Award-winning Ghanaian makeup artist Valerie Lawson (opens in a new tab) is bringing her professional bridal career to a close after 18 years.
The bridal makeup artist, known as one of Ghana’s best-known creatives, shared the news with her followers last week on Instagram
According to the founder of Contours by Valerie Lawson, the 2026/2027 bridal season will be the last one in which she accepts bookings, and final bookings for the season are now open.
Lawson began working as a makeup artist at 17, and she wrote that the Ghanaian bridal industry “wasn’t always an easy space to navigate.” Over almost two decades, she became one of the most sought-after names in the country’s wedding scene.
She was named Makeup Artist of the Year at the Glitz Africa Style Awards in 2017 and 2018, won Best Bridal Makeup Artist at the Ghana Makeup Awards in 2018 and took the same awards’ Makeup Artist of the Year title in 2019.
In March 2020, Maybelline New York appointed her artistic director in Ghana, making her the first Ghanaian makeup artist to hold the role. Her annual bridal campaigns, which began in 2016, have featured some of Ghana’s leading fashion houses, including Pistis and Christie Brown.
For Lawson, the work has meant more than the brides she prepared for the aisle. “Through bridal artistry, I have found so much more than a career,” she wrote. “I have found family, friendships, community, purpose, and some of the most beautiful relationships I will carry for a lifetime.”
She also thanked the brides, families and colleagues who had supported her, and “every person who believed in that young girl with her brushes,” adding that they had “been part of something so much bigger than makeup.”
Her client list has reached well beyond Ghanaian brides. According to her website, the women she has done makeup for include former Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Mastercard Foundation CEO Reeta Roy, Ghana’s former Second Lady Samira Bawumia and the marketing executive Bozoma Saint John.
In an interview with BellaNaija Weddings, she also listed the Angolan model Maria Borges and the American actress Nicole Ari Parker among her clients.
Education is already a big part of her life. Since November 2023, she has worked as an associate lecturer at London College of Fashion, part of the University of the Arts London, where she teaches makeup and beauty, develops curriculum and mentors students preparing for careers in the beauty industry.
Since December 2021, she has also served as a director of the Valerie Cares Foundation.
