Makeup Guru

While much of the music world—and the fashion world, by association—has been focusing its attention on Brooklyn’s generous outpouring of hot new acts, we prefer to take our cues on up-and-comers from the U.K., where synth-laden pop has its origin. Which is how we came upon Little Boots, a.k.a. Victoria Hesketh, whose ever-changing platinum hair stylings and reliance on black eyeliner is as enjoyable to watch as her live show, which is performed almost entirely with her trusty Yamaha Tenori-on, an audiovisual extravaganza in a single piece of gear. The futuristic, dance-inducing tracks on her just released album, Illuminations, are not too dissimilar from Britney or Kylie-caliber power pop, except that Hesketh often writes her own songs in addition to belting them out with a sweet, hard-edged voice. She’ll be at Glastonbury at the end of the month and recently gave The Independent her beauty tips for the summer festival season that’s almost upon us. For anyone headed to Bonnaroo this weekend, a few words of aesthetic wisdom:

On Makeup: “I don’t go for a full face of makeup, but I was definitely outside my tent in the morning with a little mirror trying to get my mascara on. You gotta do it. I think makeup-wise I would go for tinted moisturizer, mascara, and some lip balm. Sometimes if you sleep in your makeup it can look quite cool, or you might just look like a dirty stop-out. Many a morning I’ve still been a bit drunk, looked in the mirror and thought I looked really nice. Then I’ve seen photos and thought ‘hmmm.’ “

On Avoiding General Festival Faux Pas: “I don’t like it when people treat [festivals] as an excuse to go all tribal: beads, tie-dye, anything pagan. Fair enough if you are actually into the pagan vibe, but some people get a bit too boho-happy and it gets a bit friends of the earth. And why do people wear tutus, not even fairy outfits, just tutus? But then who am I to judge?”