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What It’s Like To Be A Make Up Artist In The Porn Industry

It’s 9 a.m. on the fourth and final day of the porn industry’s AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas, and both the talent and the makeup artists in suite 911 of the Paradise Tower are exhausted. The porn performers, cam girls, and dominatrixes gathered here at the Hard Rock Hotel have been contracted to appear at the booth for erotic clip platform iWantEmpire, and they’ve been signing autographs, taking selfies with fans, and being “on” for at least eight hours a day since the event began. If the performers at the expo have been working hard, the professionals getting them ready have too. Today, they’re sharing their behind-the-scenes stories and beauty secrets with me.

Rebecca Lee Castro, Makeup Artist and Business Owner

“All makeup artists start somewhere, and they have to take any type of work they can get,” Rebecca Lee Castro tells me. Rebecca is a makeup artist and the owner of True Virtue Beauty, a collective of certified freelance makeup artists based in Los Angeles and Las Vegas. She says that when she started doing makeup professionally twelve years ago, many of her gigs were as an assistant to established makeup artists in the adult industry. “Eventually, I started getting my own clients in the industry, as well as mainstream TV and film.”

This morning, performers are preparing for their longest day yet: After the expo closes at 4 p.m., they’ll head to the 35th annual AVN Awards, nicknamed the “Oscars of porn.” It’s a marathon evening that starts with an hours-long wait to parade down a red carpet winding across the Hard Rock’s main floor, followed by an award show where industry luminaries present awards for categories from “MILF Performer of the Year” to “Most Outrageous Sex Scene.” Special guests are invited to perform (this year’s headliner is Lil Wayne), but dinner is unfortunately not a part of the five-hour program. After the ceremony, many performers are contracted to attend after parties till the wee hours of the morning.

Even for adult performers, whose job is to look amazing through rigorous and athletic days on the sets of their films, today will be a test of their mettle. But their fans have come from all over the world to meet them, and that means they can’t slack.

And neither can their makeup artists. This week, Rebecca and the three other beauty professionals she hired for the AVN Awards and attached expos have been doing makeup and hair for ten adult performers over long days, applying full faces in the mornings and touch-ups in the afternoons. Tonight, they’ll do further touch-ups before stars hit the red carpet.

Rebecca organizes her supplies the morning before the AVN Awards.

Rebecca tells me her clientele is about sixty percent mainstream, with the other forty percent coming from porn. This week’s frenetic pace aside, “The adult industry isn’t too intense,” she says. “There’s not much of the ‘Oh, make sure they’re not shiny,’ like there is on mainstream TV and film. Because on these sets, if they’re sweaty, it’s fine, because it’s part of what’s going on for the day.”

Raised Mormon, Rebecca has embraced the professional opportunities the adult industry provides, but she doesn’t stick around to see what goes on after makeup. She arrives early, prepares the performers, and leaves before the action starts: “I normally leave a touch-up kit for my talent, so when I leave they have sufficient amount of product to touch themselves up on their breaks.”

There’s not much of the ‘Oh, make sure they’re not shiny,’ like there is on mainstream TV and film… On these sets, if they’re sweaty, it’s fine.

“I feel like this is just like any other job,” she adds. “I have fun doing makeup, and I can’t let everything around me affect me. I deal with each client as they come, and whatever the situation, I make sure that I’m prepared for it.” The quirks of working in porn still make an impression, though. “I’m used to crafting services tables on regular TV and film sets,” she tells me. “But most of the time when I go on set for an adult project, it’s like, crafty, lube, toys, douches. I’m like, ‘Oh, so, the apples go next to the dildos?'”

The makeup chair has its unorthodox moments, too. “I’m usually clueless as to what [performers’] prep entails, whether it’s having to cleanse themselves or vacate their rectum or use butt plugs to start relaxing the muscles, stuff like that,” she says. “There were a few times where the model had a butt plug in during makeup, and it started irritating them. They’re like, ‘Oh, I need a minute.’ And they’ll just get on all fours right in front of me and pull it out. I’m like, ‘Whoa, that’s more than I wanted to experience at this moment.'”

Over the years, Rebecca says she’s learned a host of tricks unique to the industry. She says theater makeup, which is made to last, is a favorite in porn, as is water-resistant makeup: “You can swim, you can do anything, and it won’t streak. But, at the end of the day, if there’s friction, the makeup won’t last long.”

