‘It’s not meant to look classically beautiful’: Chappell Roan’s makeup artist breaks down her VMAs look

How many modern-day pop stars are taking makeup cues from the 15th century? At least one. The 26-year-old musician, Chappell Roan, made her hotly-anticipated VMA debut last night — arriving on the red carpet in a sheer Y/Project dress, thigh-high knight boots and a face painted like a spectral Renaissance woman.

Later during her performance, Roan switched centuries — morphing into a camp version of the medieval feminist icon Joan of Arc. “If Joan of Arc was a glamour girl,” quipped Roan’s makeup artist, Andrew Dahling, who worked on the VMA vision. Roan — who won Best New Artist — sang her chart-topping hit “Good Luck, Babe!” in a full chain-mail knight’s suit in front of a flaming castle, her auburn locks styled into two back-length braids. The sense of historical accuracy in her costume came to an abrupt stop, however, above the neck. Roan’s plaster-white face was delicately blushed mauve at the cheeks with her brows blocked out in favor of two pencil-thin lines. A theatrical smokey eye, made up of iridescent blue, purple and gold eyeshadow, was blended right up to her brow bone.

Dahling was inspired by Pat McGrath’s work as runway makeup artist for Dior in the 2000s. “It’s very romantic,” he told CNN in a video call from New York in the days leading up to the awards show. “But sort of dark romantic… Very heavy on the eyes, very glowy skin, very ethereal… (Each look is) all in this medieval Renaissance realm.”

For Roan’s red carpet look, Dahling had a lighter touch. The singer’s chalky complexion was soft and blurred, while her eyes were enlarged by a rim of white liner and finished with a delicate dab of gold. Dahling wanted to reference the plump, peachy faces of the women immortalized in Renaissance and Baroque oil paintings. “I love pulling (inspiration) from artists and painters,” he said. “Because I feel like their perspective captures something a little bit different than what a makeup artist would do.”

Roan’s meteoric rise can, at least in part, be attributed to her inexhaustible commitment to transforming into different characters. In the last four months, she has performed dressed as a NFL-player complete with rhinestoned shoulder pads and “eye black” stripes at Hangout Festival in Alabama, a latex-clad WWE wrestler at Lollapalooza in Chicago and a sage-green, joint-smoking Lady Liberty at the Governors Ball in New York. (Dahling, who was behind Roan’s green body paint and makeup, said the look took around four hours to complete). Although she is almost never without her trademark powder white face —a ghostly base that would even make Queen Elizabeth jealous.

Ahead of the Europe and UK legs of her tour in later this month, Roan even posted a series of themes and corresponding moodboards instructing fans on how to dress for her shows: From mermaids at the Manchester show to camo for Glasgow and London. “She has such a strong vision,” said Dahling. “And this larger-than-life superstar version of herself that she wants to put out.” With her makeup, creativity is king while the conventional, social media-ready glam that has become to define modern beauty standards often takes a backseat. “It’s not meant to look classically beautiful (like) the Instagram makeup that we see today that’s super blended and perfect,” said Dahling of Roan’s VMAs vision. “Nothing like that.”

The pop star calls herself a “drag artist” — a term typically reserved for male performers using makeup to create and embody extravagant, theatrical female characters. Despite being a woman, Roan often paints her face with direct references to renowned queens such as Divine, the actor, performer and John Waters muse who inspired the look for her appearance at Kentucky Pride. Violet Chachki, the winner of season seven of reality competition “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” was an inspiration for Coachella, too. “Violet Chachki has this black negative space, smoked out look she does,” said Davy. “I remember that was on one of the initial moodboards I received from Chappell’s stylist.”

If the concept is confusing to some, it shouldn’t be, said Dahling. “Drag is such an umbrella term, especially now…I think anything is drag,” he told CNN. “Drag could honestly be a guy (working in the Financial District) putting on a really nice tux and going into the office, (embodying) this version of himself that he’s created.”

“It’s about creating a new face,” said Davy. “You block out the brows, meaning you glue them down and then put concealer over them to make (them) a more exaggerated shape. It’s carving out the cheekbones. It’s doing an exaggerated lip shape, contouring the nose. Then it’s a big dramatic eye look… It’s about donning this character that you switch into… I don’t think it conforms to gender.”

Dahling agrees. “There’s no rules,” he said. “It’s playful. It’s not like it has to be perfect… it’s very much a DIY feel.” Although he insists “the messier the better,” Dahling does have one non-negotiable for any fans looking to recreate Roan’s look: mastering her now-iconic Venetian white foundation. “No patchiness with the base,” he laughs. “The base has to be good.”