12 Makeup Tips From A Drag Expert You Should Know About

Tips from Ikaro Kadoshi for anyone who is looking to get a little more experimental with their makeup.

Ikaro Kadoshi is well known in Brazil as a popular opening act before Ru Paul's drag shows, and has been making a living as a drag performer for over 16 years.

Instagram: @ikarokadoshi

Here are some of Ikaro's tips for getting more involved in drag, or just more experimental with your makeup:

1. Products are constantly evolving and techniques are changing all the time.

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Everything you know about makeup can change in a moment. But it's easy to keep up with all the latest techniques thanks to beauty blogs and YouTube.

2. Preparing your skin is VERY important.

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Skin needs to stay in excellent shape both before and after you apply a SURREAL amount of makeup to it. If you don't take good care of it, makeup will never look as good as it could.

3. Every drag queen has a different preference for how they contour their face.

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Contouring helps soften or highlight different parts of the face. Some drag queens prefer a more uniform canvas to work with, and contour after they apply a base. Others prefer more subtle shadows and highlights and may experiment with contouring before applying a base, or may even use a paint stick to begin contouring with different base tones.

4. Red lipstick is great for neutralizing beard shadow.

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Even after a really close shave, most guys still have a shadow around their beard area due to stubble. One easy way to neutralize this is to apply red lipstick before applying the base.

5. Don't use a paint stick directly on your face.

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Ikaro suggests applying the pain to a brush or sponge first. That way you can avoid using more of the product than you actually need. Good quality paint sticks usually don't come cheap, so it helps to make them last.

6. A brown pencil is every drag queen's best friend.

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Brown pencils can map out the shape of new eyebrows, the contours of your nose, and your lip line. Plus, if something goes wrong, it's way easier to touch up than a black pencil.

7. After blocking your eyebrows, use them as a starting place for the concave slope leading down to your eyes.

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Whether or not you follow the shape of the original eyebrow, your eye makeup will look extra dramatic when the concave slope begins so high up on your brow.

8. Use black or brown eyeshadow to map out the new concave slope of your eyes

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Regardless of the color you decide to use when painting the eyes, darkening the areas around the eyes with black or brown eyeshadow will guarantee a more dramatic look.

9. Use your original eyebrows as a guide for your drag eyebrows.

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I mean, go nuts, make them as high and curvy as you want, but using your natural eyebrows as a guide–or at least using them to judge where your new brows should begin and end–makes the task so much easier.

10. Ombré and glitter eyebrows are the latest trends in drag makeup.

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For ombré eyebrows, create a gradient by using lighter eyeshadow on the inside of the brow and a darker eyeshadow out at the tip of the eyebrow. For glitter eyebrows, use whatever color glitter pencil you have to delineate your brows, then fill it in with eyelash glue and carefully cover it with glitter.

11. Don't forget the finishing touch: loose powder.

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It's transparent and it will keep everything you've worked so hard on in place.

This post was translated from Portuguese.