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How to Do Professional Clown Makeup

The basis of professional clown makeup is white, red and black greasepaint, available from a theatrical makeup store. Using these to make exaggerated features yields a range of classic clown styles that have evolved over hundreds of years. Most clowns develop their own distinctive looks reflecting their persona, so professional clown makeup is constantly progressing. Once you have grasped the basics of classic clown makeup, you can adapt and develop this to create a distinctive and dramatic contemporary face.

Things You'll Need

  • Professional “Clown White” greasepaint
  • Makeup sponge
  • Red greasepaint
  • Black greasepaint
  • Fine and medium sized makeup brushes
  • Translucent loose powder
  • Velour powder puff
  • Theatrical wax (optional) or soap bar
  • Wax fixative (optional)
  • Flesh-colored greasepaint (optional)
  • Pale pink greasepaint (optional)
  • False lashes (optional)
  • Lash glue (optional)
  • False clown nose (optional)
  • Glitter (optional)
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Instructions

  1. Neat Whiteface

    • 1
      Neat whiteface makeup is sometimes adapted for mime so that it looks like a mask.

      Smooth white greasepaint over your entire face and any areas of visible skin. Use a fine latex makeup sponge to get even coverage and include ears, the top lip, throat and the back of the neck.

    • 2

      Use cotton buds to clean away excess white makeup from around the eyes, the tip of the nose and around the bottom lip. Be careful not to disturb the rest of the base. Greasepaint stays pliable until set with powder.

    • 3

      Draw on your clown features using brushes with red and black greasepaint. Paint on an exaggerated bottom lip, red nose tip and your preferred style of dramatic black eyeliner.

    • 4

      Draw a black outline around your painted features, such as your nose and lips.

    • 5

      Set your makeup with loose powder, applied with a powder puff. Translucent powder fixes the greasepaint, but does not dull colors.

    Comedy Whiteface

    • 6
      Due to its exaggerated features, comedy whiteface makeup is also known as grotesque.

      Smooth professional wax or soap over eyebrows to fix them flat against the skin. Seal wax with fixative.

    • 7

      Apply white greasepaint over entire skin in the same way as for a neat whiteface makeup, making sure to also fully cover the eyebrows.

    • 8

      Clean away white from the areas you want to enhance, for example lips and eyes.

    • 9

      Paint on dramatic features including red lips and exaggerated eyebrows. Sculpt cheeks with pale pink greasepaint rouge if desired.

    • 10

      Set makeup with translucent powder.

    • 11

      Finish your grotesque or comedy makeup with a false clown nose, dramatic false eyelashes or even glitter.

    Auguste

    • 12
      Auguste clowns have flesh-colored faces and white features.

      Use a brush to outline an enlarged eye and lip shape with white greasepaint, then fill this in.

    • 13

      Apply flesh-colored greasepaint to the remaining visible skin.

    • 14

      Outline the white lip and eye shapes with black, using a fine brush to get a neat line and exaggerated character in your preferred design. Also apply black around the eyes as liner.

    • 15

      Paint the actual lips red or black and add a false clown nose.

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