Many well-known makeup artists and hairstylists announce their professional endeavors well before entering their teen years, then go on to beauty school, apprenticeships, and to assist established artists well into their 20’s. For Lisa Storey, the path was much more organic. Growing up in Surrey, just south of London, she was eager to join what she calls a “creative explosion” happening in London in the ‘80s. “Being young and going out you meet all these creative people: photographers, hairdressers, stylists,” she told VIOLET GREY. “I didn’t come from anywhere or have any training. It just started with me wanting to do makeup, so I did it.” Soon she was volunteering to man the makeup chair for her friends’ independent magazine shoots and art films, but it didn’t take long for her natural talent to take center stage. By 25 she was traveling back and forth between England and New York, booking jobs from a loyal roster of photographers that admired her work. Storey eventually landed in Los Angeles where she splits her time between editorial and red carpet jobs, shooting with photographers like Matthias Vriens-McGrath, Mario Testino, Patrick Demarchelier, and Terry Richardson and prepping celebrity clients like Miranda Kerr, Kate Bosworth, Winona Ryder, Jennifer Garner, and Lena Headey. Her signature could be described as soft, flawless, and lacking any harsh edges, a meticulous technique she honed thanks to years of working without the comforts of retouching. Even today she prefers if her work is left unretouched. “If you’re going to perfect everything then you take all the soul out of it,” Storey says. A true testament to her unwavering love of an honest creative process.