By Brooks Welch

Celebrity makeup artist, beauty expert, entrepreneur, and beauty influence, AJ Crimson has reportedly passed away at 27 years old.

According to Essence, Crimson was credited with being one of the first makeup artists to expertly enhance the beauty of women within all shades. He served celebrity clients including Lauren London, Missy Elliot, Regina King, Brandy, and Angela Bassett. 

As reported by Dexerto, the Detroit-native built a substantial social media following, primarily on Instagram, with over 100,000 followers.

“AJ Crimson’s branding has been highlighted in industry-leading magazines such as Vogue, Harper’s BAZAAR, Glamour, InStyle, Esquire, Essence, and Marie Claire, as well as leading Japanese entertainment magazines Blenda and Luire,” writes Teal Mango.

In 2020, Crimson spoke to Yahoo! about his passion for the beauty industry and his mission within it.

“My vision for AJ Crimson Beauty was luxury cosmetics with Black women in mind first,” he said. “As a makeup artist, my entire career I gravitated to luxury products for my clientele. Yet there weren’t always products at that level that worked with some of my more melanin-rich clients.”

This led Crimson to his entrepreneurial ventures, AJ Crimson Beauty, and a new perspective on beauty.

“I thought it was a shame only drug store options [were] available, so I knew I had to change that,” he said. “I love beautiful things, people, fashion, architecture. The beauty industry sort of found me; I thought I’d be in politics, public speaking or artist management, which are all passions of mine [and] have been involved in, but beauty has taken me all over the world in a very interesting way.”

His cause of death has not yet been confirmed.