Transforming into a drag queen is no easy task. It can involve hours of sitting in front of a mirror perfecting your makeup and making sure your wig is securely in place. We sat down with Miz Cracker, one of the contestants from season 10 of "Ru Paul's Drag Race," to find out how she turns into a woman. Following is a transcript of the video.
Miz Cracker: Oh my god, she's a woman!
Hey everybody, I'm Miz Cracker. I'm called that because I'm thin, and I'm very white, and I'm very salty.
I've been doing drag for seven years. Just like everyone in America that is doing makeup today, I learned from YouTube a little bit, I learned from the people around me, and I just brought it all together to be my look.
We're gonna start with my favorite part, the industrial strength chemicals. I'm using the alcohol to remove the oil from my oil-rich skin. This is only something that you should do if you don't care about your body.
Next up, I'm gonna pull my face back. Better to look young than anything else, so we are going to turn back time. I'm gonna take this duct tape, and I'm gonna lay the foundation for a Ace Hardware Facelift. I'm also providing a solid base for me to pin my wig to later on. People are like, "How do you keep the duct tape from pulling out your hair?" You don't.
I always say my face in drag is like a drum, because it is taught and it is beat, girl.
It's time to delete the boy face that you see before you so I have a blank canvas to make a lady upon.
To hide my eyebrows I start with some basic extra-strength Elmer's school glue. I use the clear kind because it's less water soluble. It'll stay on longer when I'm sweating. I'm taking a lice comb and combing my eyebrow directly upward. So many of the products for drag are regular household products.
There's a saying in the drag world that Covergirl does not cover boy, and that means you cannot usually use lady products to do a drag queen's job. That's why I'm using this super-strength, ultra opaque Kryolan TV Paint Stick to cover my face.
Right now I'm color-correcting. The opposite of blue on the color wheel is orange. My beard is blue, hashtag blue beard.
Now I'm using Airspun powder to set my color correction.
The eyebrows, when they're dry, they should just feel bone dry, hard to the touch. If you have any question about their being moist, don't go in there, just leave them alone for a minute.
I'm gonna go in here and cover up my visage. That's French for face. All right, I'm using a expensive but worth it, just like me, beauty blender right now. I used to think that the more, the better when it came to foundation, but really that's not the case. Use as little as you can.
When I paint my face I always follow my bones to orange, cherry, lemon, and lime. So I'm gonna take this, and I'm gonna go right underneath my actual cheekbone, make these nice, ugly marks here right underneath my actual jawline. I'm just feeling along that bone there.
From the front, this contour looks like a shadow, but if you bring it up here, it just looks like a mustache. You're trying to push in here to create a slender, small face and make it look like your cheekbones are out farther. It's like basically taking your jawline and putting a little black dress on it. It's slimming.
I have Eastern European eyebrows. I'm gonna put a couple layers of foundation on here. I'm gonna set this foundation a little bit with powder here.
She's about to go from Frodo to Gollum here. Ready? Sheblam. Giving you "Deep Space Nine" Odo realness.
I have a big dude forehead. Like I have a nine-head, it's not even a forehead. It's huge. So I'm carving it down by putting these shadows here.
Now it is time for me to make myself into a Shiksa by carving this Jew nose down. This is the most important part of the drag process for me, because you're really building a new face. This is your foundation, literally. My nose runs diagonally across my face, so I'm gonna mess with nature a little bit and draw my nose highlight a little off from where it should be, so that it looks like my nose is straight.
Stereotypically, women have more fat tissue beneath the skin of their faces, so I'm giving that illusion by highlighting up here and making it look like my cheekbones, my cheeks, are a little bit fuller.
Alright. Now it's time for the nose contour. We're gonna turn this hot dog into a Vienna sausage. You ready? Then make it a little shorter by putting a shadow at the bottom. Sheblam.
I don't know if this blend delivers food, but she's seamless.
Alright. Here we got it, we got the base, and you know I'm all about that bass.
