Kabuki

As I have decided to recreate Zac Posen's SS15 catwalk look, I looked further into the key makeup artist for the show. Kabuki was born in England but made his name in New York City working on Sex and the City, establishing the makeup looks for Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis. This was his first real makeup job! Since then, he has worked on feature films such as Party Monster and worked with stars such as Rhianna, Uma Therman, Lady Gaga and Michael Jackson. His work had been featured in Vogue, ELLE, Harper's Bazaar and Italian Vogue and he has worked on editorial and beauty campaigns for D&G, Zac Posen, NARS and MAC. 

Kabuki Mood board

My favourite makeup look created by Kabuki features James Franco depicted as a woman for Candy Magazine (see above, image 3). I like this look because I think it was really cleverly done to blend masculine and feminine qualities. Although James Franco looks beautiful and the makeup by Kabuki is applied beautifully, I couldn't help but notice that although Kabuki used typically drag bright colours on the eyes and lips, he stopped the overall look from looking too 'drag queen' inspired. I love how he developed the shape of the eyes and lips without overly slimming the face using contouring techniques. He also left his brows.This made the overall look of the shoot seem more serious, instead of having a cartoon drag queen feel. The overall look is more believable and I think this is purely down to the clever contrasts in makeup- Instead of making James Franco look like a man dressed as a woman, he appears as a masculine woman. I think this was down to the lack of contouring and leaving his natural eyebrows to frame the eye. 

I would love to re-create a look similar to this using the same techniques for the overall look. I would use full coverage foundations and bold colours such as Makeup Forevers's Aqua Matic Glide-On eye shadow in Teal on the eye. I would use Makeup Forever's Rouge Artist Intense lipstick in Rebellious Red all over the lip, lined using Mac Cherry lip pencil.

Kabuki is also inspiring to me, as he helped create such loved and relatable characters such as Carrie Bradshaw! 

Info- swingin'sam.designs, s. and swinginsam, s. (2014). kabuki magic - biography. [online] Kabukimagic.com. Available at: http://www.kabukimagic.com/biography.php [Accessed 1 Dec. 2014].

All mood board images found at- Style, M. (2014). Awesome Exclusive Interview With Katy Perry's 'E.T.' Makeup Artist: Kabuki!. [online] Style. Available at: http://style.mtv.com/2011/03/31/kabuki-makeup-katy-perry-et-video/ [Accessed 1 Dec. 2014].
Video- Anon, (2014). [image] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur-L9js50TA [Accessed 1 Dec. 2014].