MUD Celebrates Our Emmy Nominated Grads: Nicole Faulkner and Jen Fregoz

Nicole Faulkner

Nicole Faulkner, alias “Lipsticknick” has developed a name for herself as celebrity make-up artist, with a personal brand marked by bold lips, feathery eyelashes, and flawless skin. You might know her from her beauty influencer status online, with 518,000 followers on Instagram and 42,100 followers on Twitter. She’s performed as herself on Todrick Hall’s MTV reality show Todrick in 2015, only broadening her internet base and front-facing public persona. Her expertise shows through both her industry and technical smarts, as she has become known for applying picture-perfect dramatic looks spanning from drag to high fashion.   

This year, she has received her second Emmy nomination for Outstanding Makeup for a Multi-Camera Series (Non-Prosthetic) for Ru Paul’s Drag Race’s episode “10s Across the Board.” She was nominated for this same award at the Emmys last year, and has worked on the show for the last two years. A show focused on over-the-top looks and extravagant performances, one might imagine the job is many beauty make-up artists’ dream.

Passionate about art from a very young age, Nicole chose to get an art-focused make-up education at Make-Up Designory before moving on to the professional world. Plus, Nicole Faulkner not only graduated from Make-Up Designory, but also has come back to teach, calling MUD “one of L.A.’s most renowned makeup schools” on her personal website [link]. She has also toured as a make-up instructor, and used her marketing and artistic skills to work with multiple large companies and celebrities including the Pentatonix, Tori Kelly, Todrick Hall, and Def Leppard.

Jen Fregozo

Nominated for the same award as Nicole Faulkner for her make-up on Ru Paul’s Drag Race, outstanding make-up artist Jen Fregozo is a MUD grad from our Los Angeles school. She has collected over 20 years of experience in the industry since she graduated from Make-Up Designory, including work for people like Jennifer Lopez, Mat Devine and Siera Kustebeck, and Naya Rivera. She also has worked on movies including Winterthorne, The Blackout, and A Night of Nightmares.

In addition to beauty make-up, Jen Fregozo is an expert in the world of character make-up as well. Creating the make-up for characters based on Saturday Night Live’s ‘Gilly,’ a DC Comic’s Joker, or zombies for a live attraction, Jen Fregozo has become an expert in demonstrating special effects character make-up. She was also the Senior Makeup Assistant Supervisor at Dark Harbor up until 2015. Her character make-up skills have even earned her spots as resident expert on multiple make-up “how-to” videos, like this:

Working on the set of Ru Paul’s Drag Race amongst equally talented peers like ‘Lipsticknick’ seems to be an absolute blast. In an interview with Bionic Buzz, Jen Fregozo was caught speechless, giggling “we love it” and agreeing with her coworker that there’s simply no better way to describe the experience. During this interview, Jen said she was drawn to make-up artistry after having an interest earlier in life in art, media, and pop culture. Like so many MUD grads, Jen’s artistic talent is obvious, as she creates creative and out-of-this-world looks on TV’s most popular drag show.