Face Off – Mother Earth Goddess
This week’s Face Off gave us a cute mom connection, but it was also a bit heartbreaking. There’s so much talent this season that every cut seems unjust.
Everyone tromps out to the L.A. Arboretum (I think?) to look at plants and learn they have to design a Mother Nature goddess figure, and include some aspect inspired by their own mothers. This gives us a chance to see adorable photos of everyone with their moms. I loved seeing Miranda as a kid in her little ghost Halloween costume, and Alana with her mom who looks exactly like her. Later we got to hear Alana doing her impression of her mom’s New York accent (“My daughter looks like a clown!”).
Anthony (last season’s winner) came back to offer advice and remind everyone this is a beauty makeup, not just a creature design.
You had to feel for Frank this week, since the mom connection really sent him reeling. With his dad’s recent passing and his mom’s struggle with Parkinson’s, it was tough for him to focus. He pulled it together and created a really intriguing design. It was maybe not the strongest piece of the week, but the stark contrast between the white robe and the clean lines of the leaves and head was very striking. It looked less like an organic plant hybrid and more like some kind of alien priestess. There are some designs that, regardless of the actual execution of the make-up, are so conceptually interesting that I’d love to read or see stories about them. Frank’s was one of two this week (I’ll get to the other shortly).
So did Tate say his mom raises deer? Is that a thing? It just seems like the kind of thing where, you know, you want some deer you go out in the woods and get some. Anyway, his faun/deer woman creature was really cool, but there was beauty going on there. It was pretty freaky looking. Still a brilliant makeup, but the judges gave Tate a huge pass on this, giving him middle look status.
Glenn was wearing a turtleneck during judging this week. For the longest time it was bugging me that he looked like someone, but I couldn’t decide who. That nagging sense of familiarity finally clicked. You guys are Zoolander fans, right? Glenn was doing Mugatu cosplay!
Laney did a very cool butterfly face that looked good even though her model bailed in the middle of last looks, and even though Tate broke (then fixed) her manikin. If I wasn’t so lazy I’d Photoshop Tate tearing that thing’s head off with the Mortal Kombat “FATALITY” screen. You’ll just have to imagine it.
Alana’s flower woman had some amazing details, like those petal lips. She basically looked like a living Georgia O’Keeffe painting. When McKenzie announced the mother nature theme, do you think Alana’s “She’s my babe!” was just her trolling the producers? Like, whatever ridiculous theme they pull out, Alana is going to yell about how it’s her favorite thing ever every week? Nah, I don’t think Alana has a cynical bone in her body. Girl just loves stuff. All kinds of stuff. Mother goose. Mother nature. Probably a Mother Love Bone fan.
When they were showing everyone’s completed makeups this week, did you notice a whole lot of lingering boob shots? I guess it was part of the nature goddess theme, but the cameras seemed to catch lots of barely blurred models this week. No complaints here (and I suspect there will be some naked male models at some point this season to even the score).
Back to the middle looks. Lyma did an amazing job this week. Face Off has a long history of contestants with the dreaded “background in body painting” who don’t get past week three. Lyma is bucking the trend, growing and showing more skill with each challenge. I love the idea of the bunny in the clear womb, although let’s be honest, it still looked like a stuffed animal in there. More impressive was the ambitious silhouette, from the massive wig to the bark dress around her hips.
Miranda, who’s been on a real roll this season (which I’m very happy about, since we didn’t get to see much of her talent in her original season), created a very competent but unremarkable design. It was quite good, but didn’t wow me.
Roy made some good choices in creating a gray-barked tree entwife. At first I thought those giant branches sticking out of her head were going to look silly. This is what amazes me about Face Off. These people can take an idea like a woman who is also a tree and actually make that happen in a way that looks beautiful and plausible.
The overall winner was Laura, and from a make-up standpoint it was well-deserved. The golden color blossoming out into green caught the eye, and the sculpting on the face was very organic. I loved those trumpet flowers too. I did get less of that “this is a character I’m interested in” feeling, but it was really excellent work. Happy to see Laura take the top prize.
Scott’s rose-woman was fine as far as I’m concerned. Some green would have contrasted with that red really nicely, but I thought the chest piece was cool.
Eddie did some excellent work around the face, with sculpted leaves trimmed with moss. It also sounded really weird to hear the following exchange:
Eddie: I wanted her to be a warrior goddess, so I left her face very natural.
Ve: You didn’t really do a beauty makeup on your nature goddess.
I get what Eddie was going for here, and I totally agree with him. A woman doesn’t need dramatic makeup to be beautiful. He was aiming for a different kind of beauty. If he’d maybe sold it a bit harder, with a sword or something, it might have worked better for the judges, but I think they just didn’t get it.
Then there was RJ. “I did this make up before. On this show.” Good point. I dug RJ’s 60s Jackie O concept. He just didn’t execute it very well, not to mention the weird issues with his model not shutting up when he was applying stuff to her chin. That’s an experienced Face Off model, too. So despite being a little lame in the end (and bad enough, apparently, for a ticket home), I found the concept of a nature goddess who looks like she stepped out of a 60s sitcom really compelling. I want to hear some stories about that character.
But I won’t.
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Posted by Ed Grabianowski
on Tuesday, September 10th, 2013. Filed under Dark TV, Headline.
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Tags: faceoff, fx, makeup, mother earth goddess, syfy
