6. Beauty in Club Culture

We have come a long way from a dash of blush and a flick of mascara.

Doing your make-up is no longer something you learn only from your mother growing up. Social media has aided in expanding the already billion dollar industry. Online sites are a great way to share your make-up talent or learn from your lack of (thank you YouTube bloggers for showing me a way to actually use bronzer without looking like a train wreck). Though it goes beyond how-to videos on perfecting your winged eyeliner. Today we are shown how to how to recreate looks or to fabricate makeup visions of our own. 

Editorial stylists have shown how original an artist can be using make-up. Amazing talents like Pat McGrath and Val Garland are the OG's of beauty in fashion and advertising. Constructing bold, avant-garde looks, using their artistry to morph models into breath-taking work. 

Though there is a new kid on the block, who is defiantly worth discussing. 

Nicky Ottav is a 20 year old photography student at NYU, but to pigeonhole him with that title alone would be unjust. A friend lead me to Nicky's Instagram account a year ago and we've been hooked since. Nicky gives you a filtered look into his colorful world where you see how far he stretches his creativity. 

In interviews he describes himself as a club kid, someone who is free with themselves and self expression, using the clubs as an outlet.  Nicky transforms himself using makeup, prosthetics, and props. Each look is different but all equally stimulating. 

Strutting down the street in a face smothered with color and the wardrobe to match...it's humans like Nicky who help maintain New York's reputation of being one of the coolest places on the planet (and the universe). 

But Nicky and his clique are not the first to slay New York's nightlife.  Through the years club culture has been thriving (you were just too uncool to know about it). Talents like Amanda Lepore, Björk, and Richie Rich are now household names.  They were so prevalent in underground nightlife, they paved the way for the crazy and extravagant.

James St. James (left) with Bjork and Michael Alig in 1992.

Ottav and company is an prime example of real underground clubs in the 21st century (not the clubs where thousands of shrieking girls take selfies, and grind to Avicii) . Keeping it alive, with their adolescent twist. Utilizing social-media to give us a look inside. 

But lets not forget what brought us all here.... his make-up. Follow Nicky on Instagram for major make-up moments. The kid is a walking art-from.