Wearing a year's worth of makeup at once

In this video, 365 layers of foundation, eye-makeup, lipliner, and blush are applied in successive layers to a model's face, until she looks like a drippy, gooey blob.

Cheeky directors Lernert & Sander embrace the urge for cosmetic overkill in their surreal short Natural Beauty. Makeup artist Ferry van der Nat and his assistant Vanessa Chan helped to execute the vision, slathering a host of Ellis Faas products on Belgian beauty Hannelore Knuts, who was recently named the new face of Swiss fashion house Akris. Lernert & Sander began collaborating in 2006; since then they've done everything from melt a chocolate bunny with a hairdryer to repurpose household appliances as sex toys in the name of video art. We asked the co-conspirators to break down the shoot in detail.

Lernert & Sander: Natural Beauty (via IO9)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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Modusoperandi

wilberfan #13 “A tad unfair, don’t you think? A years worth of ANYTHING would be grossâ€¦”
What about unicorns?
CastanhasDoPara

Wow, she looks so gorgeous. Especially towards the end.

*bonks self over head with a bat*

Wait, what was I saying… oh, ah, no that’s totally disgusting. And while this may bring me some ire from ‘beauty product’ apologists. Makeup is a total ripoff, a scam. Never mind all the junk that goes into it and the willing hordes who slather this crud on their faces every day… but the shear amount of money being washed down the drain every night all in the name of vanity and approval from others. What a waste. I do actually feel really sorry for people that think any of this is in any way necessary to be a happy, fulfilled and accepted person (BTW I blame society here not those that have swallowed all the marketing BS and peer-pressure and slightly less those that genuinely like (or think they like) wasting all the time, effort and money on this habit that is to my mind akin to an addiction.) FWIW, I hope the message the artists here were aiming for was that makeup is ridiculous.
- El Mariachi
  
  While I get where you’re coming from, I think you’re overstating your case a bit. Yes, the beauty industry is overtly complicit in encouraging low self-esteem so as to increase demand for their product. Yes, our culture overemphasises youthful and slender phenotypes to the social detriment of those who are unable (whether for reasons of age or genetics) to manifest them. These underlying aspects are bad and should be brought to light and countered. But that doesn’t mean putting some colors on your face is inherently disempowering or disgusting. I’m a man, but occasionally when I go out to certain types of parties I may wear eyeliner or spray UV-reactive glitter or something in my hair. I recognize that the cultural expectations are different and potentially more damaging for women, but I don’t think a blanket condemnation of any and all facial decoration is a constructive response. Are you up in arms about body modifications too? Tattoos? Jewelry? Razors? Bow ties? It’s in our nature to decorate ourselves, for which I am thankful not because I perceive the unadorned as “drab” or “disgusting” but because the broader the variety of human expression available to us the better.
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Make-up is like a recreational drug. If you’re enjoying yourself, it’s great. If you can’t leave the house without it, not so much.
    - Gloria
      
      Like that. I’ll remember it for future reference.
      
      Re: Nana Visitor: Similarly, how did the ladies in LOST stay so smooth leg- and armpit-wise on that island, while their eyebrows stayed miraculously plucked and arched? (Oh wait. It was magic! The same magic that kept all the men’s beards on this side of shaggy-attractive.)
      
      I agree that a year of make-up is inevitably gross, and so are many things, if you accumulate a year of them. But this is a performance art piece, and art tends to be … well, a little artificial in order to achieve its desired visual/emotional impacts.
      
      It’s like eco-photography that gathers enormous piles of things you use to point out how much waste one person can produce, or how much goes into the products you consume every day.
      
      It’s fair to say make-up isn’t quite the same since you wash it off your face and it doesn’t accumulate anywhere not even in a dump). I do think it achieves its point of making you rethink what the point of putting it on in the first place is. All this goop … why do you have to put it on and wash it off every day? It’s not like taking a shower, which removes dirt. You’re essentially putting “dirt” on your face and taking it off again.
      
      That said, I read a local paper’s coverage on this, and apparently the point is that a woman should keep it light when it comes to make-up because pancake faces are gross. Oh, ok. *Thanks.*
      - Anonymous
        
        “It’s like eco-photography that gathers enormous piles of things you use to point out how much waste one person can produce, or how much goes into the products you consume every day. It’s fair to say make-up isn’t quite the same since you wash it off your face and it doesn’t accumulate anywhere not even in a dump).”
        
        so how do you wash your face? with running water, right? do you think that the drain is some kind of a magical disposal vortex?
        
        just a few links from a quick google search:
        
        http://ag.arizona.edu/azwater/awr/july00/feature1.htm
        
        http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_16037537
        
        http://www.alive.com/3779a1a2.php?subject_bread_cramb=185
        
        http://www.skincare-news.com/b-3114-Do_Cosmetics_Contaminate_Water.aspx
      - Gloria
        
        “do you think that the drain is some kind of a magical disposal vortex?”
        
        Uh, no, I don’t. I was just anticipating a possible response to my point.
        
        I don’t wear any make-up and I stopped using hormonal birth-control a couple of years ago. I’ve also stopped buying products with plastic exfoliants because I know they never completely break down in the water. I’d like to take fewer medications too, but unfortunately I do value my physical comfort and health, and antibiotics take care of that for me.
        
        I *am* actually aware of the impact trace chemicals make in our water supplies … I just neglected to make the connection to this topic.
        
        But thanks for the links! Something to pass onto people who *do* response to me that make-up chemicals just disappear.
        
        :)
  - CastanhasDoPara
    
    Perhaps you have a point. An argument could be made that modern make-up is just a variant of war-paint and as such deserves a seat in the gallery of human endeavours to look and feel different, conjure emotions and reactions in other humans, and generally augment natural selection in an unnatural way.
    
