Bollywood make-up artist Mickey Contractor's range for Mac keeps it real

OH MICKEY, you're so fine, you're so fine you blow my mind ... Yes, there's something about Mickey Contractor that makes you want to burst into song. Maybe it's because he has wielded his make-up brushes behind the scenes of more Bolly-wood films than he cares to count.

So steeped is he in the industry that Aishwarya Rai, the former Miss World and first lady of Bollywood, chose him to do her make-up for her marriage to fellow actor Abhishek Bachchan in 2007. In Indian terms, it was almost like being asked to be Kate Middleton's wedding planner, but he prefers not to blab about it - "she is a personal friend and I considered it a personal favour rather than work". Still, there is no doubt that he has been responsible for changing the face of Bollywood, quite literally.

Starting out as a hairdresser, Contractor - and, yes, that is his real name - moved into make-up for the film industry over a period of several years, having spent his childhood transfixed by the glamour of its stars. "Bollywood is steeped in the blood," he says. "Maybe I ended up doing the behind-the-scene thing instead of trying to ape the stars in front of the camera." Though he adds: "I would have hated to have been in front of the camera, I'm far too ugly for that!"

In the beginning, he was only trusted to hold the mirrors for actors on C-list movies, but slowly he was let loose with his bag of tricks and began to develop a reputation that meant stars would ask for him by name.

It wasn't just Indian films he adored though - those escapist high dramas featuring star-crossed lovers and melodramatic reversals of fortune, ruggedly daring heroes and beautiful but unattainable heroines. He lapped up as many Hollywood movies as he could. And he was acutely aware of a singular difference. "The women in Hollywood were, to me, more natural and more believable. In Bollywood we used to be into panstick and pancake make-up, which looked really thick. I wanted it to look more modern, more real."

His ideas were not accepted immediately and many actresses resisted the move to tone down their look. "There are not a lot of women who are willing to change their make-up very quickly because it's something they've been doing the same way for years," he says. However, over the three decades he has worked in the industry, the changes have been significant, and he is happy to take at least a little credit for that.

"That was my contribution to this culture. I was doing a lot of movies at this time, so when people saw the make-up they realised what I was talking about and they all started to copy it."

Now, "having just stepped into my 50th year", he has produced an all-singing, all-dancing collection of make-up for MAC, designed specifically for Asian skins. "Many Asian women found other make-up gave their skins a grey tone," he explains, "so I've introduced a yellow colour that works so much better."

The foundations may be key products in the range, but it also includes vibrant lip and eye shades in fuchsia pink, liners in peacock blues and greens and a banana yellow concealer that can more easily be carried off by Indian women than by those of us with a pale, freckly, Scottish complexion.

He says the key is in layering: "Few people could carry off the bright fuchsia, for instance, on its own."

And while his humility stops him claiming he can teach us anything new - "I'm still learning myself" - he says the secret to great make-up is looking like you're wearing none at all. "For me, beauty is about a natural-looking woman who wears make-up, but wears it so cleverly it doesn't actually show. She's not just someone who's pretty; she also has a lot of character." n

RUTH WALKER

Mickey Contractor for MAC is available now (www.maccosmetics.co.uk)

• This article was first published in the Scotland on Sunday on January 16, 2011