Bree Mary Artistry
Special effects makeup artist Bree Nistico, Photo by Nolan Dennhardt
A Makeup Artist for the Season
By Taylor Onski
Having a creative outlet can make our days a little brighter. For 34-year-old special effects makeup artist Bree Nistico, however, her creative outlet makes her days a little darker…in a good way!
“As long as I can remember, I've always loved horror movies,” says Nistico. “I have this side to me interested in the macabre and how even though it's a dark side of humanity, it's part of who we are as people.”
Known as @breemary.artistry to her over 8,000 Instagram followers, Nistico’s digital portfolio is a masterful celebration of this lifelong love. Beginning with The Joker cosplays six years ago, she has honed her skills in special effects and prosthetics for human and non-human creatures.
“As a kid, I always loved to do makeup with the crappy face paints all by myself. As I got older, I started buying cheap Spirit Halloween makeup, and then I enjoyed it so much that I started diving into it deeper and obviously honed in on my skills.”
Nistico has worked locally on horror short films and dance videos and is currently dabbling in curated photoshoots to bring her creations to life. “The forest monster was my first time having a professional photoshoot. I had this whole story in mind going into it,” she says. “It's all in my brain and then it comes out in the brush—this monster living in the wilderness, who hasn’t had contact with the outside world, coming into contact with a photographer. I bought the mask online. It was plain white, so I ended up painting and designing that one myself after the fact. Then the makeup, and then the photographer and I went into the woods, and did the photos.”
As for her favourite part about all this, it’s the community of friends she has made here and worldwide, as well as knowing her skills are getting better and better the more she does what she loves.
“I made a little money off it, but my focus isn't to make money. It's a creative outlet,” she says. “To do the fun, creative stuff is what I like best: making my own prosthetics, character designs, or illusion designs where the face is a little bit distorted, but you can't really tell [it’s a] real face behind it.”
For more info, follow @breemary.artistry on Instagram.