    And while I personally don’t have tats, mods, or other such things I do still wear clothes and cut my hair and clip my nails. What I was putting out there was the cultural and societal implications of such things, specifically the basic implication that women (and some men) feel a need (received or sought) to ‘look good’ or ‘be presentable’ as ‘normal’. To that end, makeup need not be normal, just as war-paint today is not normal in the modern era (though it is still a very important cultural custom in many places, as is scarification, tattoos, lip-plates, etc.) And there is indeed an overwhelming degree of pressure placed on women (and some men) to modify their appearance based on the preferences of others. Which, to be fair is actually pretty unfair. Also, again, in the cases that this behaviour rises to the level of an addiction it is really quite sad. That said, yes I can see where some of the things you mention are interesting and possibly desirable but iterate again, at what cost?
    - Gloria
      
      To be fair, you do need to clip your nails if you want to perform certain tasks. I find long nails seriously impede my typing, which spurred a deep respect for all those secretaries who not only maintained long nails but managed to pound down those heavy typewriter keys with amazing precision and speed.
      
      Or not if you want to perform others. I’m pretty useless with undoing tight knots the entire week after trimming mine.
- robulus
  
  I have to speak up in defence of ‘beauty product’ apologists here. You see, I’m a ‘beauty product’ apologist apologist. And you better believe there are ‘beauty product’ apologist apologist apologists lined up right behind me.
  - CastanhasDoPara
    
    Well, I’m not entirely sure what it is you were trying to say there but if I had to take a stab at it I’d have to think that you were being cute (which is acceptable) or you are a person that likes painted dolls as opposed to real people (which is your preference, IMO not a very good one but it’s a preference).
    
    Also… this may apply it may not. Next…
    - robulus
      
      Cute!
      
      It was the first time I’d encountered the term “beauty product apologist” and I got all swept away with it….
      
      I’m feeling better now.
Anonymous

No no, the idea was that you shouldn’t use soap, not that you shouldn’t wash your face. It won’t actually end up like this.
thekinginyellow

why no time lapse instead of dissolves? it’s not bad. i think time lapse would have been more dramatic. oh well. or at least if they were rolling tape on the whole process they could just increase the speed to achieve a similar effect. it just seemed too slow.
Anonymous

Aww, I wanted to watch them peel it all off at the end. :(
Jardine

I’d like to see a year’s worth of Michael Dorn’s makeup circa 1992.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  I’d like to see a year’s worth of Michael Dorn’s makeup circa 1992.
  
  I was rewatching DS9 a few months back, and I actually think that Nana Visitor may have been wearing more make-up than Michael Dorn. I never could figure out how Kira went so quickly from being a terrorist living in the Bajoran outback to having her eye shadow applied with a flocking gun.
g0d5m15t4k3

Gross. Who uses spray on foundation? Or was that just the easiest to do? I use liquid applied with my fingers. Some people use the mousse stuff or liquid to powder, I bet those layer up quicker & would look even more disgusting. I wonder if she had an awful breakout the next day/week/month. It said it took them 9 hours to put that on her.

Also, I hate videos with music that only have the option of on or off. Give me a volume slider so I don’t have to dick around with my volume on my PC. I listen to music normally and its just annoying to have to re-adjust after a video.
Sawyertrice

Actually, from these comments, it seems that no one understood the point of this video.

Am I the only person who thinks this video is heartbreaking?

Showing 365 days of makeup on the face highlights just how absurd are the expectations society holds for women. There you have it, now stop talking about the airbrush tool.
lknope

Wow. If I were to take pictures of me and me with the year’s worth of makeup I wear, you wouldn’t be able to tell them apart!

It must be nice to have that spray on make up tool, though. Do any average Jane’s use that or just make up artists?
- MrsBug
  
  lknope, they actually sell the airbrushing tool at Sephora. Not my thing in any way, but interesting.
  
  I don’t know how she stood to have all that goop on her lips. I can hardly wear lipstick, much less that kind of pile.
CastanhasDoPara

On second thought, let me rephrase that. Very few people are alike in the first place and there is a wide diversity of look and appeal in unadorned humans to begin with so it occurs to me that modification above that is all just fluff and basically unnecessary and unnatural. It is still however up to the individual to decide what is appropriate and desirable. Or at least it should be.
Fett101

I know what they’re trying to say but it doesn’t work for me. If I were to shampoo with 365 days worth or eat 365 days worth of food then the results would be just as messy.
princessalex

I’m not actually sure what message they’re trying to send. Also, the text at the beginning and end were impossible to read, thanks to the white on the beige-y background.
Anonymous

next up, 365 days of excrement?
wilberfan

A tad unfair, don’t you think? A years worth of ANYTHING would be gross…
Lyle Hopwood

No idea what the point of that was. If I make a video of me trying to put on 365 pairs of socks in one day, it’d be gross (and most likely impossible) but it doesn’t say anything about someone wearing one pair at once.
g0d5m15t4k3

Perhaps they are making a statement on how gross makeup is. It sure made me make a gross face at the resulting melting goo-face. It could also be a comment on how people always over-do things that make them “beautiful”. The part at the beginning that says “Natural Beauty” kind of makes me lean toward them making a statement on how unnatural stuff like makeup really is on a human being. Though… she starts out with makeup on too. She was not bare-faced in any of this video.
Culturedropout

Man – and I thought *I* did weird things when I was really bored… X-/

Up next, 365 days worth of bikini waxes one right after the other…
Culturedropout

Man – and I thought *I* did weird things when I was really bored… X-/

Up next, 365 days worth of bikini waxes one right after the other…
Anonymous

So that’s what it looks like to walk backwards through the uncanny valley!