Drop Dead Gorgeous: Beauty secrets of the dead
THERE’S so much more to preparing the dead than first meets the eye. The dead have a beauty routine, too, and it all starts with a clean slate.
THERE are many decisions that need to be made when a beloved loved one passes.
Aside from all the family and financial affairs that tend to go hand-in-hand with death, a simple visit to a funeral home can be a veritable minefield of ghoulish-yet-necessary choices, like cremation vs. burial or closed casket vs. open casket, for example.
Of course, having an open casket also means needing a makeup artist well versed in the artistry of keeping the recently departed very much alive in people’s memories.
Funeral directors say the most important part of preparing someone for a viewing is the “setting of the features”, which creates a peaceful facial expression.
And there are several tricks of the trade they use to do just this …
FIRST THINGS FIRST
All good makeup starts with a clean base, and the dead are no different.
“The very first thing we do is wash the body from head to toe,” Amber Carvaly, co-founder of funeral home Undertaking LA, tells Refinery 29. “Then we embalm, then wash again, and then shampoo and condition the hair.”
PICTURE PERFECT
The first rule of business as a mortuary makeup artist is knowing your subject and making sure you don’t do anything that’s going to set the family off and make them more upset than they already are. It’s an emotional time, after all, so it’s probably not a good idea to style Aunty Irene’s bob into cornrows.
Of course, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Other things known to upset people include parting hair the wrong way, clean-shaving someone known for their facial hair, removing glasses (always best to check), even cutting someone nails.
Of course, several pictures from the loved ones family can help avoid a multitude of dramas.
INSIDE THE MAKEUP KIT
Nobody wants nan all dolled up like a contestant in Rupaul’s Drag Race, so it’s important to keep things simple. Less really is more, as Coco Chanel once said.
Maybelline Buff Beige tends to be quite a popular base with many makeup artists, and when it comes to blush and lipstick it’s best to keep things pale pink or dusty.
“We paint almost everyone’s nails a shade of mocha, like a sandy cappuccino,” says Carvaly. “We always ask the families first, but nail polish makes them look so much better because the hands are getting crossed on the chest, so aesthetically, it completes the painting.”
COLOUR CORRECTION
There are many ways to improve a dead person’s glow and when it comes to simple colour correction, the rules are exactly the same if you were standing in Sephora, getting gussied up for a night out: if you’re a little red, put green over it etc.
A trick of the trade is to also mix tints into the formaldehyde (which replaces blood during the embalming process) to add a rosy shine to the skin.
Mortuary schools in the US even teach colour theory and stage lighting these days. FYI: coloured gels over ceiling lights (or rose-coloured bulbs) work best when bodies are laid out for visitation.
SUPERGLUE AND HAIR TIES
In her book Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, mortician Caitlin Doughty says: “If the usual methods of setting the features aren’t sufficient to keep the eyes closed or the mouth shut, superglue is a secret weapon.” And that’s not the only hack cosmetologists-in-the-know hold in their makeup bag of tricks.
“If you need to keep a deceased person’s hands folded neatly on their abdomen, but their arms keep falling down into the sides of the casket, you can gently bind their thumbs with a ponytail tie,” says Brooklyn funeral director Amy Cunningham.
- Secrets Of The Morgue airs Thursdays at 7.30pm on Foxtel’s Crime + Investigation.
Originally published as Drop Dead Gorgeous: Beauty secrets of the dead