Theatrical Makeup

Theatrical makeup can be successfully worn on or off stage. But it has special properties: It is highly pigmented so the color doesn’t wash out under bright stage lights. It can hold up under lots of activity—stage life is rigorous.

For intimate theater, theatrical makeup is applied to look more “normal,” but still must maintain its intensity. For large theater, it is applied so facial expressions will be seen to the back row.

Makeup for film has to look very normal because the actor’s face is magnified on the screen. Matte foundation is usually used, and the issue is consistency. A particular scene may be shot in pieces over many days, and the actor has to look the same each time. Special effects (such as wounds) can be tricky because the makeup artist tends to develop them on the actor ‘as you go.’ Yet it must be identical day after day.

Ben Nye has developed quality makeup for all these needs. Ben Nye makeup is widely used in large circuses for performers under intense stress, and it is considered the premier makeup for theaters large and small. Clowns use it, and 60% of our customers use Ben Nye as their normal street makeup. Makeup has come a long way!

Cosmetics have been around since at least 4000 BC, but the earliest recording of a stage performer taking advantage of it was in the 6th Century B.C. Thespis, member of a Greek Chorus, was determined to stand out from the rest of the men, and applied a toxic mixture of white lead and red cinnabar (mercuric sulphide) to his face!

This mixture actually was used until the 18th century, when stage lighting improved so that the makeup looked too obvious. After that, actors frequently used white chalk, carpenters’ blue chalk, India ink, paper soaked in liquid and red brick dust.

In the 1890’s, greasepaint appeared—at first it was a mixture of vermillion, yellow ochre, zinc white, and lard.

At this time theatrical makeup was denounced as “impolite” by the always correct Queen Victoria, and only appropriate for “actors and prostitutes!”

After Victoria, during the Edwardian era, makeup became acceptable again, and it was actually middle aged, wealthy women who took it seriously. The old greasepaint disappeared and the newer “crème” makeup, based in a light oil, appeared. Subtleness and definition were both possible, and consistency was prized.

Now the leader in theatrical makeup, Ben Nye has literally thousands of products for the makeup artist, stage performer or non-theater person.