Whether you’re planning a Halloween look early or need to do makeup for a dance concert, play or musical, it’s important to go bold–after all, how else will you stand out from the crowd? It’s a well-known fact that stage lights have an innate (and very frustrating) ability to wash out your skin tone and features, making you appear as if you have teeny eyes and no lips. That’s what everyone wants, right? Yeah, think again.
So, the key, like in the theatre itself, is to dramatise. Instead of accentuating one part of the face like you would for a regular makeup look, you’re gonna need to focus on practically everything–lips, eyes, cheeks, we’re talking about the whole nine yards.
Your Theatre Makeup Cheat Sheet
If you’re a theatre newbie or have been entrusted with someone else’s on-stage look, don’t stress–here’s a step-by-step guide to creating a basic yet full face, from start to finish. We’ve also chosen our three faves that range from el cheapo (yet very high quality!) through to higher-end, so no matter your price point, you’ll have options.
1. Primer
There’s no point putting on heaps of ‘slap’, as they call it in the theatre, if you’re not creating a base for it to stick to and stay throughout your performance! Use a primer with a bit of grip to help foundation, contour and more stay in place and look dimensional and HD. If you’ve got redness in the face that you want to correct, grab a green primer to help neutralise those areas.
Top picks:
$: The Ordinary High Adherence Silicone Primer ($8.80)
$$: elf Cosmetics Face Primer in Neutralizing Green ($16)
$$$: Kryolan High Definition Makeup Primer ($56)