🇬🇧 "SFX make-up is a form of possibility" - Under The Beauty Radar by nss G-Club

Interview with Greta Giannone, SFX make-up artist

Under The Beauty Radar is nss G-Club’s format exploring beauty artists by going a little deeper. Deeper into the very concept of beauty itself, into inspirations, contaminations, and experimentation. So it was only natural that one episode would be dedicated to Greta Giannone. To be clear, she’s the make-up artist behind the looks of Olly, Gaia, and Rkomi, but she’s also so much more than that. Beneath the surface, this is what she told us, starting from herself and her story before diving into the transformative power of make-up, which doesn’t just make people look attractive, but does so much more.

Interview with Greta Giannone, the SFX make-up artist behind (among others) Gaia and Olly’s looks

Introduce yourself to our audience

I’m Greta Giannone, I’m 27 years old and I’m Sicilian, born in Noto but raised in the province of Varese from 2003 onwards. My passion for make-up was born in Sicily, watching my mother work (she was a make-up artist at the time) and my uncle, who is still a make-up artist and head of the hair and make-up department at the Greek Theatre of Syracuse since 2000. I spent my first springs and summers in that place, surrounded by actors and costumes. When I look for myself, I still see myself enchanted among those sets and reconstructions. Right after graduating in human sciences, I wondered whether to continue along that path and study Philosophy or return to something more visceral yet artistic. I was searching for a form of expression; I probably needed to lighten myself after an adolescence full of intense and conflicting emotions. I decided to enroll at the BCM make-up academy and later studied Special Effects at La Scala in Milan. I know there’s destiny in all of this.

Describe your artistic style in three words

Mutant, sexy, gore.

You’re a make-up artist working with stars and singers, but also with prosthetics and SFX make-up. What feels most natural to you?

I feel like both, and I don’t fully recognize myself in just one direction. If I think about what feels most true to me, I’d say it’s the dialogue between these two worlds. I identify with both because, ultimately, they answer two different yet complementary needs in the way I create, or even simply the way I see things. Make-up can be an act of listening, while SFX make-up is a possibility, a kind of hyper-realistic surrealism. I don’t think this duality is a contradiction. Make-up always exists between these two poles: on one side it reveals, on the other it alters. It’s a language that defines and rewrites. In that sense, I see myself in this oscillation: between respecting what already exists and imagining what could exist. It’s constant tension, and that’s what keeps my work alive.

My approach changes drastically, even if the root remains the same. Make-up is the quieter side of my work: it’s enhancement, observation, the ability to connect with a face. It’s a delicate gesture, almost intimate. I find delicacy rewarding. I look for a balance that feels believable, without interrupting the identity of the person in front of me, especially when we’re talking about an artist or celebrity. There’s a deeply relational, almost empathetic component. Special effects activate a more instinctive side of me and require entering a completely different mindset. It’s a more transformative approach, but one developed through highly technical stages: planning, sculpting, moulds, material knowledge, chemical processes, all steps that demand control. It’s an almost “mechanical” precision but also a freer one, a more altered narrative surface. I work to create illusions that feel believable, even when they take you far away from reality. In both cases, whether make-up or prosthetics, the concept of truth remains central.

Can you tell us about your professional journey?

I started around 2019, after graduating and while attending make-up school. I used to shoot with photographer friends and junior stylists; we needed material and we needed to put ourselves out there, to be seen. It took a lot of perseverance and faith in what I was doing. My family was fundamental in this because they were the ones telling me, “you know what you’re doing,” when in reality what I was doing was simply believing in it. The feedback eventually came. Music videos, magazines, and so on. Over the years my work evolved, and today I’m part of the teams of artists I love, both professionally and personally. Between 2024 and 2025 I worked on my first film as head prosthetic department, Orfeo by Virgilio Villoresi, presented at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival. It’s a project I carry deeply in my heart because it feels like a small miracle. There’s still so much to do!

How does a cover look come to life? Tell us about your creative process

A cover look is born from the interaction between different departments, from translating an idea into something more concrete and operational. My creative process undoubtedly starts from the search for meaning, which I consider fundamental. Often, in project moodboards, I come across countless references (even related to prosthetics) included purely for impact, completely unjustified and without any real narrative reason behind them. I always ask myself: Why?! What is supporting this? I believe a creative process, to truly work, needs intention. I need to enter the narrative framework, or at least know there is one. Trust me, often there isn’t. In any case, I constantly feed myself by watching an enormous amount of cinema. I think knowledge is one of the best ways to truly learn how to see.

In Italy, the SFX make-up field still feels very niche. The general public barely knows these artists. Why do you think that is?

On one hand, there’s definitely a cultural issue. SFX is often associated with genre cinema or very specific productions, so it remains distant from the more immediate language of fashion or the beauty industry, even though in recent years there have been interesting intersections between SFX and fashion. There’s still very little awareness of these figures or this field. It remains a territory that is rarely talked about, and honestly, I’m okay with that because it feels like a way of preserving it from overuse. That said, I truly hope conditions in Italian cinema evolve in ways that encourage the use of prosthetics to tell stories different from the ones we’re used to seeing.

SFX make-up doesn’t seek beauty, but effect. What changes? Do you think there’s something revolutionary about that?

Everything changes. It has a completely different goal, above all the need to feel believable. I would define it as unsettling, tied to the Freudian concept of “Das Unheimliche,” meaning the familiar made strange. It breaks our habitual perception of reality, creating a kind of mental friction, even if only for a moment. We could say, or believe, that there’s something revolutionary about it not because it rejects beauty, but because it completely detaches itself from that parameter. It’s a language that doesn’t aspire to please. Sometimes it’s simply necessary, and that alone is revolutionary. “Transformation happens because it cannot not happen.”

Which make-up trends do you love, and which can’t you stand? Do you generally follow trends?

One trend I love is glitter lip combos. One I hate is blush make-up, simply because it means nothing. I don’t particularly love the concept of trends itself, nor the way they’re generated and consumed. Social media is hungry for content: everything is immediate and temporary, with very few truly new ideas. It’s difficult for a professional not to perceive trends as repetitive in their visual grammar.

Are there any make-up artists you follow and would recommend?

Sadhbhnicuidhir, yurybelyavskiy, izzigalindofx. To me, they’re disturbing, fascinating, and fun.