Gina Brooke

Love her or hate her — and if you're like me, it's "love her" all the way — Madonna remains at the top of her game. And after dozens of distinctive looks throughout the years, she continues to set trends on her Sticky and Sweet tour. The North American leg kicks off this weekend, so as a little preview of what's to come, I've scored the makeup details from her longtime makeup artist, Shu Uemura Artistic Director Gina Brooke.

Before each show starts, Madonna spends about 45 minutes in hair and makeup. Of course, she gets touched up in between the show's four segments. "We actually have less than one and a half minutes to not only dress Madonna into the next costume, but touch up her makeup and hair simultaneously," Brooke says. "It's such an adrenaline rush!"

For a thorough explanation of how to re-create M's look at home, read more

I think pretty much everyone can agree that Madonna looks amazing in the May issue of Elle. Her gorgeous makeup look is the work of Gina Brooke, the artistic director of Shu Uemura. As Madonna's personal makeup artist, she's also responsible for those legendary mink-and-diamond lashes from a couple of years ago. Last week, I was lucky enough to chat with her right before she headed off to do Madonna's makeup. Read on.

How do you work with Madonna to come up with makeup looks?
It's definitely a collaboration. She has an idea; I have ideas. Then we combined the two along with hair and styling. It's a collaboration between the hair stylist and makeup artist — and Madonna, of course. She always has an idea of which direction she wants to go in. Usually on certain jobs you walk in and go, "OK, this is my idea." She's like, "No, this is my idea, and then you guys give me what you've got."

What was the idea for the Elle shoot?
For years I've been obsessed with a photographer named Sam Haskins. Every time we have a photo shoot or something big coming up, I always break out my Sam Haskins and I'm like, "Here, what about this?" She's always turned me down. And then finally we actually did a Sam Haskins-inspired shoot for the cover of Elle.

To find out which lipstick color and foundation Gina used for the cover, read more