How did an assistant at the Bronx Zoo become Kim Kardashian’s personal makeup artist? History of Mario Dedivanovic

Today, contouring tycoon Mario Dedivanovic, who once almost refused to color Kim Kardashian and later became his master and friend for years, is makeup artist and founder of his own cosmetics brand Makeup by Mario, celebrating his 39th birthday. . Her journey into the makeup world began by chance while working as a perfume consultant at a Sephora cosmetics store. And the strict traditional family did not approve of Mario’s hobbies, so he had to run away from home. However, despite all the difficulties, she became the person she always dreamed of being.

“There wasn’t a lot of beauty where I lived and I’ve always been interested in beautiful things”.

Mario Dedivanovic was born in the Bronx (New York, USA) to an Albanian immigrant family. At the time this was one of the most polluted and depressing areas, so Mario often asked his father to take him to Westchester to see beautiful houses and see a different life. The future make-up artist has always been drawn to beauty, and it is not surprising that she found her calling precisely when working with cosmetics, which she met in childhood. Her mother worked as a cleaner in L’Oréal’s office, so she often brought home products from famous brands – Maybelline New York and Lancôme. One day, Mario found eyeshadow at home. “I remember opening them because I was so intrigued — I wanted to touch them and try them out,” she recalls. But he never did it for fear of being caught.

At 17, Mario got a new shock (in a good way) – he saw a Sephora cosmetics store and realized he was made for this place. She was a busboy, working at a grocery store and the Bronx Zoo, so her attempt to find her dream job didn’t go well at first, but it was just a matter of time. After several months and dozens of calls to various Sephora executives, she received an enviable “yes”—she was hired as a perfume consultant.

“I just had to talk “Welcome to Sephora», “Welcome to Sephora» whenever someone enters”.

One day a woman came to the shop. She could not choose a shade of lipstick for a long time, and she asked the future makeup artist to help her. And although this is not part of his competence, Mario got exactly the color that the customer liked. According to her, she felt at that moment that she had found a job that she would want to do for the rest of her life. While working at Sephora, she did the first make-up in her life, which took three hours. According to Mario, his boss later said, “Good but it took so long.”

Her first serious job in her favorite specialty was a regional makeup artist position at Lorac Cosmetics, a brand founded by makeup artist Carol Shaw. His clients included Nicole Kidman, Cindy Crawford and Debra Messing. Thanks to this work, Mario met the most recognizable faces of the fashion industry and became his own manager at the age of 21.

She soon realized that the fashion world was not exactly what she wanted. She later got a job as a make-up artist to paint presenters for live broadcasts on Fox News. It was during this period that his recognizable style emerged. In the frame, the presenters wanted to look feminine and natural, but at the same time with protruding cheekbones and a narrow nose. Thus, she gained a reputation as a make-up artist, after whose hands women look both natural and perfect at the same time. “When I put my makeup on for the first time, people thought I had surgery on my nose and lost weight,” said one of the presenters of the TV channel.

But all this was not without experimentation. Mario grew up in a paradigm where a man and makeup are incompatible things. Therefore, she was not only afraid to do this to the end, but also did not want to tell her parents. Already a makeup artist, she pretended to work as a consultant in the perfume department. Her family didn’t know anything about it until they found a shoebox in her makeup kit room. Then she took it and ran away from home.

Kim Kardashian: “I came alive when Mario did my makeup”.

2008 was the beginning of Mario Dedivanovic’s friendship with Kim Kardashian. At that time she still could not be called a star – not so long ago the show “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” was launched, so it was too soon to talk about universal recognition.

Photographer girlfriend Mario called him at the last minute before the shoot and asked him to do makeup for the cover of Social Life magazine. It was Kim Kardashian. Dedivanovic didn’t know anything about the Kardashian Family star, even though he had to go to work that day, so he didn’t immediately agree. When Mario first met Kim, he thought, “Oh my god, she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” And the hero of the cover loved the make-up so much that immediately after the shooting he asked the make-up artist to buy him all the products with which he painted. Now, whenever Kardashian came to New York, she asked Dedivanovic to do her makeup. And after a while he invited her to become a makeup artist for the show “Kardashian Family”.

Mario created Kim’s distinctive look – sculpted cheekbones, peach-pink blush, long false eyelashes, matte velvet skin, and highlighter on the protrusions of her face. This makeup has become a recognizable feature of the entire Kardashian family, and face transformative contouring has become known all over the world.

“For me, this video was a turning point in my career.“.

At this point in his career, Dedivanović stayed behind the scenes. So in 2009, Kim invited her to shoot a joint video, where the makeup artist will do her makeup. After the video was released, Mario’s phone began exploding with messages from subscribers asking how to properly make lips or sculpt a face.

Gradually he began to answer all the incoming questions and realized that he had the ability to learn. In 2010, Mario launched his master classes for the first time. They had great success in Los Angeles, so he started making them in New York, London, Dubai and then all over the world. Thus, Dedivanovic not only became an unknown makeup artist responsible for Kim Kardashian’s makeup, but also gained worldwide recognition.

“Before I created my brand, I wanted to make a name for myself.”

Even at the very beginning of his career, Mario seriously considered starting his own cosmetics brand. He always saw this as his ultimate goal. First up, they launched the KKW x Mario: The Artist & Muse collection, which includes ten makeup products with beauty brand Kim Kardashian.

And already at the end of 2019, he met Alicia Valencia, a beauty industry veteran, with whom they created the Master Metallics eyeshadow palette, the first product of the Makeup by Mario brand.

They just planned to make a few products and launch them in a few stores. But after the presentation of the palette, Sephora management said: “No, no. We want you to be in every store.” Mario’s initial reaction was panic, but still, the brand launched in 2020 at the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

And although the makeup artist has finally removed her main target from her wish list, she thinks it’s just the beginning.