doesn’t have another, similar space for that unit, it becomes (very pricy) landfill. What you’re looking at are three different display units from Neiman Marcus Hudson Yards (RIP), Saks Fifth Avenue, and the Nordstrom flagship in Manhattan. I’m still proud of them, especially the video display at Saks, but it blows my mind that these things are so ephemeral.

Project: Display units for Surratt Creative Direction: Anne-Marie Guarnieri 💥AMG Notes: I was cleaning up my photos folder recently and found these (not very good) images of display units I helped design for Surratt. This area of the business was new territory for me, as I certainly had no prior experience producing this kind of thing, but I did what I do with any project I’m given and just figured it out. A thing I didn’t appreciate at the time: These displays are hyper-specific and SO EXPENSIVE. I’m talking hundreds to thousands of dollars, depending on the size/configuration, and how much space your brand can afford in a given retailer. Another thing I didn’t know: When you’re exited from a retailer, these displays get trashed. They’re custom built, so if the brand doesn’t have another, similar space for that unit, it becomes (very pricy) landfill. What you’re looking at are three different display units from Neiman Marcus Hudson Yards (RIP), Saks Fifth Avenue, and the Nordstrom flagship in Manhattan. I’m still proud of them, especially the video display at Saks, but it blows my mind that these things are so ephemeral.

Project: Display units for Surratt Creative Direction: Anne-Marie Guarnieri 💥AMG Notes: I was cleaning up my photos folder recently and found these (not very good) images of display units I helped design for Surratt. This area of the business was new territory for me, as I certainly had no prior experience producing this kind of thing, but I did what I do with any project I’m given and just figured it out. A thing I didn’t appreciate at the time: These displays are hyper-specific and SO EXPENSIVE. I’m talking hundreds to thousands of dollars, depending on the size/configuration, and how much space your brand can afford in a given retailer. Another thing I didn’t know: When you’re exited from a retailer, these displays get trashed. They’re custom built, so if the brand doesn’t have another, similar space for that unit, it becomes (very pricy) landfill. What you’re looking at are three different display units from Neiman Marcus Hudson Yards (RIP), Saks Fifth Avenue, and the Nordstrom flagship in Manhattan. I’m still proud of them, especially the video display at Saks, but it blows my mind that these things are so ephemeral.

Project: Product and brand copy for Skinfix Copywriting: Anne-Marie Guarnieri 💥AMG Notes: It’s been a minute since I worked on a pure copywriting project, and I have to say this one was a dream. It was also a rebrand for Skinfix, which gave me room to play around with the words and to use a lot of adjectives for “hydrated.” I learned this particular skill when I was an editor at Allure, and it served me well on this job. It is SO much harder to write short than long. You have to provide crucial information and details to a consumer in a small amount of space—in this case, around 250 characters—so word choice matters. I like writing product copy. You can hire me to write yours, if you like. I’m told I am a delight to work with 👼🏼 Director of Product Marketing + Brand Strategy, Skinfix: Ali Oshinsky Director of Ecommerce, Skinfix: Evadney Petgrave

Project: Product and brand copy for Skinfix Copywriting: Anne-Marie Guarnieri 💥AMG Notes: It’s been a minute since I worked on a pure copywriting project, and I have to say this one was a dream. It was also a rebrand for Skinfix, which gave me room to play around with the words and to use a lot of adjectives for “hydrated.” I learned this particular skill when I was an editor at Allure, and it served me well on this job. It is SO much harder to write short than long. You have to provide crucial information and details to a consumer in a small amount of space—in this case, around 250 characters—so word choice matters. I like writing product copy. You can hire me to write yours, if you like. I’m told I am a delight to work with 👼🏼 Director of Product Marketing + Brand Strategy, Skinfix: Ali Oshinsky Director of Ecommerce, Skinfix: Evadney Petgrave

Project: Product and brand copy for Skinfix Copywriting: Anne-Marie Guarnieri 💥AMG Notes: It’s been a minute since I worked on a pure copywriting project, and I have to say this one was a dream. It was also a rebrand for Skinfix, which gave me room to play around with the words and to use a lot of adjectives for “hydrated.” I learned this particular skill when I was an editor at Allure, and it served me well on this job. It is SO much harder to write short than long. You have to provide crucial information and details to a consumer in a small amount of space—in this case, around 250 characters—so word choice matters. I like writing product copy. You can hire me to write yours, if you like. I’m told I’m a delight to work with 👼🏼 Director of Product Marketing + Brand Strategy, Skinfix: Ali Oshinsky Director of Ecommerce, Skinfix: Evadney Petgrave

Project: Campaign images for Surratt Creative Direction: Anne-Marie Guarnieri 💥AMG Notes: Look, in every brand, products get discontinued. MAC has created an entire secondary market around its discos. There are sites and eBay accounts devoted to sourcing and reselling makeup that is no longer with us. Makeup artists like Lisa Eldridge and Erin Parsons have incredible collections of vintage makeup, and share stories about them that are not only entertaining, but educational. But for every SKU that goes off into that goodnight, so too must the creative that once proudly advertised it. Here are a few of my favorite images from the disco category. Somebody cue up “It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday” by Boyz II Men. Photo: Ruo Bing Li
Makeup: Kirin Bhatty
Makeup Assistant: Julie Rose
Hair: Joey George
Hair Assistant: Harley Beman
Nails: Shirley Cheng
Model: Billie Nyak
Art Direction: Tyler Dunn

Project: Campaign images for Surratt Creative Direction: Anne-Marie Guarnieri 💥AMG Notes: Look, in every brand, products get discontinued. MAC has created an entire secondary market around its discos. There are sites and eBay accounts devoted to sourcing and reselling makeup that is no longer with us. Makeup artists like Lisa Eldridge and Erin Parsons have incredible collections of vintage makeup, and share stories about them that are not only entertaining, but educational. But for every SKU that goes off into that goodnight, so too must the creative that once advertised it. Here are a few of my favorite images from the disco category. Somebody cue up “It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday” by Boyz II Men. Photo: Ruo Bing Li
Makeup: Susie Sobol
Hair: Rubi Jones
Model: Ava Fitzgerald
Art Direction: Tyler Dunn

Project: Campaign images for Surratt Creative Direction: Anne-Marie Guarnieri 💥AMG Notes: Look, in every brand, products get discontinued. MAC has created an entire secondary market around its discos. There are sites and eBay accounts devoted to sourcing and reselling makeup that is no longer with us. Makeup artists like Lisa Eldridge and Erin Parsons have incredible collections of vintage makeup, and share stories about them that are not only entertaining, but educational. But for every SKU that goes off into that goodnight, so too must the creative that once advertised it. Here are a few of my favorite images from the disco category. Somebody cue up “It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday” by Boyz II Men. Photo: Christine Hahn Makeup: Hannah Murray Hair: Braydon Nelson Model: Lilla Molnar