Name a supermodel, Hollywood legend, rock star, head of state or world class photographer, and Sandy Linter has worked with them all. As one of only two superstar makeup artists in the ’70s, the late Way Bandy being the other one, Sandy Linter’s work has graced the covers and photo spreads of every top magazine in the world. Her talent, disarming beauty and candid honesty, skyrocketed her to the top of the beauty world where she remains, today.
When you’re sixty-three but look twenty-three, people start to wonder and whisper… But FOF makeup artist Sandy Linter isn’t keeping any secrets. The go-to makeup artist for celebs such as Christie Brinkley, Bette Midler and Goldie Hawn speaks candidly about her own cosmetic surgeries, the products she loves and loathes, and even her own makeup mishaps (she once drew on Jackie O. with an un-sharpened eye pencil.
And now, this open book has written a book: The Makeup Wakeup: Revitalizing Your Look at Any Age is Sandy and her co-author Lois Joy Johnson’s no-nonsense, spare-no-details beauty guide for FOFs. It’s chock-full of product recommendations, step-by-step tutorials and cosmetic solutions (surgical and non-surgical
So you can whisper and wonder all you want about how she looks so good… Or just let Sandy tell you, herself.
“I’m not better than you,” says Sandy. “I’m just a girl who does makeup and I’m going to teach you how.” While you watch me doing make-up on the most iconic artists of all time.
I was born in Brooklyn in 1947, and I grew up in Staten Island. I left Staten Island as soon as I could and moved to Manhattan. I lived in a tiny five-floor walk-up. My roommate and I paid $145 per month
I was a secretary. I would do all the employees’ makeup in the bathroom during lunch because I was unhappy with my job. My husband at the time convinced me to go to beauty school. I got my license and landed a job at a beauty counter of Bloomingdales, owned by a man named Mr. Kenneth. He ran a salon on Madison Avenue with clients such as Marilyn Monroe, Jackie O. and Barbara Walters. One day when he was in, I said to him, ‘Next time you need a makeup artist, would you consider me please?’ And he did. He hired
She filled our bathroom with magazines and makeup but she had no makeup skills at all. I did her makeup every day before she went to work. I was very accustomed to working on her age group even though I was young. I really feel badly for young makeup artists. How are they supposed to know how to makeup a 50-60 year-old woman? It’s really not that simple.
Jackie O’s when she was in her early 40s. I was terrified even though she was so sweet and charming. She put her head back on the reclining chair and I took out an eye pencil, drew across her lid and she screamed. I had forgotten to sharpen it.
Nope. I went back to my desk, sharpened it, and she just put her head back like nothing happened. I did her makeup and she looked beautiful. I gave her a big smokey eyes. She looked at herself in the mirror and it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. She said, “Oh Sandy! It’s so beautiful—thank you.”
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