Cerise Martel-Barber: Beauty Alongside Grief

What began as a teenage fascination with makeup slowly evolved into something much more personal for Cerise — a creative outlet rooted in emotion, memory, transformation, and healing.

Cerise first discovered her love for makeup at fourteen, when she realized she could paint and create directly onto her own face while looking into a mirror. What started as curiosity soon became a form of self-expression. A place to experiment, imagine, feel, and become.

Since then, inspiration has come from everywhere around her: fantasy, nature, everyday life, artwork, mood, memory, and emotion. Her work is constantly shifting and evolving, guided less by trends and more by feeling. Each look becomes a visual reflection of where she is, what she is processing, or what she feels called to create in that moment.

In 2022, after losing her mother — her best friend and biggest cheerleader — Cerise began committing herself to creating and posting one makeup look each week.

At first, it was a creative challenge. Something to keep her connected to her art. But over time, it became something much deeper. Makeup became a form of art therapy, a way to move through grief, and a way to honor her mother through creation and self-expression.

Her style carries strong alternative and gothic influences, often reflecting her emotional state, personal experiences, or imagery that resonates deeply with her. Through color, contrast, texture, and intricate details, Cerise turns feeling into something visible.

Every look shares a piece of who she is.

Often, she pairs her creations with written reflections about the inspiration or emotions behind them, giving her audience a deeper glimpse into the heart of the work. Her art is not just about the finished image. It is about the story, the feeling, and the vulnerability behind it.

What makes Cerise’s work especially striking is the detail and intentionality within her process. Painting intricate designs onto her own face backward through a hand mirror is both humbling and rewarding. It requires patience, creativity, focus, and trust in herself.

There is something powerful about that kind of creation — turning inward, facing yourself, and slowly bringing something imagined to life on your own skin.

Through all of it, Cerise continues creating from a place of authenticity rather than perfection. Her work reminds us that art does not have to be polished to matter. It does not have to be easy to be beautiful. Sometimes the most meaningful work is born from the hardest seasons.

At the heart of Cerise’s story is the belief that art matters deeply, especially when life feels heavy. For her, makeup is not only expression. It is survival. Healing. Remembrance. Transformation.

And proof that beauty can still exist alongside grief.