How To Do Stage Makeup

 Makeup post-dancing "Who Cares?"

In rehearsal all your focus is in one place. It's all about the dancing, trying to make it as clean and as beautiful as possible. Then performance time comes and while all you want to do is concentrates on the steps, you realize that you need to also have beautiful hair, nice tights and shoes, possibly some earrings and, most importantly, professional looking makeup that highlights your features in the bright stage lights. Pre-show preparation can be overwhelming to think about when you're already a little anxious about the upcoming show.

Therefore, today I wanted to take some stress off and give you a step-by-step breakdown of how I do my stage makeup. I wanted to give you a little outline to follow so make up application doesn't add to your pre-performance nerves. Although our features will obviously differ, you can adapt these steps to fit your own coloring, costumes, and brightness of lights.

Let's get started!

Start with a clean face either just washed with a gentle cleanser or rinsed with water. Avoid putting on too many lotions or other products right before your make up because it may affect how your makeup absorbs into your skin. 

Your Skin:

1) My first step is to apply this oil based grease paint to my T-zone and eyelids. This covers any blemishes and creates a subtle differentiation in your skin tone so you don't look like a flat piece of paper. Also, the grease will brighten your eyeshadow and help it stick to your eye for the length of the show. 

2) Next, I use a product called "pancake" all over my face and neck. Applied with a wet sponge, pancake will serve as your foundation or new skin tone. Make sure it's well blended with no streaks or harsh lines where it stops. A common mistake is to stop at your jawline, in fact, you can notice the harsh color change on me in the photo above, but blend pancake down your neck so it looks more natural.

Clockwise from left: blush, highlighter, powder and puff,
contour, grease and pancake

3) Apply a translucent powder all over the pancake to set it so it stays in place through sweating and keeps your face matte.

4) Contour and blush are next: Use a light brown shade with a medium sized brush to create subtle contour below your cheekbone. Blend this well so you don't end up with two harsh diagonal lines on your face. This isn't war paint. When facing directly to the mirror, your contour should not be visible. This means do not bring the color all the way to the apples of your cheeks. Doing this will make you look bruised! Now take your blush with another medium sized brush and apply it to the apples of your cheeks. When you smile, what pops out is where you should start. Then blend the blush gently out through the contour to create a warm look. You can also apply contour to your hairline and under your jaw to create more face shape.

5) Last step for skin application: Apply a highlighter powder above your blush and contour line, as well as down the bridge of your nose and tip of your chin to make your face really pop.

Now that your skin looks perfect, let's focus on the part that's really the most fun: your eyes! This is where you can show a little personality with the colors you choose and make it your own. I use purple because its my favorite color, but blue, green, brown all show up nicely as palette colors too.

Your Eyes:

 1) Apply eyeliner, with or without the aid of a brush, to the top and bottom of your eye. I extend my line up the slightest bit away from my lash line at the end because my eyes go downward ever so slightly. If I were to continue along the lash line, my eyes would look heavy and sleepy! Applying eyeliner first helps guide the rest of your eye makeup in the right shapes.

2) Next I use the same light brown contour to blend a subtle crease into my eyelid to separate lower lid from crease and from your browbone.

My eye palette: shimmery beige, pink, purple,
gold, and shimmery purple.

3) Now it's time for fun. I apply a shimmery beige color to the inner half of my eyelid and then a gold shade to the outer half extending above the eyeliner guide. Some people just use beige all over, but you can use any color really. Your blush pink could make a nice outer lid color or a lighter shade of your dark crease color could be pretty too. It's up to you.  Don't be afraid to play around with color.

4) Crease time: This is where your eye really takes shape. Using a small eyeshadow brush, apply your darkest shade (purple for me) to the crease of your eye slowly drawing it further in and extending out. Work slowly so that you can make a shape that is neat rather than a muddle mess. Sometimes it's easier to do this with your eye open so you can see the definite crease, but whatever you do, just don't tip your head back to apply this. It will end up in the wrong part of your eye, I promise. 

5) Add white to the inner corner of your eyes and the base of your brow to highlight your eye.

6) Don't forget to fill in your eyebrows. Even if they are dark, apply a brown color to shape them and help your eyes pop! If your eyebrows are small, feel free to extend the brow beyond your natural shape so you have a full eye!

7) Now, usually I like to apply my lashes first so I can see more clearly where my arch of purple will go, but I wanted you to be able to see my whole eyelid so I did them last today. Many people actually prefer applying them after eyeshadow, so really it's up to you. Put the false lashes atop the eyeliner line you made in the beginning as close to your lash line as possible. 

  

8) Now, I just redefine my eyeliner so it's a dark black against the light colors. Next, just add mascara to blend your lashes in with the false ones and better define your bottom lashes.

Guess what? You're done! Look at your finished eye. Makeup should lift your eyes and make them look open and alert. How do yours look? 

Now just add a lip color of choice and you're ready for the stage. Using this heavy duty makeup will insure that it will stay put through all your sweating, and your bold eyes will really define your face in the bright lights. Give it a try. Stage makeup is hard at first. In my first show I looked like I had just gotten in a fight with bruised eyes and cheeks! It was a bit rough but with practice, it has become almost second nature to me and fun to play with and change up. 

One last thing: Most of these products, like eyeshadows, contour, blush, and lipstick can be purchased at any drug or makeup store. The skin products, like grease and pancake, may be harder to find though. Costume stores might have similar products though or I'm sure you can find them online.

Have fun and good luck!