Makeup for an afternoon festival

[tasya]

I am dancing in a festival tomorrow afternoon. I am a little worried that my normal stage makeup is going to be way too heavy. What do you do different for outdoor gigs? Do you make it more like a glossy evening look? I want to be dramatic, but not scary. My costume is a gypsy look. Is lining with eye candy okay for the great outdoors or is it too harsh? I love it on stage.

[micamica]

For outdoor shows, I think heavy make up is okay, but color is key. So instead of a smoky eye in black, I do smoky in browns, with brown red lipstick instead of true red. I also try to avoid super glossy lips in the day, as well as perfume-it really seems to draw wasps and bees to me! But this is all just my personal taste and opinions. Have fun tomorrow!
Nikki

[sabrinabellydancer]

good call on the perfumes outdoors micamica!

i usually do full drag queen level stage makeup no matter where i dance. i just feel the costumes are so loud and large that my hair and face must match.
it comes out better in photo and video which tend to leave a more lasting impression than the original dance unfortunately.

but then there was the year that we got to cairo carnival so late i danced completely bare faced and no one cared...

if you want to tone it down a level or two that would probably be fine so long as your eyes, brows, cheeks and lips are defined enough for expressions to read in the back of the audience and in photos.

and as you know lipgloss + hair + wind = disaster

hope you have a great show!

[Bellydancingcaroline]

I would take it down a peg or two for your foundation, use a really light one, or tinted moisturiser only, I would draw more accurate and smaller eyeliner lines, and - if you can - use brown liner/mascara to soften it. Agree about still doing the full monty on the eyes and mouth. If you are falsh eyelashing, choose light more natural looking ones. I always worry about small children going "arrghh!" in daytime things, as we think 'glam', they may see herman munster.

[*Shira*]

For me, it's not a question of indoor vs outdoor. It's a question of what distance will be between the audience and me. If I'm dancing in an intimate setting (for example, a birthday party in someone's living room), I'll go for a subtler look (but still heavy enough to look like "the entertainer). But if I'm dancing on a stage that is removed from my audience by 10 feet or more, I'll go for higher contrast between light and dark, longer eyelashes, etc.