Laura and Roy’s top looks this week on “Face Off.”
“Face Off” contestants paid homage to Mother Nature and their own mothers Tuesday night, creating a “mother goddess” makeup that incorporated some element of their own mamas on the latest installment of Syfy’s makeup artist contest.
The eleven remaining artists converged on the Los Angeles Arboretum and Botanical Gardens to get the details and some inspiration from host McKenzie Westmore, and some advice from last season’s winner Anthony Kosar.
“You really want to bring out the feminine features. Make all the forms soft, subtle and really elegant.”
With that, it was obvious this wasn’t going to be horror-guy Tate’s week to shine. But a chance for the fantasy artists to really step up, and step up they did.
Namely, Laura.
Talk about working in your wheelhouse. She’s struggled a bit early this season, even finding her self in the bottom looks in a collaboration, but the old Laura was back and back in a big way this week, blowing judges away with her gorgeous paint job and sculpting. Judge Glenn Hetrick gushed… yes, gushed over the amount of work she had done, and done so well.
“If this was a group challenge I would’ve been thrilled with the level of detail. But she did it herself.”
Neville Page was also impressed.
“She’s freaking gorgeous! It’s just such a sublime palette… I want to use it because it’s so beautiful and I can’t get over it.”
But lest you think it was a runaway win for Laura, let’s talk about Roy, who had such a rough time last week. The only thing that saved Roy from elimination last week was another contestant creating a makeup that was worse than his, after Roy had a technical disaster that forced him to throw together something last-minute. Fans were in a panic that he might be eliminated, but he survived to come back this week, and he came back and redeemed himself in a big way.
Roy’s homage to his mother’ green thumb took the form of a tree goddess with branches coming out of the head and shoulder areas, then roots forming a skirt on it. It was elegant and big and dramatic… sort of like what you would expect if Cher’s favorite designer, Bob Mackie, designed a tree goddess. Judges loved that he went with more of a gray color for the “bark” areas, rather than some kind of a dark brown, giving it a softer, more feminine feel.
As you can see in the top photo, both Laura and Roy really outdid themselves this week.
And yet, there was still one more person who really stood out on this challenge. And it wasn’t a veteran, but a newbie. Lyma proved that her earlier painting misstep was a fluke, and her earlier version of a high-fashion Humpty Dumpty absolutely was not a fluke.
Is there anyone else that can totally see that huge, blond, branch-sprouting wig on Lady Gaga? Watch out Glenn, someone may be coming for your job.
When I saw that stuffed bunny that she was going to put into the clear pregnant belly of her goddess, I was really worried for her, but she colored it down and mixed it in with other elements so that it didn’t look so “stuffed animal.” And with that, she turned what could have been a silly disaster into a brilliant fertility symbol that the judges really loved.
There were also many other very good makeups this week, with Miranda, Alana, and Laney also turning in nice finished products, despite all the horrible things that went wrong for poor Laney this week. First, when Tate went to help her with getting the mannequin out of her mold, the head broke off. Broke off of a fiberglass mannequin.
Someone obviously does not know his own strength.
So now after trying to help out a fellow competitor, Tate found himself scrambling to fix his error and make the mold work for Laney. Fortunately the master of “keep calm and just get it done” was able to reattach the head of the mannequin so she could finish the piece: Simply grabbing another mannequin wouldn’t have worked as it wouldn’t have matched up with the old one.
So Laney survived that crisis, but then she had a sick model during final books, who in fact, had to leave early so that Laney couldn’t even finish her makeup. Fortunately, she had enough done and done well enough to avoid the bottom looks. But even she acknowledged that lacking a more elaborate makeup probably wouldn’t be enough in the future if she was going to stay competitive. Laney’s got a good eye and a good sense of design, but she will have to step it up a little bit and go big to stay in this competition with so many good makeup artists.
And then there were the bottom looks.
Scott, Eddie, and RJ found themselves on the bottom this week. Eddie’s makeup lacked femininity to the point where the model actually looked like a man with the bulky silhouette and the lack of beauty makeup. It was like all of her body but the face was a three-dimensional topography map with foliage, wearing a toga. Scott’s very orange goddess seemed to be more inspired by Alana’s fiery hair than his mother. And then there was veteran RJ.
“Oh, honey,” as Ve Neill would say.
RJ found himself in the difficult position of being asked to create a makeup based on a concept that he’d had already done in the finale of his previous season on the show. So he made an ill-fated choice to try to go completely different.
Actually, there was no try, there was only do. And in this case, Yoda was dead wrong. Don’t do, RJ. Please.
But he did do a concept paying homage to his mother in the 60s, complete with a beehive hairdo and horn-rimmed glasses, and little bees on wires coming out of the beehive. Then he put her in a Jackie O get-up.
(Insert sound of crickets chirping.)
Sometimes trying to think out-of-the-box just doesn’t work. And this was one of those times: There was no sugarcoating the results this time around, and while Glenn was unsurprisingly vicious in his critique, Ve delivered the coup d’état.
“This is a total failure this week, honey.”
Which is such a shame, because RJ has created some of the very best makeups that have ever been on the show. Namely, that adorable bellhop character which was one of my favorites of all time. It was no fluke that he got to the finals in his previous turn on the show with his talent.
But, alas, RJ will not make it to the finals this time around, as he was sent home this week. And Laura was crowned the winner.
Laura and Roy reminded us this week they are down for the long haul and heavy favorites for making the finals, and Lyma surged to the front of the pack in the newbies still standing, showing she could be the dark horse in this season. Fan favorite Tate was in the middle of the pack this week, but c’mon… the horror guy just wasn’t suited to this one, not that his makeup was bad. Some fans wondered why he would create a somewhat “ugly” makeup when paying homage to his mother, but I have a feeling Tate’s mom understands that coming from her son, that’s the highest form of tribute, indeed.
And speaking or Tate, please tune in Thursday night at midnight ET to hear my half-hour interview with him on my new podcast. We dished on “Face Off” contestants and judges and what fans can expect to see from him the rest of this season, as well as his upcoming feature-length directorial debut and his projects with Clive Barker. We also talked about working with everyone’s favorite zombie killer, Mr. Norman Reedus.
Are you really going to miss that? But if you can’t tune in Thursday night, never fear. You can still listen to the podcast recording on the website, so please check it out… no excuses! And check out a teaser audio trailer below the gallery.
(BTW, if you like flowers that Alana, Laney, and Miranda were wearing in their hair at the judging on the show, check out Alana’s “Rotten Roses” on her Etsy site: She makes them!)