It’s that time of year again for Dom’s amazing pompom jumper has graced the television!
Are you ready to be made to feel guilty for liking things!? Grab your limited edition Finn and Jake plushies and LET’S GO!
Out Of The (Jonas) Blue
For their Industry Challenge the MUAs are hitting the set of a music video in order to create the looks for the dancers in the music video for the latest single by Jonas Blue and as someone whose Spotify algorithm only suggests Eastern European thrash metal from the late 2000s or 90s Broadway revivals, I apologise to this internationally famous DJ for not having a Scooby Doo who he was. More to the point this challenge is also The Rankin Challenge as renowned photographer, whomst I actually have heard of, Rankin will be directing the shoot.
Each of the MUAs has to create a look for 1 dancer who will be performing inside an LED cube with a specific backdrop that they have to make sure they match without being too literal so for instance if you’ve got one with clouds in it you absolutely shouldn’t just draw clouds and birds on your dancer’s face…
DAMMIT DOLLI
I think what we have to understand here is that this was, I believe, all filmed in January of 2021 and in 2020, a huge trend in online makeup communities was to basically paint clouds on your face so I can see why Dolli went for this look. It just wasn’t right for the shoot and if she had just played more with the pinks and yellows that she used in her really gorgeously draped blush, she’d have been golden. Or gone a more Euphoria-esque route and been more liberal with the gemstones that she used to create a more structured shape
ok, that might be a bit much seeing as they told Craig off for daring to pair a glittery eye with a slightly iridescent lip but you get the gist. Dolli did end up being sent back to redo her look a couple of times before they finally deemed it suitable for the video
it’s still not a spectacular makeup and with the lighting it does almost entirely blend in with the background
but you really do have to commend Dolli for sticking with it and remaining as calm and collected as she did throughout because if it was me I’d have been a blubbering wreck in the toilets the very moment Rankin told me that he didn’t like the cloud shape I had just toiled over for the best part of 30 minutes.
The others all managed to avoid being too literal but Craig did decide that after a couple of weeks of being told to do something BIG and BOLD that this was his time to shine and with his forest backdrop he was going to go big and dramatic with his look
I ADORE that concept design, of course with the glittery eyes, a frosted lip and a plan to partially block out the brows Rankin was concerned it was a little too much to which Craig assures him that he wont block out the brows thus completely misreading that Rankin didn’t want him to do the frosted lips
This isn’t *that* bad and I think would have worked in the video just fine, I do think a regular glossed lip would have been better because there is something slightly dated about the frosted look. Craig does change it, at a seemingly snail’s pace, I’m sure it wasn’t that long but they edited it to make him look like he took 10 minutes to take off the lips
I personally wish he had gone all out on the eyes like his concept sketch and almost done something like Sophie’s personal makeup in the second episode
which probably would’ve been deemed too much as well because they felt that even the eyes he ended up doing were a little too “Evil Queen” but the brief they gave him was literally called “Jade Jealousy” so I’m not sure what else they expected?
I did also love that Craig was being told he was doing far too much and in the very next booth Sophie was turning her dancer’s face into a BBQ disaster and Rankin was all “Love it. Beautiful. I have no notes.”
which is fair because this is incredible and kind of what everyone wanted Katniss’s makeup in the Hunger Games parade to be and then we got this fiasco
Me, criticising cringe dated references and then still being mad about The Hunger Games makeup? It’s more likely than you think.
Initially it was just going to be the black and red but towards the end she added some gold leaf to give it some extra dimension and catch the lights and it really elevated the whole thing to another level
it looks like something out of The Curse of the Golden Flower, it’s extravagant, bold and has a real imperial flare to it. The only thing they really ask her to change is the flecks of gold in the eyebrow, which I personally loved but can see why it might be a little distracting on camera, and the final result really, REALLY played well to camera
How dare she be so talented?
Jack also had a stellar day and got the most abstract cube with it just being pink
which I suppose could be freeing in what you could so just about anything but also… what do you even do for this? Jack did have a plan and they made the smart call of counteracting the gentleness of the setting with a very bold, graphic liner
and we know Jack is good with graphic liner, look at their own look for the day
I will be over in the corner feeling very insecure about the fact I cannot do a winged liner without it looking like it was done by some sort of small rodent.
As ever, there was A LOT of attention being payed to how well they coped with getting the liner symmetrical, although with the movement of the dancer, it’s a little easier to hide, nonetheless it’s one of the best example of symmetry we’ve seen on the show
there is not a single thing out of place, AND THE SKIN, it’s enviable. How dare they.
It was a two horse race for the win between Jack and Sophie with Jack’s professionalism on set and the way they interacted with their dancer clinching them their first very well deserved win!
Unfortunately for Craig and Dolli they find themselves in the red chairs.
Guilty As Charged!
