Let me start off by saying I am not a huge fan of clowns. Working in the haunt community I am sure I will catch some flak for that statement but that is just my opinion. Having worked in the haunt industry since 2013 I have seen them to be very effective scares. To me it’s always just felt too easy, just the sight of a clown scares people. That is not to say there aren’t a ton of great haunt actors out there that don’t kill it in clown makeup or masks. They love their clown characters and they are terrifying. I have done makeups over the years that were based on clowns but never a straight up clown look.
Photos: Danny Alexander
Models: Amanda Terry, Katya Estes, Kenyatta Desha
Clowns and clown type makeups have been very popular over the years. Some of the most notable examples of clown makeup in my opinion are Twisty from American Horror Story, the Joker and Pennywise. I have really enjoyed the variations in those makeups. Many of those makeups have become iconic in the makeup world. The common denominator in those makeups being a white base which is what I wanted to stay away from.
There is a makeup artist I follow on Instagram named Fatima Ruiz. She is an amazing makeup artist and so inspiring to me. She did a makeup that I fell in love with that I thought would translate perfectly as a clown in my style. It was a straight black makeup with bold yellow eyes and lips. Now, Fatima’s didn’t really read clown to me but I could see how I could make it work. I knew this was very much something I could make my aesthetic.
I knew immediately who would be the perfect person to photograph this look. Lucky for me Tate Chmielewski agreed to shoot the images. My friend Portia Greene with her neon green hair was perfect for my makeup model. I wanted to keep the same typed of black makeup but change the eye and mouth color to match Portia’s hair. Knowing that black in a very over powering pigment I wanted to do the green first. I started by placing white cream makeup where I knew the green was going to go. Clown makeup is always so symmetrical so I kept my shapes very asymmetrical. I knew the white would make the Mehron ( https://www.mehron.com/ ) iNtense lime green eye shadow almost glow. We then used Primal’s ( https://www.primalcontactlenses/ ) Jurassic II lenses which almost matched the green perfectly. The Mehron water activate Edge makeup made it easy to refine the shaped of the eyes and mouth.
I am super happy with how this came out. I wanted this to give the idea of a super edgy fashion clown look reminiscent of AlexanderMcQueen without screaming clown. We walked the line and I feel like we met the idea I had in my head. Tate always does such an amazing job. I really love how these came out!
