Her power. Her influence.

Divorced. Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Reviewed.

Six Bomb

This week’s Industry Assignment was a big one and quite possibly the very reason they could only afford a voicemail from Lady Gaga and enough accommodation for 8 MUAs this year. The six remaining MUAs were, appropriately, going to have to do the makeup for the actresses in Six

I got tickets to see it this August and I am BEYOND excited – I have my vaguely Anne Boleyn themed look planned out and everything

just call me Tran Boleyn.

Finley was the one having to do Anne Boleyn’s makeup and he wasn’t just painting for the cheap seats, he was painting for the International Space Station

as the judges all pointed out, it needed a lot more finesse. Or for Finley to just occasionally stop to ask himself if enough is enough because it was looking really good for quite a while but at some point he crossed the threshold of the Avril Lavigne inspiration into Lady Gaga’s panda makeup

but the only touch up that his actress requested was for a little more contour. Jess got a similar reaction from her actress whose only additional request afterwards was for a little more contour on the nose because Jess hadn’t quite given her the Ariana Grande exclamation point

but the judges loved what she’d done with the makeup which Dom immediately recognised as being inspired by Ariana as though the ponytail that was snatched into next year wasn’t a dead giveaway from the start

I’m not giving you points for that guess Nostradamus. (Nostra-Dom-us?)

Once again, Connor’s makeup counter experience allowed him to excel within an Industry Challenge as he kept a good relationship with his actress by always asking her opinion and keeping her in the loop

the result being a makeup that was so good they decided they were going to start implementing aspects of it into the makeup going forward

it was stunning and you could tell that the actress was absolutely feeling herself in it

meanwhile, in Rossi’s chair…

Rossi may have invented the one timeline where Catherine Parr was executed and he was the one that killed her

I will defend him slightly because they are both meant to be doing this makeup professionally which comes with certain expectations of customer relations – most notably not making your client feel like you blasted them with the makeup gun

but they are also filming a reality TV show which does come with the expectation of having you narrate your every thought and feeling that comes into your head. Despite the fact Rossi faffed around with painting his actress’s face every colour except the one he needed to, the final result wasn’t too badly received

the only real change anyone wanted to make was to touch up the lips which were far too neutral for a musical.

In theory, Shania probably should’ve had an easy time with this challenge because she’s worn stage makeup for every episode this far (tone indicator: positive)

and despite the actress just about threatening to wear Shania’s face like a Halloween mask, Shania didn’t *quite* get the message and thus Catherine of Aragon looked a touch too polite

the inspiration was meant to be Beyonce and Shakira which I don’t think is coming through *at all* and if anything she looks like she’s competing with Ella’s actress in an Adele look-a-like competition

Ella was actually meant to be doing Adele though and her actress was thrilled with the result with no need for touch ups.

Just As I Thought, Trash.

For this week’s Creative Brief the MUAs were having to create looks that utilised a recycled material in some way. Usually you can’t stop the MUAs from MacGyvering themselves a realistic dinosaur prosthetic out of leftover Diet Coke cans, a bobby pin and three trays of Paracetamol so the expectations were high. Then 4 of the 6 just cut up clothes and glued them to their faces which Dom & Val had to try very hard to not think was slightly disappointing.

In order to judge this challenge they had invited NikkieTutorials in because having anyone from Six would have gone against the notion of the challenge considering Henry VIII ploughed through wives like we used to plough through plastic bags during a Big Shop™. I like to think he at least composted Anne Boleyn. ANYWAY, NikkieTutorials

I do we feel like we as a society kind of all too quickly glossed over the fact she was forced to out herself under threat of blackmail. Truly a wild day on the internet.

Finding themselves in the red chairs were Shania and Rossi – the latter of which possibly benefited from it considering if he hadn’t landed there he’d have finished an hour and 15 minutes early instead of just an hour early

He basically only used half of the alotted time! And apparently learnt nothing from the cautionary tale of George being eliminated last week for having a look that was 80% just stuff glued to his model’s face. Instead Rossi seemed to take that as a challenge having applied just a bit of chapstick and some BB cream before turning himself into Bertie Bassett’s mother-in-law

the use of the hot glue to make the appliques is really clever and the looks is fun. But… I’m not sure this really counts as recycling if you’re actively making the waste? It’s more just… crafting. In fact I think the only MUA that *actually* did the challenge was Finley who was using pill caps from his acne medication

the inspiration for his look being the Rosy Maple Moth and the general affinity for lepidoptera that trans people have

one of the side effects of HRT in general is the development of an innate need to produce a PowerPoint presentation about your favourite species of moth

in this 36 slide presentation I will…

Finley did go a little overboard on the embellishments with the wings and the wig kind of obscuring the genuinely impressive makeup that was going on and he may well have got a ding-dong for it if he once again stopped to ask himself “Am I doing too much?” Instead that honour went to Ella for her black and white makeup inspired by her grandfather

it is stunning and the sketchy linework is divine. Her use of her grandad’s clothing and the way in which she used it at least had emotional resonance even if I don’t think it was particularly creative. Connor’s was kind of the reverse with his “Dance Robot” made of recycled metallic hot pants

my Connor Conspiracy Theory is that he has a few makeups he knows he’s good at and was going to force them to fit the Creative Briefs no matter what because this whole concept is such a reach I may have pulled a muscle for him. Perhaps the most jarring bit of the makeup was the addition of the Grayson Perry cheeks which felt like he was just scrambling to fill space

it takes it to a cartoonishness that nothing else in the look is speaking to.

Continuing our journey through shredded clothing, Shania’s was probably the most egregious as she just glued a few patches from her prom dress to her face for a warrior aesthetic

it’s a very well executed and clean makeup… but we have seen this before and done entirely using makeup which is arguably a more impressive feat? I just wanted a look that utilised the recycled material to achieve something makeup can’t. Like Jess’s exaggerated tartan lips that have much more impact than a few strips of red fabric

I loved this look, sure it could have been pushed further but I like to think it’s because she didn’t want to completely destroy her slay Nana Osaki cosplay

she has great taste in anime.

Getting Lippy

Shania managed to secure herself a bounce out of the Face Off Challenge. Rossi wasn’t quite so fortunate and found himself facing off against Jess.

For this Face Off, Rossi and Jess were having to recreate an “apple glazed lip” which is basically a lip that looks like an evil witch may have cursed it

both of them kind of achieved the desired effect. Rossi’s definitely had a better depth and shine to it whereas Jess’s kind of just looked like more of a well washed gala apple

Jess’s however had the better sense of symmetry as she’d taken most of her time to perfect that whereas Rossi had powered through every aspect of the challenge and ended up with his edges being smudged in places and gloss that felt too focused in the centre. So in the end, it was goodbye to Rossi

it’s a shame because he was on a real roll with how good his Creative Brief makeups had been in the prior two episodes.

and so, we quickly approach the halfway point as 5 become 4 next week