Marcelo Gutierrez welcomes Gabbriette, Lourdes and Paloma Elsesser into his twisted beauty fantasy

Marcelo Gutierrez fell in love with the beauty industry because of Disney. While watching The Hunchback of Notre Dame, something clicked in his brain as a child.

“My gay awakening was [seeing] Esmeralda on screen,” says the makeup artist, smiling, still, at the memory. ​“Even at the young age I was when I watched the movie, I found her sense of self-determination and sensuality so mesmerising.”

Marcelo, then, wasn’t drawn to the idealised picture-perfection that we normally associate with Disney princes or princesses. Rather, he loved Esmerelda’s agency, drive, sense of purpose — and her edge. Later, as one of the most in-demand makeup artists in fashion, the New York-based Colombian sought to amplify that quality in his clients: cool girls such as Gabriette, Paloma Elsesser, Rosalía and Madonna. That bold, Disney-inspired characterisation, twinned with a love of Warhol-inspired glamour – not to mention a way with a ​“lived-in” look that teases signs of messy nights – became his signature aesthetic.

Photographs of these creative and musical powerhouses, alongside a range of models, now saturate the pages of Nothing Precious: a luxe, coffee-table-ready tome that showcases his skills as not just a makeup artist but as a storyteller, world-builder and character creator.

“Growing up as a gay man,” Marcelo, 30, says, ​“I always was very drawn to the characters in film and music. I used beauty and fashion as a tool for conversation and expression – and almost like a way of taking up space,” he adds, referring to how dreaming up characters helped him shape his identity. ​“Seeing characters whose identity and physical expression were intertwined was eye-opening.”

Shot across four months by fashion photographers Renell Medrano and Aidan Zamiri, Marcelo’s debut book – published in an extremely limited run of 500 – features 25 of his favourite subjects (and a forward written by Lily-Rose Depp). Flipping through the 96-page book, it’s as though the reader is immersed in Marcelo’s own, twisted, larger-than-life fairytale: grainy, Warholian images of Gabbriette sporting a blond up-do with smoky eyes; Lourdes Leon​’s ​’fit is pretty much just skincare; a heterochromia Paloma Elsesser (courtesy of coloured contacts) appears across multiple pages with barely-there glam.

Elsewhere, Marcelo’s muses truly take on lives of their own. One model wears blacked-out contacts, a ponytail, corset and little else. Another is made-up as a clown. Another, teary-eyed muse looks like they’ve just received the worst news in the world – an image almost as arresting as the Pepto Bismol-hued model with a dripping pink substance entirely coating his face.

A child of divorced parents, Marcelo grew up with his artist mother in Bogotá. It would be all too easy to imagine Marcelo became enamoured with the transformative power of a slick of lipstick or a smear of eyeliner while watching his mother get ready – although, clearly, creativity runs in his blood as his father is also an artist. But that’s all too simplistic. He moved with his parents to the USA, where he studied a full scholarship in fine art at The College of The Arts in San Francisco. ​“I come from a family of immigrants,” he explains. ​“So a lot was riding on it, but fundamentally I knew I’ve never been the best student in a classroom.”

Still, when Marcelo subsequently pivoted to makeup, intent on pursuing an otherworldy vision of beauty, his art skills came in useful. As his career blossomed, in 2014 he decided he was ready for the move to New York. “[It’s a] city that shows you who you are, because it’s a city that’s not going to necessarily look after you. But if you look after it,” he says, ​“I think it gives you something really special in return.”

This passion for his adoptive city explains why the book was largely shot in New York, as a way to pay it forward to the city that aided him in his journey. ​“Everyone who was down to be part of the project is a testament to New York spirit, which is pretty much ​‘let’s fucking do this idea!’” he says, laughing. ​“The city is a space where I’ve been able to find a community and be treated as an artist.”

What about Marcelo’s own preferred makeup hack? ​“I would start the day off with a little gloss on the lid, and then later in the evening, I would put some black liner inside my eye. Then when things got sweaty after dark, the liner would start to kind of move around a little bit and merge [with everything else] .”

As for the book’s title: having enthusiastically embraced New York’s rollicking nightlife, striving for a flawless finish simply isn’t a part of his rulebook. ​“My favourite makeup has a bit of movement and it’s not so polished. Sometimes the narrative in makeup comes with the way it’s worn over time, you know? It’s less about when you put it on and more about the story behind it or how many times you reapplied your glam. Each character in the book has nuance and flaws.” So, then, Nothing Precious – but everything cool.

Nothing Precious is available to buy now.