Rupaul’s Drag Makeup + Photography x Greg Bailey Alright Darling

Alright Darling by Greg Bailey

In 2013 I began to work with the fab Greg Bailey in a partnership where we would team up and use my home as a studio, to create drag looks for some of the biggest names and talents in LGBT culture. From trans icons to drag icons, cabaret performers, queens from Rupaul’s Drag Race and celebrities, I brought my signature makeup style of taking a queen out of their comfort zone and putting them into an ethereal version of themselves.

This formed a book released in 2016 and was the first formal publication of my signature style in beauty, with all photography taken by the awesome Greg Bailey. Vice was incredibly kind to call me the Yoda of Contemporary Drag, but it was just a genius and wonderful acknowledgement that a trans person who is adjacent to drag, was able to have such a profound impact on modern drag makeup.

DRAG - Dressed As Girl

I have had the opportunity to create different imagery online for over ten years, and the image above which was used for the cover of Queen Magazine in 2017 was actually a photograph I shot in my living room when I was17. I used YSL Rouge Volupte on the lips and it’s one of my favorite photos of me, not because it’s particularly clear or fantastic photography but just because I had the audacity to put a crown on my head and look that glam as a kid haha!

My work became renown through the recommendation of the incredible makeup artist and my personal inspiration, Mathu Andersen, who watched my videos on Youtube since the Complicated Life. I was really amazed when I saw that he had promoted my work online because I knew he did Rupauls Makeup and it felt like I was being seen through the lens of the community. It was the beginning of when my ideas started to become absorbed into the mainstream ideal of what drag and beauty is today, my signature nose style was something that was very different. I have a broken nose, it’s not symmetrical, I couldn’t contour it properly so I used the techniques I’ve mentioned on here to slim it down. I wanted to have a way of helping people with no eyebrows look confident and feel confident, so my hair is drawn brows became very popular. I began to be requested to paint many of the Rupaul Drag Race contestants and winners, and my work was shown in all manner of magazines from the cover of Loverboy to Gay Times, to GQ, to a number more.