Here's a familiar trope: a sneaky CIA agent duping guards, locals, and even other agents by wearing a hyper-realistic prosthetic mask. I always thought the trope was just that—a trope. But the other day, I bumped into a new explanatory interview with Jonna Mendez, former CIA Chief of Disguise. Among the many James Bond-esque subterfuges she helped design, one of them was the invaluable five-second mask (shown above). These latex masks came in all ethnicities, genders, and bone structures. They could be thrown on in under five seconds—without any need to look in a mirror to see if it was askew. Better yet, they could be taken off even faster and tucked into one's armpit, for none to see. In regards to believability, you could frown, speak, and squint realistically. As you might guess, this prosthetic technology originated in Hollywood. But unlike those masks of cinema, which can take hours and hours to apply, Mendez's masks were all about speed. Which was made possible by tailoring each mask to its respective agent. Each agent underwent a facial impression, much like a dental impression, for the perfect fit. It took Mendez and her people 10 years to finalize these uncanny masks, circa the 1970s and 1980s. When Hollywood makeup artists first encountered them, they were in wonderment. Today, the CIA doesn't use the five-second mask anymore… well, at least that's what we're told. Mendez says she too is itching to know what direction the CIA's disguises have gone in since her retirement in 1993. If you're at all paranoid by the CIA's chameleon abilities, just make a habit of playing the "Got Your Nose" kids game with everyone you meet!
 

Below: Former CIA Chief of Disguise Jonna Mendez reflects on her spy masks.
 

Image credit & copyright: International Spy Museum/Clint Emerson
 

Title: Untitled
Artist: "Red" Hong Yi
Created: 2014
Medium: lipstick
 

These firecrackers endow luscious, lunar lips. To celebrate the 2014 Lunar New Year, artist "Red" Hong Yi produced cultural Chinese scenes from everyday cosmetics products. Pictured above are exploding "fireworks" she crafted from red-hot lipstick by drawing the two lanterns, the fuse, and the sparks before dicing the stick into pyrotechnic tubes. This festive makeup series is just one of Red's many unique collections. The artist has employed every material from chopsticks to seeds to coffee stains in her works, which range in size from handheld pieces, like the one above, to portraits over ten feet tall. Red even designed one of the Google Doodles on the search engine's home page; naturally, she crafted hers from flower petals. Who knows—maybe Google will use one of her makeup designs to commemorate the Lunar New Year tomorrow?
 

Below: cranes crafted from cotton wool, eyeliner, and lipstick; a village painted with nail polish; sprouting leaves formed out of eyeliner pencil shavings; Red's implemented Google Doodle logo.
 

Image credit & copyright: Red Hong Yi
 

Regal is as regal does when it comes to Pat McGrath and her makeup work. McGrath recently became the first makeup artist to receive the title of Dame as a Member of the Order of the British Empire. While looking at McGrath's 2016 W magazine cover and editorial work with pop star Rihanna, it's easy to see why McGrath's inventiveness has made her one of the most in-demand makeup artists of the past 30 years. To give Rihanna the bejeweled look, McGrath initially applied a foundation from her own line called McGrath Labs Skin Fetish 003. From there, three-dimensional Cartier jewelry pieces were placed together to create the golden eyepiece. Gold flakes and liquid-appearing makeup effects were added beneath the eye, as well as the red lip color and paillettes. The overall effect is a futuristic baroque look, and definitely one of McGrath's most memorable works. We might even call it one of her crown jewels!

 
Image credit & copyright: Steven Klein / W Magazine
 

Written by: Esther P.

In some cultures, brides wear white gowns to their weddings; in the Gorani tribe of southern Kosovo, it's a bride's face that gets the ivory treatment. As part of pagan and Muslim traditions in the region, a betrothed woman has her visage painted with a base layer of white cream face paint, and then set with powder. From there, a straight wire is dipped in gold and pressed into the makeup, providing the angular lines which represent the "golden roads" of life. They lead to the three circles, which represent three different stages in life; meanwhile, the red and blue dots serve as symbols of fertility. Once her face painting is completed, the bride is dressed in elaborate ceremonial clothing, and joins her family to meet her husband-to-be, on what is the first of three days of wedding celebrations for the happy couple. If a wedding is planned as meticulously as the bride's makeup, guests are sure to experience an unforgettable matrimonial party!

 

Below: the video Nusja Jone - Bride (Kosovo), which shows the makeup application process for a Gorani bride.
 

Image credit & copyright: Yll Citaku
 

The annals of horror would be lacking without the Universal Classic Monsters—and one, in particular, owes his creation to Milicent Patrick. The first woman in film to work in special effects and makeup, Patrick is now (rightfully) credited with designing the gilled visage of the Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954). She was a gifted artist who was also one of the first women hired as an animator at Disney, with her work being featured in the original Fantasia (1940). When Creature came out, Patrick was sent on a promotional tour entitled "The Beauty Who Created the Beast." The loss of her legacy likely had something to do with the head of Universal's makeup department, George "Bud" Westmore. Ever the egomaniac, Westmore sent memos to the heads of the studio insisting the Creature was entirely his creation (he was lying). Patrick was subsequently fired and never worked in Hollywood again. A recently published biography about Patrick entitled The Lady from the Black Lagoon, written by Mallory O'Meara, has done away with the lies and recovered her much-deserved reputation—that of a cinematic Golden Age legend and an innovator in horror films!

 

Below: a snapshot of Patrick working on the entire Creature suit, and another photo of Dr. Patrick and Mr. Hyde mask-goofing around.
 

Image credit & copyright: Milicent Patrick Family Collection
 

That's the last babysitter we hire off of Craigslist Isengard! Shown above in full Uruk-hai costume is Māori actor Lawrence Makoare having a little fun on the set of director Peter Jackson's The Fellowship of the Ring. For the flick, Makoare sat still each day for four-and-a-half hours as makeup artists glued prosthetics to his face and painted his skin a reddish-charcoal color, only to sit another hour-and-a-half after filming so it could be delicately removed. And that was on a good day; for the nightmarish mud-cocoon birthing scene of Makoare's character—a hulking orc named Lurtz—the actor spent over 11 hours twiddling his thumbs in the makeup chair! On set, his woes only continued. Actors who played orcs routinely fainted from heat exhaustion during action sequences, and Makoare's mustard-yellow contacts chafed his eyes. "They were like a ping-pong ball cut in half, and if you blink too much in them they dig into your eyes. It bloody hurt," he said. We can't help but pity Makoare—even when he poses as a snarling servant of evil!
 

Below: more photos from the set of Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
 

Image credit & copyright: BBC News / Peter Jackson / New Line Cinema