Beauty Sightings: RuPaul's Drag Race, season 6

Season 6 is probably one of my all-time favorite seasons. Even though some of challenges were beyond insipid, and the editing shade was at an all-time high, I really loved some of the queens they brought on. Obviously, my favorite was winner Bianca Del Rio...AND I GOT TO SEE HER LIVE. (Still not over it.)

Click on a picture to expand it and get a better view. As always, if you recognize a product, leave me a comment so I can update the post!

There are a ton of images in this post, so I put all but the first picture under a break. Be sure to expand this post! I actually ran out of room for brand labels, which is why I decided to just remove most of them for this Beauty Sightings post.

ColorEvolution was the sponsor this season. Here are the brand-spanking new kits each queen was provided.

Beauty Sightings: Pageant

Pageant (2008) is a sweet-as-pie and dash-of-sassy documentary that follows 5 drag queens as they vie for the title of Miss Gay America. It is, in my opinion, an excellent documentary for newbies who don't know a whole lot about drag, since it slowly introduces you to one specific portion of the art form (ie, "pageant queens"). But if you're a "drag conisseur" like me and you just love to watch pretty bitches beat their faces, you'll also get a kick out of it. :) My biggest disappointment is that we didn't get to see much of the two "older" queens, Coti and Victoria (some of you may recognize the latter from the first season of RuPaul's Drag Race). It was nice the see how the younger queens are with their family and friends, though.

These queens are so skilled at putting on their makeup, however, that they tend to put their makeup on quite quickly, and it can be a little hard to catch what products they're using. BRING ON THE GIFS!!!

This unknown lovely is clearly patting some eyeshadow on to her lips. Old-school (and super-effective) drag trick!

Cleavage painting!

That pot of cream reminds me SO MUCH of a pot of Dior face cream a friend used to own...

Is that an Estee Lauder compact the beautiful Chantel is using?

Look, lovely readers--LA FEMME! Loads of it!! Also, in this scene, Chantel mentions using Dermablend as her base.

The fantastic Coti Collins using "Ru-Glue," aka an Elmer's glue stick, to block out her eyebrows.

This is a Maurice Stein pencil, yes?

Can anyone see what paint stick she's using as her base? I think it's another Stein product.

I see a blue MAC shadow, maybe MAC blushes, and--surprise surprise!--Maybelline Great Lash mascara. You guys may wonder why Great Lash is so popular, and why it appears in so many movies and shows with big pageant-y makeup. Here's the thing: it pretty much never dries out (no, really; it's creepy!), and it's perfect on top of false lashes because it won't clump them or dry them out. Hence, it's easy to clean it off of your falsies. :)

A Kryolan palette. This appears to be one of the 8-pan shadow palettes.

Plus a bottle of rubbing alcohol, some false lashes, and some compacts and bottles I can't quite identify.

Miss Alina using some powder and pulling out a powder puff. Anybody recognize those compacts?

Victoria DePaula has an open pot of Coty Airspun in her kit.

MOAR COTY!!!

Any idea what this white cream she's applying might be? A highlight? Some concentrated glitter?

Hey, it's Randy from Say Yes to the Dress!

"If you're a nice person, you can see that from the inside out." Preach, Miss Victoria Pork Chop Parker! I just wanted to include some shots of her because she's a complete doll. Younger drag queens who think it's all about being as shady as possible could take some lessons from her.

Beauty Sightings: Showgirls

Ah, Showgirls. If ever there was a piece of trash that I truly enjoyed, it was this melodramatic softcore porn that masquerades as a serious commentary on the hazards of fame. I actually don't think this movie is as downright terrible, at its roots, as some claim it is, nor do I think Elizabeth Berkley is as horrible of an actress as people make her out to be. But there were a lot of little problems, like the pointless and excessive-even-by-Vegas-standards nudity and the occasionally awkward dialogue, that added up and really killed the flick.

And yet the makeup--infamously heavy and overdone--has inspired me. Blame it on my early introduction to drag, but I always loved the uber-thick layers of lip product and blatantly fake false lashes, albeit not for everyday wear. The makeup takes a slightly creepy turn if you switch from watching Showgirls in standard definition--which is what I did for 10+ years--to watching the Blue Ray I currently own...but more on that later. For now, BEAUTY SIGHTINGS! (No fears, parents: these images are censored.)

Penny applies a pinky-red lip pencil. Someone told me that these are Lancome pencils, but it's hard for me to tell.

These red lips intrigue me: Julie is seen applying a red lipstick from a purple-and-gold foiled tube (which I couldn't get a picture of), but Nomi is clearly using a gloss or a stain, the packaging of which is vaguely reminiscent of CoverGirl. Of course, the makeup does vary from skintone to skintone. You can also see red nail polishes and a tube of the infamous Maybelline Great Lash mascara on Nomi's vanity.

I think this is the same lipstick Julie applies for this "firebird" makeup. Again, it's gold and purple, metallic...anybody have any idea what mid-90s packaging that might be?

Check out Cristal's epic vanity! I see a few things that look like Estee Lauder and Tresseme, but I could be completely off the mark.

Cristal rubs what appears to be Ponds cold cream in to her skin to remove her heavy theater makeup.

Another lip pencil; again, these are purportedly Lancome, but I can't exactly tell.

Nomi rushing to smoosh even more makeup on her face.

Lots of familiar goodies in this shot--definitely click to see the full-sized image! I spot cotton rounds, fake eyelashes, Q-tips, and nail tools, plus stand-bys like lotion, water spritzers, and tissues. And of course, on the left, our dear friend Coty Airspun.

MOAR MAKEUP!!! This particular eyeshadow seems to be a cream formula, but it's hard to tell...

...and we see ladies holding palettes of powder shadow mere moments later. Again, check the vanities for staples like deodorant and sponge wedges.

This was incredibly hard to capture, but Julie is either using lash primer or brow tamer. The tube is black.

Nomi adds some nude pencil to her eyes. This looks eerily like a MAC Chromagraphic pencil that I own, but those are relatively new...right?

Nomi applying some really gorgeous lipstick. I can't tell what the bottles on her vanity are for...nail stuff, maybe?

A close-up of the lipstick Nomi puts on, plus plenty of nail art porn!

And now, inspiration images! Again, the makeup from Showgirls has always inspired and interested me, but it's only now that I have the blu-ray that I can really see every little brush stroke and highlight. To be quite frank, it's a tad scary. Yes, everyone knows that the makeup in Showgirls is downright excessive, especially since we only rarely see the leading ladies on stage, but the super-mega-definition of this HD version makes it very clear that...well, Showgirls wasn't made with modern HD technology in mind, yes, but furthermore, it makes it all too evident that they absolutely CAKED makeup on Elizabeth Berkley and, to a lesser extent, Gina Gershon. With women like...

 Elizabeth Berkely and...

Gina Gershon, who are, to this very day, naturally lovely ladies, what's the purpose of pancaking them? Especially disturbing are the scenes where their characters are supposed to be bare-faced, but with the power of modern HD video, you can see just how much they smacked on to their faces (eyeliner, lipliner, false lashes, etc.)...it's just baffling.

But you didn't come here to read a crotchety rant. Here are some inspiration pictures, plus a few shots I took to show you just how much they overdid it, sometimes making the beautiful Berkley look like a creepy plastic elf doll that fell face first in to a vat of flour.