Boys' Ballet Makeup

This is a pretty basic attempt at mens' and boys' ballet makeup. It's also being executed on a fidgety seven-year-old, so "attempt" will be the operative term here. Before I begin illustrating the ten trazillion steps necessary to achieve this certain level of (*cough*) ballet gorgeousness, I'll give you an idea of just how many tools, products, and pigments I used for this singular look.

Now, its more than possible to do this paint project without about one third of the products I've shown. But having this kind of an arsenal makes me feel better about myself and it also makes the project seem more difficult and professional...which means if I totally botch it up, it's less my fault and more the blame of the difficulty level.

The first thing I did is perfect the canvas of this seven-year-old's skin using MAC Studio Fix Powder in NW20. Some people firmly believe that you should go one shade darker with stage makeup because harsh stage lighting can wash the subject out. Okay, fair enough. But, I was at a ballet a few months ago and I can tell when the dancer has gone one shade darker, because frankly, their face looks like a pumpkin. And I would rather have my dancer look anemic than like a harvest vegetable. Ever seen Baryshnikov in photos or video? He always looks a little sickly and dying, which is somehow attractive for Russians. But never, never ever, did he look like a pumpkin.

I also used Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Enhancer in 05 to conceal my son's dark circles. I could have skipped this step. Baryshnikov always had dark circles...

Now that the kid is primed and his bone structure has dissolved into a powdery snowfall, I'm going to add shape back into his face with contour powder. I used MAC blush in Harmony as a contour and roughly followed the outline in this video.

I'll stop right here to add that I am not happy with my contour color. MAC Harmony is great for every day use--if you're fair skinned with warm undertones--but it's lousy for stage contouring. The shade is warm and this pigment does not blend easily. One of the reasons I did not prime the skin with moisturizer is that many MAC products do not move when applied. Harmony is one of them. It sticks to moisture...becoming completely unblendable even with the use my spiffy Sigma contouring brush.

Having your subject suck in his squirrely baby cheeks helps to catch the right contour line. Regardless of this, I pretty much failed miserably to get the exact line this time around.

I primed his lids with a shade called MAC Malt. This is a really unnecessary step, but I wanted to justify the use of my new MAC palette. You could move straight on to the crease shade. I used a nice ash brown called Quarry by MAC, just in the crease. Someone was very antsy by this time, so my creasing didn't go as evenly as desired...I had just enough time to sneak MAC Vanilla shadow under the eyebrow as a highlight.

Next, the top line was done in a dark brown Mac shade called Brun and the bottom line was winged with Quarry. I filled in the space with white liner.

The mascara I used was Dior Iconic, which is great for lengthening, average for volumizing. Overall, I love this formula, but it dries out insanely fast.

His lips were finished off with MAC lipstick in Brave. Originally, I'd purchased Twig because it's a favorite amongst male dancers, but it was too dark and sensational for this particular look. 

And that's it, really. I'd recommend shading in the eyebrows and adding a powder highlighter such as Make Up Forever Star Powder in Pearl Gold. I would have done both myself, but my ballet bear pretty much hated me at this point and wanted to play with his trucks...which is why I don't have a flawless "finished" photo to conclude my post!