In Her Element

Makeup artist and hairstylist Bambbi Fuentes shows us how one can stay relevant in the industry all these years

- Marella Ricketts

With a range of celebrity clients and various salon branches under her belt, legendary makeup artist and hairstylist Bambbi Fuentes is at a point in her career where she no longer needs to introduce herself—yet she still does. As she walks in the studio for the day’s shoot, she warmly greets everybody in the room, showering them with genuine compliments. Aside from her much-lauded talent, perhaps it is also this sweet disposition that has made her an industry favorite all these years.

Fuentes’ effortless skill in bringing out the best in others started early. “My love for makeup started in grade school, when I would slightly alter the makeup in the magazine covers my mother would subscribe to,” she says, reminiscing her childhood, adding that she would use crayons to thicken the cover girls’ brows or change the color of their lipstick to highlight their features. Her interest in hair would start at around the same time, when she would play with her sister’s long hair.