Reggie Wells, Oprah’s Trusted Makeup Artist, Passes Away At 76

Celeb make-up artist Reggie Wells has handed away on the age of 76.

On Jan. 8, Fox Baltimore reporter Keith Daniels confirmed the legendary MUA’s dying on X and introduced by way of the sweetness icon’s Instagram web page. Based on Daniels, the Emmy award-winning make-up guru died early Monday morning in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland. Wells died from a long-term sickness, The Baltimore Banner famous.

“He was so cherished, so gifted,” kin of the revered artist stated, in response to Daniels’ publish. 

Wells, a Baltimore Metropolis Faculty and MICA graduate, “beat the face” of well-known stars throughout Hollywood and the music world. He utilized flawless make-up on superstar titans like Beyoncé, Halle Berry and the ceaselessly first girl Michelle Obama. He was additionally Oprah’s longtime make-up artist. The veteran MUA, who moved to New York to interrupt into the trade within the mid-Nineteen Seventies, labored with the media maven for 30 years.

How did Reggie Wells break into the make-up trade?

Decided to grow to be a make-up artist, Wells left his educating job in Baltimore within the mid-70s to make his goals come true in New York Metropolis. There, he mastered his craft by working at make-up counters earlier than catching a trend editor’s eye and ultimately working with Glamour, Life and Harper’s Bazaar magazines. Nevertheless it was at Essence journal the place he did make-up for fashions and celebrities on greater than 100 covers. On the time, no beauty manufacturers catered to the assorted shades of Black girls, so Wells created and customised his make-up to swimsuit the wants of his Black purchasers. 

His distinctive make-up concoctions impressed Oprah within the ’80s.

“Oprah by no means credited make-up corporations initially as a result of we needed to make it up. Oprah didn’t consider in mendacity,” he instructed the Baltimore Solar in 2017. “I needed to create all the make-up. They only didn’t exist.”

Wells, a member of the LGBTQIA+ neighborhood, did Oprah’s make-up for her inaugural Essence cowl in 1986. “She stated, ‘I’ve by no means appeared this good earlier than.’ I instructed her that I may make her look that good every single day.”

Wells’ make-up artistry prolonged past borders, taking him to South Africa, Australia and the Center East. Nonetheless, the Baltimore native was simply as shortly remodeling the faces of senior members in a retirement neighborhood within the Park Heights neighborhood of Baltimore.

Tasha Jackson, the esteemed MUA’s niece, described her uncle as “the lifetime of the social gathering.”

“He was the one which, when he walked within the room, everybody was in awe. He may command the room,” Jackson added. “He was a storyteller. You have been so drawn into the issues he stated. It was fascinating. It allowed you to assume you have been there on the story. Nobody may examine to his capacity to captivate you.”

On Jan. 17, a funeral service will honor the make-up pioneer’s life and legacy in Randallstown, Maryland.

Learn the complete particulars under.

MadameNoire sends love and lightweight to the Wells household throughout this troublesome time.

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