#makeup design

Omar Benson Miller as Cornbread, in fangs and gunshot wound prosthetics.

Sinners (2025)│Directed by Ryan Coogler.

This blush starts as cream and dries into a smooth powder for a natural glow. It is super easy to apply, lightweight, and buildable. Made in Italy with grape leaf extract and olive oil.

I don't know for sure, but I suspect it's stage lighting that's the problem. If the harsh lighting is set to focus on the bright silver elements of the makeup and costume, the actual skin tone would be completely lost - a paler makeup makes it look like it's all part of a design. It does seem to be something Mykal Rand does particularly - Leon Maurice Jones seemed to keep his more natural skintone, with the half-done makeup shot here.

I think Mykal just had a whole lot of fun playing about with makeup designs.... those stripes are insanely clean! That's loose glitter applied over the base colour!

(via The Grim Gallery: Exhibit 5265)

Millicent Patrick (November 11, 1915 - February 25, 1998)

Charles Dance/Yeston & Kopit Concept Makeup

Phantom Cosplay & Makeup Application: @phantomonabudget

Prosthetic: @dyadmufx

This is my first interpretation of what Erik (The Phantom) might have looked like in the 1990 miniseries adaptation of the Yeston and Kopit stage show. This version is quite famous for never showing Erik's face. Instead, we are left with only clues to his actual appearance. I imagine that decision was made as often the imagination can co.e up with far worse possibilities than whatever they would have out on camera. Still...it's fun to try.

Makeup Design

There are few clues or hints in the movie to build upon. We know the eyes are sunken in due to the eye shadow applied to the actor, Charles Dance. We know that the mouth, jaw, and skin around the edge of the face appear to be unaffected. And when pressed about his appearance, Erik says only: "I have no face. I have only the semblance of a face...and no one should have to look at it."

So...not exactly descriptive, and leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

Given the visual clues (or lack thereof), we know the middle of the face is the only area affected and it is completely covered by the mask. I chose to use a beautiful, foam latex base prosthetic appliance by DYAD FX. I kept the skin tone similar to that of the mouth and around the face, but carefully and thinly layered colors from my alcohol activated pallettes to give the effect of a very thin, pinkish tone to the area. I painted in veining to further the effect of the thinned out skin.

...No Nose??

I wanted to give the illusion of not having a nose (or at least that he was losing his). This is certainly the holy grail of Phantom visual design for most Phans, as we have truly only seen one makeup design faithful to the original Gaston Leroux novel...and that was Lon Chaney nearly 100 years ago! So I wanted to try to incorporate that element into this design.

However, it is impossible to eliminate the nose using makeup alone, as effects makeup is additive, not subtractive. Meaning, we add things like prosthetic appliances to the skin to create an effect, but can't take away what the person naturally has. Any time you see a missing nose in film and TV, it is removed using visual/digital effects (VFX). Oftentimes, VFX compliments a prosthetic effects makeup design (like Red Skull in the Marvel movies). It is possible to hide the nose under surrounding prosthetics, but in my opinion, that is usually not successful for realism. Adding more material under/around the nose makes the end result look more simian (ape-like) than just a human without a nose.

To allude to this effect, I instead painted the majority of my nose dark to appear like a cavity, and left the tip of the nose. I felt it gave a better and more realistic overall look. It simply suggests the nose is missing (or soon to be completely missing) instead of trying to physically bury the nose in a ton of material.

‘Fashion Friday’ - Mina Mazzini (Makeup)

(Mina Anna Mazzini, known to the whole blinking world simply as ‘Mina’, stood as one of Italy’s most formidable chanteuses & telly darlings, a proper colossus of pop & rock ’n’ roll from the late 50s through the swinging 60s to mid 70s. Possessing a vocal span that roamed across three octaves with astonishing ease, she wielded her supple soprano with a sort of feline nimbleness, the sort that made even seasoned musos lean in and mutter, “Cor, would you listen to that?” Her public persona… cool, emancipated, & absolutely unbothered by anyone’s expectations, rendered her a thoroughly modern woman well before the phrase had been slapped on magazine covers.

Her maquillage, mind you, wasn’t mere ornamentation; it was a declarative artwork in its own right. Mina favoured fiercely sculptural eyes—ink-black liner swept in bold, architectural strokes; shadows smudged deep enough to look almost carved; lashes thick as a Mod girl’s weekend; brows bleached into near vanishment so the gaze hit with cinematic force. The effect evoked a sort of silent film sphinx, magnetic & inscrutable, yet thoroughly au courant with the avant-garde. One could trace in her visage the imprint of Cubist geometry & the glamour of the decade’s most iconic birds, all reworked into something unmistakably her own: theatrical, sophisticated, a touch surreal, & utterly UNFORGETTABLE)