Next up, we're gonna put on some eyebrows. This is my favorite part. I'm gonna take some dots, map some things out. I want my eyebrow to start right above the inside corner of my eye, and I want it to bend right above the iris. I'm gonna connect the dots.
Then it's time to run them out, because I want my eye socket and my whole eye to look bigger. We wanna go for the Anne Hathaway, Mrs. Potatohead look, you know what I mean?
My favorite kind of makeup is free.
Okay, we're gonna put some texture in here. I wanna give these little eyebrow hairs. I invented this. I'm the only person in America that does this.
We're gonna use an Anastasia Beverly Hills eyebrow palette, because they really just are the best eyebrow colors. I like a nice bold shape. I am not trying to convince you that I am a woman. I'm trying to convince you that I'm a drag queen.
Okay, eyebrows stick out from your face. They're hair, so we're gonna add dimension. The eyebrow is darker at the bottom, and the middle is a little lighter. Just like Cher said in "Burlesque," she was like, "It's like your an artist, expect for instead of painting on a canvas, you're painting your face."
This is called clown white. How appropriate.
The eye is drawn to contrast. So I wanna put the most contrast on my face right around my eyeballs. So we'll go from these highlights here, and then work our way down to the wings. So we're gonna carve down our little eye socket here. The next step is the wings. We're just drawing a line between the corner of our eye and the end of our eyebrow.
When you do your face, just eyeball it. Don't try to use anything to make it actually perfect. She is a paint by numbers queen like Andy Warhol.
Now the most important part of this is for me to just not sneeze.
Okay, we're using Anastasia Beverley Hills contouring kit. I'm using this nice banana yellow highlight.
Oh, she looks like a woman.
My makeup is kind of like Matt Damon's acting career. If you just glance at it, you're like pretty good, If you look closely, you're like hmmm.
Let's give a highlight to the lower lid just to give the sense that the eye's a little bit open, more open. This is just a little liquid white eyeliner.
I got some on my eyeball.
See how the eye, there's more contrast around my eye.
Alright, the lashes are the 3D element that turns your face from a painting into a sculpture.
Some queens use Duo, that's why their lashes fall off their face. I use weave glue, strong enough for a man, made for a woman. The lashes are really the most important part of the face. I make my own Franken-lashes out of a bunch of lashes that have qualities that I like.
Ping, now the lip liner. That's a little line where the fine muscles of your lips meet the fine flat muscles of your face. Can you see that little bump right there? That is where I draw the line.
Nothing a queen likes more than shimmer, maybe a paycheck. Just try to use colors that make the same noise. Don't use a lip liner that's like and a lipstick that's like oh.
Oh, there she is, she's a lady. It's time for me to put on my god damn wig.
Alright, I'm using what's called Mastix P from Kryolan. It is the best spirit gum. I'm gonna prepare the area with some isopropyl, removing the makeup here so that the spirit gum has a nice place to hold on.
This wig is by Wigs and Grace. I usually make my own wigs, but now I'm busy. I'm taking the lace, I'm putting it in the middle of my forehead, and I'm hitching it back over my god damn skull.
Oh my god, she's a woman!
The wig is truly like for me the most wonderful part of being a drag queen. Look at that, she's a woman.
Just a subtle pair of brunch earrings, you know?
Oh my goodness, she looks so good.
I'm Miz Cracker, and I have just given you a tutorial on how to become a real business woman, hashtag Erin Brokovich. Sheblam. Hashtag Erin Brokeovich. Bam.
I'm so glad that I got to do this with you, this is what a real woman looks like everybody, just so you know.
Yes, it is so much fun to do makeup, and it is wonderful to feel beautiful. But remember that that work starts on the inside with joy. If you're not happy, you're not gonna be beautiful. So start with the happiness, then work on the makeup.
And whatever you do, get out of the god damn house and make some people happy. That's your job as a drag queen.
Sheblam.