Alberto Dugarte, the celebrity stylist: “I have traveled the world with Georgina, she is super cute”

Alberto Dugarte He was born in Venezuela (Caracas, 1985), but spent his childhood and adolescence playing with brushes in the town of Ourense Xinzo de Limia. He then moved to Tenerife, where he realized that he preferred makeup brushes and hairdressing brushes. He was doing well but a heartbreak led him to put an ocean in the middle, and in 2011 he started from scratch in Madrid. Today is, on its own merits, one of the referents of makeup in Spain.

He defines himself as “passionate, dreamy and hardworking”, something, the latter, which is attested by his extensive curriculum: he runs his own make-up academy and his client portfolio includes such famous people as Georgina Rodríguez, Isabel Pantoja, Ana Obregón, Paula Echebarría, Paloma San Basilio… and international celebrities like Mel C or Latoya Jackson. He has worked with Ridley Scott in ‘Exodus: gods and kings (2014) and, together with his team, he is in charge of the ‘looks’ of the most important programs and ‘talents’ on TV, from ‘Got Talent’ (Telecinco) to ‘Mask Singer’ (Antenna 3). HBO has just released the ‘reality’ dating show ‘FBOY Island’, where it has also collaborated, before coming to Barcelona to offer one of its ‘master classes’ at the Expo Beauty Barcelona 2023 professional salon, which is held until tomorrow, 27 March, at the Gran Via venue.

-He has touched all the sticks in the world of styling: television, fashion editorials, movies, video clips, advertisements…

-In the end everything is the same, in all I make up and do my hair. I like to work under pressure, that’s why I’m passionate about the programs, because people have to be ready in a very short time.

-A restless ass who in 2016 was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit at Work in recognition of his professional career.

-When they called me to give me that award I thought it was a phone joke, I didn’t believe it… But yes, sometimes I ask myself where I get the time from, traveling around the world and fulfilling all the agenda . The secret is to sleep little and work every day of the week. It’s good? Yes, you like what you do and live from your dream.

-How were your beginnings?

-Very hard. She sent resumes to make-up artists who were in fashion at the time, to modeling agencies, to television sets… and no one answered me, or they said no. But I believed in myself, in my dream and I didn’t throw in the towel. I kept doing exchanges to expand my ‘book’ and exposing my work on Facebook. I knew that at some point someone would notice me.

-When did the jump occur?

-It was progressive. First, a cover for Carrefour, for a shopping center on my islands… and then a ‘Hello!’. It wasn’t suddenly arriving and doing a ‘Got Talent’.

-Today he is the head makeup artist for Ana Obregón, Paula Echevarría, Paz Padilla… and, above all, Isabel Pantoja.

-I’ve been with Isabel for four years, I’ve made the covers for her latest albums, which have been quite a revolution. We are friends, because we make-up artists are a bit of a psychologist in the artists’ dressing room. In those moments of intimacy we tell each other everything, in the end a very beautiful connection is created between the artist and the makeup artist.

-Tell me, Ana Obregón, what do you like to stand out the most?

-Nothing in particular, but that the set is perfectly. Both the hair, the makeup, the jewelry, the accessories, the shoes, the dress, everything has to be in perfect harmony. He is very perfectionist. And I love it, because that forces me to give my best.

-In her latest appearances, Isabel Pantoja has renewed her ‘look’ and has even been compared to ‘Beyoncé’, when in 2019 she presented the song ‘Fall in love’ with that curly hair.

-Isabel Pantoja has had a before and after after going through ‘Survivors’ [en 2019]. The island showed us Isabel Pantoja to the natural, without that casing that she had, of makeup and hairdressing, always perfect. We saw her as she is, with her roots, without makeup, with her swimsuit and her beach. That greatly rejuvenated her, and her being with such young companions and of different characters. Right after I started working with her, and that paved the way for me to be able to advise her with a more different ‘look’, less marked by the eye, brighter, more subtle. She has already made this ‘look’ her own and she defends it super well.

-She has other viral works, like that bow from the 2019 Campanadas by Paz Padilla or that controversial bald head that Tamara Gorro has worn at the recent Ídolo Awards.

-I don’t know why, but the artists call me to do crazy things. Paz Padilla told me that she didn’t want to look pretty and elegant, but rather funny and flashy. And Tamara asked me for something special and different, with stones, butterflies, without hair… It fills me with pride that they call me for jobs like this, very creative. I love giving that different touch on television, where we always see the same thing: smoky hair, straight hair, wavy hair…

-‘How is working with Georgina, in her Netflix docuseries?

-I met Georgina on ‘Mask Singer’, the Antena 3 program where I am the director of makeup and hairdressing. It was a crush, and she called me to work on her docuseries. I have been able to travel with her all over the world. She is super cute, we have had an amazing time. And I also had the opportunity to do Cristiano’s makeup. In the second season Serpent has been occupied [el maquillador madrileño que le hizo el pelo rojo a Rosalía en ‘Chicken Teriyaki’].

-Which international artists have you worked with?

-It was a dream to make up Mel C, from the Spice Girl, because I was a superfan as a child; and Latoya Jackson, it was as if she were doing his brother’s makeup! Someday I would like to work with Beyoncé and Lady Gaga.

-He has even shot a movie from Hollywood, that of ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’, by Ridley Scott.

-The Government of the Canary Islands reached an agreement so that the filming on the islands would have 50% of the personnel there. And I was already known then, and they chose me. Three make-up artists entered the shoot.

-They say that Queen Letizia often puts on makeup herself, that she learned it from her time on the ‘Telediario’. What grade would she give it?

-She is usually quite successful with her ‘looks’, but I would tell her: ‘Leti, call me, I’ll do your makeup, a queen doesn’t have to do her own makeup’.

-For those of us who do makeup alone at home, any easy expert tricks?

-Something very easy is to take a brown pencil, mark the entire edge of the eyelashes and blend it upwards until the color is lost. This is going to give a mystery that looks spectacular on the eye for any occasion.

-Any current trend that you don’t like?

-People who spend with oil and glitter on the body. You have to be careful with the highlighter.

-What are the projects that occupy you at the moment, and in which you would like to work soon?

-Right now we are recording three programs: on Antena 3, ‘Quién quiere ser millonario’ and ‘Password’, with Cristina Pedroche, and we started filming ‘Got Talent Special’. And I would love to launch my own makeup line, with my brand.