Maxine Leonard and Valerie Wickes are the founders and publishers of biannual magazine Beauty Papers.
Leonard is a make-up artist known for her fantastical aesthetic, while Wickes runs her advertising and brand consultancy, View Creative. Having built careers working with the world’s leading publications and brands in fashion and beauty, Leonard and Wickes launched Beauty Papers in 2015.
Leonard grew up in Harrow, northwest London, moving to London for the London College of Fashion to pursue her childhood dream of becoming a makeup artist. Leonard soon decided to go against the technical approach to makeup apparent in her course, choosing instead to get her start in the beauty industry working for the cosmetics brand Shu Uemura at Liberty's, later followed by work for The Face and i-D. Her work has since appeared In Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Love Magazine, W and V, and won her a stint as the beauty director at Wonderland Magazine, collaborating with the likes of Chanel and Dior, a position she held for four years. Leonard was also tapped as a brand ambassador for the Japanese luxury cosmetics brand, Suqqu, and has consulted for brands including Dermalogica and L'Oréal.
Wickes grew up in Birmingham and studied graphic design at Central St. Martins, later founding the Paris-based creative agency, View Creatives in 2003, racking up a client list that includes Bulgari.
Beauty Papers looks at beauty from an intellectual, liberal perspective. The magazine was born out of Leonard’s perceived need for more diversity, creativity and honesty within the beauty industry. Discussing their mutual frustration with the state of the industry on a train from Paris to London, the idea for Beauty Papers was born. With Wickes as creative director and Leonard as editor-in-chief, the magazine brought a fresh perspective on the much commercialised, homogenised image of beauty, and the industry at large. Following the launch of Beauty Papers, the duo also established their own Media Agency, consulting for Dior, Mac Cosmetics, Chanel Nars and more.
