Uslu Airlines: Airbrushed Skin Art

2 May 2007 Category: Fashion, Features, Products, Worldwide

PingMag will now enter the field of skin care, no joke. Seriously, you don’t have to be into beauty products at all to be amazed by this: Uslu Airlines is an airbrush make-up set that transforms the skin with unique water-based colours. Just to show some possibilities with that quite special make-up: as warm-up, give somebody a dark tan in 2 minutes. More: create some fantasy ornaments on someone’s face or prettify a person with patterns sprayed on the skin (or also on clothing) through a stencil. All done with a faint airbrush, soft like a breeze. So welcome founder Feride Uslu from Berlin and make-up artist Kaori Kasso from Tokyo for the Japanese launch of Uslu Airlines. While getting a gossamer spray paint in the aftermath of the launch party, PingMag talked to Feride and Kaori about airbrushed skin art.

Written by Verena

Interestingly, though you can add airbrush make-up to the field of skin art, it doesn’t fit in easily. And rather not confuse it with body painting, another artistic genre to work on the skin - with all sorts of funny results. Maybe it’s best seen in a fashion context, and as such more like a mere accessory. And keep in mind that it stems from spray paint as in street art…

For now, Feride and Kaori, where did the two of you actually meet?

Kaori: I was in Japan working for a textile designer…

Feride: …and I saw some of the T-shirts you had airbrushed. Then we worked together in New York, you were one of my assistants and it kind of clicked. That was 9 years ago…

Feride, I read before that you have done mainly make up works for big print magazines, like Vogue, Glamour, ID, Marie Claire, Harper’s Bazaar, etc. Anything else?

Feride: I just did the cover for the new Bjork album, coming out this May… But basically the editorials I did are a bit old. Lately I have been working most of the time on Uslu Airlines, and just pick a few jobs per year. I want to do my own work now.

As a make-up artist you obviously worked with airbrush before…?

Feride: Yes. In the beginning I did it only for the editorials, for the crazy looks. For the first story I did with airbrush, the smallest compressor I could find was as big as a toaster and a regular pistol. Then I discovered a company in L.A. that sold colours for the skin, because in the whole Hollywood movie business airbrush is quite commonly used.

And when did start to build your own airbrush system Uslu Airlines?

Feride: When I was working freelance and got pregnant, I thought: nobody needs another make-up line. However, until then the results with airbrush make-up were so much better, but you always had troubles with the consistency of the colours. Either you couldn’t touch them, they didn’t hold or the pressure was too high. So this seemed like niche for us. The whole research and development started back in the end of 2000. It’s now on the market since 2003.

By the way, why did you call it Uslu Airlines?

Feride: Uslu is my Turkish maiden name, meaning ‘well-mannered’. The airline concept runs through the whole brand to the naming of each product after an international airport code.

And how did you gather and select these special tools, like the special spray gun for make-up?

Feride: It’s all done by my partner and husband Jan Mihm. He did all the research over the internet, thankfully. I guess, ten years ago that would have taken us ten times longer: all of the components, the inside of the tools are specially made for us and put together by us. They come from all over the world, like the rechargeable battery is from Asia, the pump is Swiss, the little switch is especially made for us. And all is put together in New York. We didn’t invent the airbrush - we just made it consumer friendly.

And these are special colours you use with the spray gun, right?

Feride: That took us two and a half years to create the formula, and then it took us another nine months to find a lab that is able to produce that. But I won’t reveal who it is, as we can’t even patent the formula. You can’t get this colour anywhere else: it is water-based and has a special milky consistency to travel through the air channel.

How does it work on the skin? And how do you get it off again?

Feride: First of all, the colour sits on top of your skin and doesn’t plug into the pores. Airbrush make-up is the thinnest blending you can have, even if you put on many layers. You can use it for a more natural look, or try to be creative with it - as you saw at our launch party. Once it’s dried, it stays. But as it is water soluble, you can easily wash it off. For example, you can give a pale white person a natural sun tan in two minutes. Even if it has to be darker than his natural skin tone. Then you put on the layers: one layer covers just 10 percent of the skin. Amazingly, the spray is so thin you can’t see it. You can’t even make it visible if you take a close-up picture.

Now, I’m getting curious: anyone famous using your airbrush make-up?

Feride: We have a lot of musicians who use Uslu Airlines on stage: it is really the best thing for guys who surely don’t want to use their mothers’ make-up with brush and sponge and all that. I’m not allowed to tell the names of these rock dudes here… But I can tell that, for example, Bjork, Beyoncé Knowles and Britney Spears use it. Paula Abdul just called the other day. She was desperate because she lost her luggage and asked how fast she could get a new set…

Wow, so you already invaded the show biz! But you do so much more with these tools: art, for example. Tell me more about your art project with the Berlinerinnen, the Berlin women?

Feride: I’m Turkish living in Berlin, but I spent 11 years in New York. When I came back to Berlin 2 years ago, I was really surprised about this whole new movement going on with the Muslim girls and their scarves. They didn’t act like wallflowers, they were totally self-confident and so fashionable, wearing these scarves. I mean, there is a whole world out there we have to respect: this is not always about a Muslim wife pushed down. That is why I wanted to show them. As for the series the girls created their own style by putting on the scarves individually.

And the other cushion-like art object?

Feride: Our befriended artist Bojan Fajfric did that at the Rijksakademie Amsterdam. He just used our powder for his installation: a microphone is connected to a speaker inside the upholstered object. The vibrations of the speaker make the powder placed on top of the sculpture slowly spray away. After a week, the surface became like a skin.

Interesting! Thanks, Feride and Kaori, for showing us how Uslu Airlines magically paints mysterious looks on people’s faces! Let alone their other nicely looking products… Hope to see you again in Tokyo, Feride!

48 Comments

1. Posted by: fantasy on May 2nd, 2007 at 7:54 pm

2. I love your ping mag. Thanks for making it special. I see that the woman are humbly covered up and just wanted to say that is why I love Europe these days - the women must be covered up. Soon those that spawn Islam will also be covered up. Great stuff. Thank you for showing Muslim women properly attired and showing that it can be done in Europe too.

   THANK YOU.

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3. Great idea, and an interesting alternative to PhotoShop;)

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4. Beautiful!
   When I saw the make-ups at the launch party, I thought it cannot be for the everyday usage as it was all too creative. But I really love how the make-ups are done on the Muslim ladies above. Absolutely gorgeous!!!

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