“The work we do is vigorous,” says performer Tasha Reign from her chair as Rebecca applies her makeup. “I mean, we’re sweating the whole time. We’re having sex. The makeup has to hold up.” Then again, Reign reflects, it shouldn’t hold up forever: “If I do a scene where my makeup’s notmessed up, I’d think I didn’t do a good job.”

If I do a scene where my makeup’s notmessed up, I’d think I didn’t do a good job.

Jenna Sativa, who will later win the award for “All-Girl Performer of the Year,” chimes in from a different chair. “If I’m eating ass, and [my co-star] gets her ass up and she wipes my face on her ass, it smears everything. I’m like, ‘What the hell? Where’s my contour?'”

At events like the AVN Awards, though, the makeup has to last through long days of meeting eager fans, who expect a certain look from their favorite stars. “I need to match what their fans are seeing in their videos and online. I want to make sure that [performers] can bring that to the convention floor,” Rebecca says. It can be a challenge, especially since lighting on show floors is provided by overhead fluorescents instead of carefully arranged set lighting.

But Rebecca, who names AJ Crimson Beauty, Becca Cosmetics, and Kat Von D as a few of her preferred lines, is an accomplished color theorist. Makeup artistry, she says, is “basically painting.” I listen as she educates performer Ash Hollywood about the differences between stippling and stroking pigment onto the skin, and it’s clear Rebecca knows her stuff.

Dee Castro styles Ash Hollywood’s hair.

Dee Castro, Makeup Artist and Hairstylist

“There’s a lot of artists on my end who might not be comfortable in an adult film setting,” makeup artist and hairstylist Dee Castro tells me later that morning. Dee and Rebecca are married and frequently work together, and this week they’ve both been hired by iWantEmpire through Rebecca’s company True Virtue Beauty. Dee freelances on her own, too. For her, the adult entertainment industry has clear perks: “On a typical adult set, my days are no longer than two hours, versus a TV or film set, where I’m there 12, 14, maybe 16 hours.”

She appreciates the creative freedom of working in porn, too. “On regular sets, it’s like a taupe eyelid, the ‘no makeup’ makeup. They’re not supposed to look like they’re in makeup,” she says. On adult sets, though, “You get to do dramatic eyes with a nude lip. Double lashes. Just enough glitter to be on the skin but not transfer. It’s a more avant-garde look that we get to do.” Mehron and RCMA are her favorite brands for creating a high-drama face.

You get to do dramatic eyes with a nude lip. Double lashes. Just enough glitter to be on the skin but not transfer. It’s a more avant garde look that we get to do.

Of course, Dee points out, it’s not all lashes and eyeshadow. After all, women aren’t the only adult industry clients who need makeup. “For men, it’s a lot of standard men’s grooming: primer, foundation, a little sculpting of the face. A lot of it, though, is body sculpting,” she says. “I love sculpting. I like body painting. They say, ‘Can you give me a little bit more definition? I just ate, I feel bloated.'”

Body sculpting, Dee tells me, is often accomplished with airbrushing, which I’m able to see firsthand when Tasha Reign bounces over in a tiny red bodysuit to have her butt airbrushed. It’s not her first time requesting airbrushing this week. “I wanted to be extra tan for this show, and I got — I think — sun poisoning. I for sure got a sun rash. It’s pretty red and risen, and I’m wearing a one-piece,” she tells me. “So we covered it, and nobody said anything.”

Makeup artist Kristina Gilbert, whom Rebecca has hired for the day, airbrushes Tasha Reign’s butt.

The airbrushing, sculpting, and makeup, Dee says, are all parts of a “beautiful process” her clients go through before they step in front of a camera or onto the show floor. “They just come in, get their makeup done. But the second they have transformed, their character comes to life, and that’s when they get into their role of who they are, what they’re doing,” Dee says. “The girls and guys I work with, they’re everyday people. It’s just they get to play pretend every single day. And I’m lucky to be a part of that… For me, it’s all about transformation.”

Riley Reyes, a performer who’s getting a glamorous but low-key look that works for her girl-next-door brand, agrees. “When you’re making the transition from the stress of your day, your drive over to the set, whatever — they put you in makeup and you become a star,” she says. “I become ‘Riley.'” (While she ultimately won’t win, Riley has been nominated for “Best Oral Sex Scene” for her performance in Blow Bar 2.)

When you’re making the transition from the stress of your day, your drive over to the set, whatever — they put you in makeup and you become a star.

During these transformations, it’s often also the job of a makeup artist to provide support. “Our role,” Dee says, “is that we’re the therapists. We always have to have that calm demeanor and make sure that we keep them level so they can be up to par and be ‘on’ the second they’re out of our chair.”

