Kate Moss, spiral perms and desert island products: 30 mins with makeup artist Val Garland 

Kate Demolder speaks to the beauty pro about Lady Gaga, self-belief — and the liquid liner you need in your kit

Val Garland

There is an untold number of kitsch Instagram profiles and blandly-written airport books dedicated to the sublime cruciality of motivation. ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway,’ they scribe, adding further to the robust cottage industry sculpted around the innate fear that the wrong choices can dramatically alter one’s life. The process of following such conversations can often lead one to feel disillusioned and cloyed, but one 30-minute Zoom call with legendary makeup artist Val Garland, and I found myself believing in the power of self-directed fear.

Ding! Dong! The global director of L’Oreal Paris has entered the chat. “Hello honey,” she purrs onto the screen, all feather bangs and cat-eye specs that would make Jean Seberg proud. She’s in Dublin as part of her ongoing role — it’s her fourth year in the job, she tells me — with the beauty megalith, but Irish humour, self-deprecation, and perseverance, she says, has always felt close to home. “Both of my parents are from Dublin,” Garland reveals. “My father grew up in Ballybough, and my mother just off O’Connell St. I still have relations in Tallaght!”