When MAC opened in Kolkata in 2008, it was “marketed as make-up by professionals for professionals and of professionals”, remembers make-up artist Abhijit Chanda. The Canadian brand was the first to boast of a make-up studio, where one could by appointment have a makeover done. With gleaming all-black interiors and supercilious make-up artists, MAC felt luxe but almost intimidatingly so.
Chanda and content creator Bianca Contractor (also daughter to celebrity make-up artist Mickey Contractor, who was director of make-up artistry for MAC in India) also agree that that was the ‘vibe’, and perhaps deliberately so.
