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: RuPaul's Drag Race, Season 3

I kind of fell off the bandwagon with these Beauty Sightings, yeah? I have absolutely no idea why I've done seasons 2 and 4 of this show and not 3. Forgive me and let's move on to the beauty sightings--I could really use some brand help on this one!

But not for the drinks, which are hilariously covered up with post-it notes. Anybody else ever notice that? Coke, why don't you want a Drag Race endorsement?!

Venus D-Lite darkens her brows even when she's not in drag.

Shangela pressing on cream foundation. I've heard tell she uses Graftobian HD, but don't quote me!

There's a MAC lipstick here, but I can't see the mascara behind it super-well. There's a blush palette here, but it looks like a bunch of depots, yeah?

Loose powder. Is this Ben Nye? Kryolan? Dermablend? They're all popular drag brands.

I've been trying so hard to figure out what this palette is! Google Fu is failing me. :( Kryolan was the sponsor for this season, so my assumption is that it's one of their products.

Delta's makeup spread.

Kryolan makeup remover and a blush palette. There's also some press-on nails and false lashes.

Alexis Mateo appears to have a MAC blush palette. Also, I will forever love this season for including the definitions of busted...

...and garage doors. Flawless.

Sprays behind Manila. The gold bottle is the much-loved L'oreal Elnett spray, excellent for holding wig hairs in place.

Another shot of those blushes, plus some Ru Glue and what appears to be a MAC cream blush.

A vanity shot and Shangela holding a MAC shadow.

Another shot of that f'ing palette! They're featuring it way too much for it to NOT be Kryolan...is it maybe a version of the 18 Color Variety Palette that I haven't seen?

Manila and Stacey painting their nails with a Wet n' Wild polish.

There's a NYX jumbo pencil in the mirror, and I think the powders are a mixture of MAC and theater brands.

Ben Nye powder on the table, most likely Translucent or Neutral Set.

A shot inside some kits and bags. There's a NYX compact in the train case and a Joe Blasco product on the vanity.

I can't tell if this is setting spray or hair spray.

Gratuitous shot of Yara putting on her makeup, just because she always manages to look beautiful when she does it while the rest of us look like a bunch of morons.

Beauty Sightings: RuPaul's Drag Race, season 5

Does this really need an introduction? Season 5 of RuPaul's Drag Race had some of my all-time favorite queens, including local** favorite Alaska Thunderfuck.

Cripes, I adore her.


The beauty sightings in this season were surprisingly ripe for the picking, although I have to admit that the sponsor brand, Color Evolution, is a bit of an unknown to me. As always, if you can identify a product, please leave a comment!

A blatantly obvious tube of Maybelline Great Lash. This is a super-popular drag mascara because it never dries out and it doesn't gunk up false lashes. Also, Doritos!

Jinx is using Kryolan eyebrow wax. You can also see some Ru Glue, and I think the white pot you can see is Dermablend. Thoughts?

A vanity shot.

The yellow bottle in the middle is a got2be hair product--it's probably the same bottle you see in the next picture. Also, love Coco's face here!

Duct tape and post-it notes abound all over the labels in Drag Race. But the picture, color, and bottle shape give this away as the got2be Glued Blasting Freeze Spray spray.

Jinx using a Sephora palette.

You can see several jars of Ben Nye powder here, most likely Neutral Set or Translucent. The pink hairspray bottle is Suave.

An Aussie product, Neutrogena makeup wipes, and a can of Coke. I think the nail polishes might be China Glaze, but I can't tell.

Ah, the brand blurring: for when duct tape ain't enough! Anybody recognize the products here?

I am LIVING for that neon pink!

Drag Race, honey boo boo child...ain't nobody here dumb enough to miss a bottle of AquaNet.

While you should never use makeup wipes as your only makeup removal/cleansing method, they're good for getting off really thick layers of paint. This makes them a drag queen staple.

Alyssa Edwards and Detox sparkly red China Glaze nail polishes.

10 points to anyone who can peg this concealer!

Pretty sure this is Kryolan TV Paint Stick.

Tons o' bottles and tubes!


** Alaska has moved to Los Angeles and is therefore, technically, not local anymore. But she's from Erie and she was a player in the Pittsburgh drag scene.

No, I'm not dead...but my wallet is.