For the Creative Brief the MUAs had to create a look based around their guilty pleasures – I personally believe we, as a society, have progressed beyond the need for guilty pleasures – embrace your cringe-side, it’s more fun. I was mostly just glad that nobody went down the route of focusing on food, especially after the questionable discussions around fatness last week. Although I would be interested to see how Val would have rendered a bag of crisps and a toffee apple (the dinner of Kings) as a makeup. Or seen Dom do a full on Jessica Fletcher illusion.
Due to the fact they won the Industry Challenge, Jack was granted the opportunity to bring Val in for a consultation at any point during their makeup, which was based around their fondness for anime and as a fellow anime fan, I feel called out.
With an anime character makeup the focus is almost always going to be exclusively on the eyes and so getting them symmetrical and the correct shape is where the success lies and it’s a good thing they called Val in because for a while they were just that slight bit too round
and she puts them back on to the right course, and their final look was at least mostly a success
the main issue you run into when doing an anime makeup is the lips because in most cases, anime characters have more of an implied lip and something about giving them a full on realistic pout somewhat disrupts the anime illusion. I think the gradient lip that was a popular Korean beauty trend might have helped prevent Dom from reading it as a baby doll look. Although, quite how you could read it as anything other than anime while looking at those eyes is a mystery to me.
Sophie was also going cartoonish as she based her makeup on the popular kid’s TV show Adventure Time but was going slightly more abstract and mostly just playing around with colours and very rounded shapes. During the challenge Sophie did seem a little off her game – it’s bound to happen, they’re 7 episodes in what is a very hectic filming schedule, I’d be surprised if everyone wasn’t a little burnt out by this point. And even with all of that, her makeup while maybe her weakest to date, is still very good and I can definitely see the Adventure Time inspiration in her use of colours and shapes – it’s a very round cartoon
I love that green shape around the left eye, it’s very pretty and appealing, as are the shapes around the neck and shoulders. The right side is just that little bit barren and the sort of nasal aubergine is a bit of an unwelcome lump. Also the hair is very cute but if we learnt anything from Nic in episode one, hair can only get you so far.
Craig was also going ham on the colours as he set about creating a makeup based around his fondness for lipsyncing in the bathroom. Everything in this challenge is beginning to feel like a personal attack. I was very curious as to how Craig was going to render it as a look, especially when he began with the sort of pastel rainbow gradient
as it turns out the ace up his sleeve was his soundwave line art
I personally think it’s a little busy and would get rid of either the orange or the pink waves, but everything that is happening around that left eye is absolute magic and I can see why the judges went gaga for it all. Although I question Val deeming it “runway ready” but I would like to see an entire Paris Fashion Week collection in which every model is wearing this look because I’m curious to know what the clothes would look like.
While the other three went for the more fun side of a guilty pleasure, Dolli burst through the walls to kill the vibe with her look based on how she enjoys being alone but being alone isn’t necessarily the healthiest thing for long periods of time
She was drawing inspiration from blackholes to give the look the effect of a person being consumed from the inside, and I also imagine every Creepypasta from 2013 was involved
it’s nothing short of incredible, it has so much visual impact and is one of the most emotive looks we’ve had from the whole series, the concept is extremely well executed. And I’m glad Dolli did so well with the linework, lest we remember how the last time she attempted to do a largely black and white look went
it’s nice to see the return of Week One Dolli.
A Guilty Pleasure Look Ranking
- Alexa, Play “Lonely” by Akon
- Craig The Lipsync Assassin
- IT WAS ANIME DOM
- Sophie’s Abstract Adventure Time
In a complete reversal of fortunes both Dolli and Craig find themselves safe of the Face Off Challenge and it’s a battle between Jack and Sophie!
Ombre, Mi Hombre
For the Face Off Challenge Jack and Sophie have to create a full face gradient using black and one other colour – Sophie opts for red and Jack goes for green, it’s very much on brand and both of them deserve bonus points for not choosing a colour as hideous as Dom did for the example makeup
My good man, what on earth on you doing?
As the test is all about the blend, the logical thing would be to go in with the lighter colour first so that you don’t have worry about contaminating it with the darker black – Jack and Sophie paid no heed to that and both immediately began slathering their models’ foreheads in black
and I think for what could have gone wrong, both of them pulled off very good final looks
I personally see more of a gradual gradient in Jack’s makeup, I just don’t think it got quite light enough at the jaw, it remains quite Hulk-ish throughout whereas Sophie’s does manage to hit that pinkish tone and in the end it’s Jack who is eliminated
I’m glad they got such a big win before they were sent home and that they made it this far in the competition, I really don’t think we can overstate the importance of having someone so proudly gender non-conforming putting themselves out there in the current shitty climate we live in where daring to have they/them pronouns can draw the ire of a multitude of out of touch strangers and if Jack has made even one non-binary, agender or gender non-conforming person feel more comfortable or eager to take part in this show, or any other show (I hope we see the use of pronouns as more commonplace from here on), they’ve done a tremendous thing, so here’s to Jack: Legends ONLY. And you can go and follow them on Instagram at JackOliverX.
And so we have our final 3:
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