Hello My Pretties,

The staff and students of Cairns premier Pole Dancing Studio, “Pole Play Studios” showcased their Burlesque and Pole Dancing prowess at the Cairns Centre of Contemporary Arts earlier this month and I was overjoyed to have been a part of it.

I was in my element back stage amongst the makeup lights, preparing these incredibly talented, strong, spirited and wonderful stars of the show ~ Ocean Dreams, a lavish stage tribute to life on and under the sea! As a bit of an “old salty sea dog” myself, I love the Ocean and all she contains and Ocean Dreams was quite a spectacular performance!

Fisherwomen, Sailors, Sirens, Pirates, Seahorses, Starfish, a Mermaid and other underwater inhabitants were artistically brought to life in the style of Burlesque, Pole Dancing and Acrobatic performances.

I was delighted to be involved in such a creative production which inspired me with some really fun looks for the stage.  I was given free range in my creativity which allowed my spirit to soar and I must say that so far, this production has been one of the highlights of my year. The concepts kept me busy in the lead up to the show, negotiating with the performers and trying out some exciting costume makeup looks along with a little special effects makeup which is always fun to do. I had about 20 performers to makeup on the day so I engaged my trusty assistant Sydney who was a pleasure to work with. 

The Sirens makeup was lavish, dark and sensual with a shimmery pink lid and purple smoky eye. Each Siren was embellished with lashings of lashes, teardrop pearls and airbrushed scales.

The Starfish makeup was sparkly, fun and sweet. Layers of light blue, dark blue and shimmery pearl makeup created a star shape in a textured effect which was embellished with round pearls and lashes.

The Sailors and Fisherwomen wore gorgeous, bold eye accentuating looks, lashes and nude lips .

Our Mermaid looked stunning with her silvery scales, blue accentuated eye makeup, luxurious lashes and large iridescent scales airbrushed onto her body.

The Seahorses were so Lovely with their juxtaposed colours of Green and Pink in a bold “Seahorse” styled design on one side of each face.

And for me, the pièce de résistance of my makeup creations was Salicia (Ocean Goddess) who sported a special FX wound which I custom made for her. In the production, Salacia was angry with the humans for polluting the ocean ~ she has been pierced and wounded by a discarded fishing hook. To create this look, the first piece of the puzzle was finding exactly the right hook and I must give a big shout out to the guys from Cairns Tackle World for helping me out. I created the prosthetic by layering cosmetic latex and sculpting filling material between the layers. I toned it to a flesh colour with several coats of airbrushed foundation and finished it off with some strategically painted “wounds” in grease paint. I was a little nervous that it wouldn’t stay on for Salacia’s rigorous 3 minute performance which included some amazing acrobatics and manoeuvres on the pole so I sent a small prayer to the Gods of the Theatre to be on our side! I’m very pleased to report that the piece looked fabulous and not only did it stay fast in place for her performance, but the performer wore the piece out to the ‘after party’ to enjoy the public reactions at the Salthouse Bar!

It was an amazing show and I couldn’t have asked for a better result. I made a bunch of beautiful new friends, I got to do what I love to do the most and was totally blissed out for several days after!

Wishing you a Beautiful Week ~ Until next time My Pretties, ❤

D*