My apologies for the extended absence-o-content. I've had a crazy-weird work schedule and a nasty bout of the flu that's still lingering a smidge, so I've been spending most of my spare time sleeping and filling out job applications. But! I did manage to buy some brand new cheap goodies, finish a swap, and close my MAC Pro card with a bang.

The Kevyn Aucoin Sensual Skin Tinted Balm has been a long-time lust of mine, and I'll do a full review of it when I get the chance. I can tell you right now, however, that I'm pretty sure it's going to be too dark for me. :( I got the NYX Black eyeshadow at the grocery store when I realized I'm lacking a matte black; I've been using it to do my winged liner from time to time, and I'm quite impressed with it! The Ben Nye Creme Color was a total impulse purchase, and now that I have it home, I think it looks very similar to the Kevyn Aucoin Creamy Moist Glow in Isadore...I'll keep you posted.

I didn't plan on buying any of the limited Edition Maybelline Color Tattoo cream shadows, but these were SO hyped, and they looked super-pretty when I held them up to the light. Seashore Frosts is, of course, the one everybody's talking about, and it's pretty unique from what I can tell. I also bought Lavish Lavender because it's my sort of color, and I think it might look neat with the Laura Mercier Metallic Creme eyeshadow in Alloy (which, unfortunately, I haven't been able to figure out yet; I'm pretty sure it's just not working on me).

Then I bought some pressed powders and a 209 brush from MAC, blah blah blah, nobody cares. LIPSTICKS! Obviously, I got a few brights. I Back 2 MACed for Vegas Volt about 2 years ago, then decided it wouldn't look right on me and immediately put it up as a contest prize. Now that I've relaxed a little more with regards to my bright lip colors (not everything has to be a blue-based red or hot pink, etc), I've decided to give it another shot. I also bought the limited edition Paramore lipstick, Sounds Like Noise, which I didn't get a discount on, but it's just...so WEIRD. I had to have it! And of course, the much-loved Girl About Town. I tested it out immediately and already adore it.

I also got a nude-ish color (shock!), Please Me. I'm not 100% sure how I feel about this shade. I think I'll only be able to wear it on itself with very specific looks and outfits, but if I want to wear it regularly, it'll probably  need a little gloss to not look so...eh? I'll play around with it a bit.

And keep your eyes out for my other purchase--it's a contest prize. ;)

From left to right: Makeup Forever Rouge Artist Intense #37, MAC Vegas Volt, MAC Sounds Like Noise, MAC Girl About Town, MAC Petals and Peacocks, MAC Please Me, Lipstick Queen Pink Sinner.

Painting for the Back Row

Have you ever been to a drag show? If not, you're missing out on some mega-super-fantastic SERIOUS fun! This year, I not only watched the fantastic drag show at one of my local universities, I also pitched in and helped a bit with the makeup for a truly hilarious "Gangnam Style" routine. The task was to essentially paint the back-up dancers like baby drag queens, which, hey, no problem...except there were a few more dancers than I expected: five. FIVE! But with plenty of help from lovely friends and my amazing ability to pilfer cosmetics from the collections of others, we were able to get it done.

All of these lovely ladies were kind enough to use their own foundations and concealers, except for the few ladies who didn't own foundation or concealer at all. They were all beautiful, of course, so it wasn't even really necessary.

Plenty of saturated colors were needed, so I started with Too Faced Shadow Insurance on all of their lids before applying various shades of Mehron Aqua Color in a cat-eye shape. I set the Aqua Colors with matte powder eyeshadows by Ben Nye and Wet n' Wild. The huge lashes are from Mehron and were definitely a splurge, but they were totally worth it! Several of the dancers kept their sets. Eyebrows were liberally darkened with various shades of Maybelline Define-a-Brow (which I admit I'm not a fan of--most of the shades seemed quite red, and I had to click the pencils up a zillion times) with the exception of the two blonde ladies; for them, I used my own Clinique Superfine Liner in Soft Blonde.

The cheek colors are La Femme powder blushes in various mixtures of Flamingo Pink, Coral Spice, Terracotta, Purple Passion, and Fuchsia. Three highlighters were used liberally on the cheekbones: MAC Cream Color Base in Luna for the palest ladies, MAC Glimmer Shimmer in Orange Twink over warm blushes, and Hard Candy Glow All the Way Luminzer in Doll Face over cool blushes.

