Kerry Washington may be notoriously private about her personal life, but one thing she’s game to gush about is her tight-knit bond with her longtime makeup artist, Carola Gonzalez. Both Washington and Cardola sat down for an interview for The Hollywood Reporter’s Beauty Issue, where they shared some of the secrets behind the Scandal star’s most stunning looks.

“The first time we met was for the NAACP Awards 10 years ago,” Washington said. “Carola was filling in for another makeup artist who was out of town, and she came over to my house and that was it.” After looking at herself in the mirror, “It was love at first sight.”

“I joke around with her that she could do my face in the dark, and I actually want to blindfold her one day, just to see what happens because I think she could do it,” the actress said. “She’s really influenced like an artist, and she is an artist. She looks at the dress or whatever outfit I’m wearing and she finds a way to have my face embody the whole look of the moment."

It’s pretty hard for us to pick a favorite red carpet look on the actress so far, but the pair did reveal their top contenders, including the London premiere of Django Unchained and her 2014 Emmys look. “That eye was so beautiful,” Washington said. Gonzalez added, “It was the eyeshadow...it was a great metallic blue, and metallics are in right now, so I think it was just the perfect choice for the dress.”

Gonzalez counts “some mascara, concealer and a mascara wand” as her go-to beauty essentials, because as Washington pointed out, “Carola is obsessive about eyebrows, so she needs the mascara wand to fix lashes and eyebrows. It really bothers her. Like, I could be getting out of the car for a red carpet and she’s like, ‘Wait!’” the star jokes.

All ribbing aside, she also shared how Gonzalez has become a strong confidant over the years. “Because we’ve worked together for 10 years, we’ve really grown up together. And so we’ve really walked through a lot of life’s challenges together and a lot of things that we’re able to celebrate in our lives together now because we’ve all done the work emotionally and spiritually.”
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(Photo: Austin Hargrave/Hollywood Reporter)