Dutch Artists Apply 365 Layers of “Natural Look” Makeup in Surreal Beauty Film
NOWNESS.com showcases Natural Beauty, an exclusive beauty film featuring Dutch artists Lernert and Sander’s experiment in which they apply a year’s worth of "natural look" makeup over the course of one day to Belgian supermodel Hannelore Knuts resulting in a bizarre and extraordinary outcome.
Lernert & Sander: Natural Beauty
The Dutch Duo Gives Model Hannelore Knuts a Maximalist Makeover
Cheeky directors Lernert & Sander embrace the urge for cosmetic overkill in their surreal short Natural Beauty. Makeup artist Ferry van der Nat and his assistant Vanessa Chan helped to execute the vision, slathering a host of Ellis Faas products on Belgian beauty Hannelore Knuts, who was recently named the new face of Swiss fashion house Akris. Lernert & Sander began collaborating in 2006; since then they've done everything from melt a chocolate bunny with a hairdryer to repurpose household appliances as sex toys in the name of video art. We asked the co-conspirators to break down the shoot in detail.
STATS FROM ON SET
Mission Statement: We wanted to apply 365 layers of makeup in one day to see how much is needed to go from a natural look to an outrageous one.
Production time: It was a relaxed shoot but it took us nearly nine hours non-stop to apply all the layers to Hannelore’s face.
Magic ingredients: Seven bottles of Foundation S103; two bottles of Creamy Eyes E107; three Milky Lips L205 pens; and two bottles of Blush S301. All together 228.40ml of makeup.
Lunch menu: Hannelore was fixed between panels for the whole shoot, so everything she ate or drank came from a straw: juice, and a granola and yogurt mix. I think she had sushi on her train back to Brussels.
Soundtrack: No music on our shoots! Unless we do a music video and the artists need to lip-sync. But we don't like lip-syncing, so that never happens in our videos. Music distracts.
Prep work: We tested a 100-layer session a few days before on our intern, who is a man. We wanted to make sure that this amount of makeup wouldn't kill a person. It didn't kill our intern so we trusted everything would be fine on Hannelore.
Crisis averted: There was always the “we've run out of makeup” stress. But Ellis Faas has her office right around the corner so we could call and get more [Foundation] S103.
Souvenirs: We saved the white construction for Hannelore's face, so if we plan to do a “two years of makeup” we already have the perfect face frame.
Links for the video http://www.nowness.com/day/2011/6/29