Three shades of lipstick were used: NYX Strawberry Milk, NYX Louisiana, and MAC Coral Polyp. The original plan was to add MAC Clear gloss on top, but they were already quite shiny/bright, and we were running out of time. No-brainer right there.

To finish them off and give them a majorly Shellac'ed appearance, I had them close and cover their eyes (as Mehron Aqua Colors are not waterfast unless you use certain mixing mediums) while I sprayed them with liberal amounts of ELF Studio Makeup Mist & Set.

The fantastic drag king seen here, Papi Choulo, did his own makeup using Ben Nye Creme Colors.

I didn't have much time to my makeup, unfortunately, because it was a rainy day that involved lots of running around. But I did manage to slap on some MAC Party Parrot right before the show started! The two lovely gents with me are my good friends Dan (out-of-drag queen Scarlet Fairweather), who made several special appearances, and Joe, who helped organize the festivities.

Beauty Sightings: RuPaul's Drag Race, Season 4

It's been a while since I've done a beauty sightings post, and the current season of RuPaul's Drag Race is just knocking my socks off. So why not include a slew of beauty sightings from one of my favorite seasons ever, season 4? I mean, who doesn't love a drag queen competition that ends with an eccentric beauty from Pittsburgh getting the crown?

...well, yes, I would love a crown, too. But I'm actually talking about Miss Sharon Needles, who became my top pick for the win when she walked in to the workroom on the first day looking like this:

HOW DO I LOVE THEE. LET ME COUNT THE WAYS AND THE NUMBER OF EDGAR ALLEN POE POEMS I WANT TO RECITE IN THE FACE OF YOUR FLAWLESSNESS. AND YOU'RE FROM THE PITTSBURGH DRAG SCENE--BONUS!

Annnnyway! NYX was the sponsor for this season, so be prepared to see a number of their products...but of course, every drag queen has her must-haves, carefully stashed away in their suitcases. As always, if you recognize a product, please let us know what it is!

You can definitely spot some MAC pigment jars in Jiggly Caliente's kit.

The first of many "Ru-Glue" sightings for this season.

Sharon sculpting her face. There's some nail polish remover on the stand behind her.

Madame LaQueer holding a pot with some kind of cream product. It's hard to see the label, but it doesn't look like NYX to me...maybe DermaBlend or Ben Nye?

VANITY SHOT! Sharon's got some Ben Nye loose powders and cream products.

Dida Ritz applying a beautiful pinky-red gloss. I wish we got to see more of this product!

A shot of Chad's brush kit. I see that puff with her all the time...is it a Kryolan puff?

A container full of glosses. I'm pretty sure these belong to Chad Michaels.

Chad using Studio Grafix hairspray on one of her many Cher wigs.

Latrice Royale is also a Ben Nye fan; I noticed a few of their products in her kit, including these infamous orange-y powders.

Some of Kenya Michael's makeup. I've seen that jar of loose powder on her table a few times, and I think it's either MAC or NYX.

Vanity shot!

Chad Michaels applying what I am 99% sure is some NYX lipliner.

Dida Ritz setting her makeup with AquaNet hair spray. This is a very old-school drag trick, and while it definitely works, I wouldn't recommend that the average person do it on a daily basis.

Product placement!

A good shot of some of Dida Ritz's products. There's a Kryolan palette, a NYX eyshadow kit, and several NARS compacts.

There's that puff again! And, of course, a picture of Cher in Chad's kit. ;) Those palettes in front of Chad pop up a LOT--anybody recognize them?

Willam and Sharon applying liquid liner.

Willam has a Dior product here; I'm pretty sure it's Dior Air Flash foundation. She also has some makeup wipes and q-tips.

Sharon uses a NYX pencil to draw on her brows.

Chad uses Duo lash glue. And I never noticed the tattoo on her wrist until now!

GOD, that bronzer looks SO familiar! Anybody recognize it?

It was a bit hard to capture, but Sharon is doing her contour with a MAC powder.

And the final sighting for today: lots of Sally Hansen airbrush makeup for legs! You'll notice this popping up on queens' tables from time to time; I especially noticed it on Willam's.