Dee shares that part of keeping the talent calm is being personally unobtrusive. Dee always keeps gum on hand for fresh breath, but still, she says, “I hold my breath when I’m in someone’s face unless I’m talking. And I definitely pack on the deodorant and make sure I smell good, because you are in really, really close proximity to someone else, and if I’m having a funky day, that’s not good.”

Teresa, Makeup Artist and Business Owner

By about 4:30 p.m., the expo has officially ended. Teresa, a makeup artist and the owner of Unique Beauty Salon and Spa, is reporting to Casino Tower room 732 for the last time this week. Along with her employee Josie Benitez, Teresa has been providing makeup and hair for an average of seven women per day for the past four days. Teresa and Josie are about to do their last hair and makeup touch-ups before the AVN Awards begin.

They’re here all the way from Grenada Hills, California at the behest of Savana Styles, an adult performer and producer who hired them for the event. Savana entered the adult industry about two years ago, around the time she started visiting Teresa’s salon. She and Teresa immediately hit it off. “It’s always fun with her,” says Teresa, who has been a makeup artist for about fifteen years. “Savana’s always in such a good mood, and she’s a giving, nice person. She’ll do anything to help you, and do anything for you. I think that’s why she succeeds: because she gives so much and everything comes back to her.”

Teresa, left, and Josie, right, prep Savana Styles, center, for the AVN Awards.

Savana recently married industry legend and three-time “Male Performer of the Year” winner Lexington Steele, who comes and goes as she gets her makeup done and he prepares for the red carpet himself. Tonight, Savana is up for for the “Best Double-Penetration Sex Scene” award for her work in The Riders, as well as the title of “Hottest MILF,” one of the honors determined by online voting.

In keeping with the high-profile tone of the evening, Savana is going for a classic look: long lashes, a shimmery smoky eye, and garnet lips that complement her signature red hair. “Today, because of the red carpet, [Savana] wants to be more glamorous, not so dramatic,” Teresa tells me. “Yesterday she was wearing more makeup, and the eyeshadow was green and yellow. Today is more classic.”

Performer Savana Styles’s eye look takes shape.

Savana says it’s not often that she opts for a toned-down aesthetic. “When I am hired by companies like Brazzers or Naughty America, every scene is about ‘taboo’ now. ‘Taboo’ is where there are stepmoms and all that. When you are 30 years old or more, you’re a MILF,” she says. “I’m 35, so I always have the MILF look: the heavy lashes to look older, the heavier makeup… For my own productions, I love to be creative. I really love bright makeup.”

I’m 35, so I always have the MILF look: the heavy lashes to look older, the heavier makeup.

Teresa, who recently worked on the set of one of Savana’s upcoming films, had never worked with adult industry clients before she met Savana. For the movie and now at the AVN Awards, Teresa says she chose brighter, heavier makeup than usual; she names Anastasia Beverly Hills and Make Up For Ever as favorite brands. “It’s not the same makeup that you would do at a wedding,” she says of working with porn performers. “Adult stars take a lot of pictures and they’re on camera, so they always want to look their best, and they’re really glamorous people. Their makeup has to be more glam, the hair needs to have extensions and be more dramatic. It really feels good to please somebody who wants that diva look.” While Savana won’t leave with an award tonight, Teresa makes sure she’ll shine.

After finishing touches by Josie, Savana Styles shows off her look.

The inroad that a friendship with Savana has provided Teresa is a rare opportunity in today’s porn industry. Due to the steady rise of online piracy and free streaming sites, porn profits have taken a nosedive over the past decade. In the 1990s and early 2000s, large porn companies ran a Hollywood-like studio system that afforded producers huge budgets, which included on-set makeup artists. For performers contracted to perform exclusively with one of these affluent companies, their makeup artists became important partners, as well as long-standing fixtures in the industry.

As Teresa works on her hair, veteran performer Briana Banks tells me that back when she was contracted to perform exclusively for Vivid Pictures, her contract even spelled out which artists would do her makeup. These days, with fewer big companies and smaller budgets to go around, porn makeup isn’t as high a priority. “Most girls just do their own makeup now,” Banks says, “but I refuse to.”

As the film crew of a Québécois television show surges into the cramped hotel room to interview Savana, Teresa completes her finishing touches and packs up. She’s driving back to Los Angeles that evening, exhausted. I ask if she plans to come back to the AVN Awards next year. “I will, absolutely, because now I know a lot more girls,” she says. “This was my first time, and I know that my second time will be even better. I’ll know what to expect.”