Grumpy Cat Make-up How-to
She’s one of the most famous memes ever – in fact, she might just be the meme of all memes. That’s right, it’s Grumpy Cat! Since the first photo of the sourpussed cat went viral on the Internet, she became an icon of the perpetually pissed-off and impossible to impress. If you feel like being a killjoy or Debbie Downer for Carnival, at cons, cosplay events or just because you like making everyone’s life a little worse (wink wink), our professional Grumpy Cat Make-up How-to will help you get the job done well. So, here goes.
BEFORE AFTER
Materials and Preparation
Set up your work space and lay out all the materials you’re going to need. To transform yourselves into Grumpy Cat, you’ll definitely need the following:
•maskworld aqua make-up (We used these colors: no. 000 white, no. 893 Kalahari, no. 090 black, no. 861 Namib, no. 722 Camellia and no. 823 London)
• make-up brushes
• sponges
• modeling wax
• fishing line for the whiskers
• nail scissors
• effect contact lenses
• black cat accessory kit – homemade or store-bought
• or a fur hat with cat ears
It can’t hurt to have these things on hand, too:
• face cream and hair spray (as required)
• wax knife or modeling spatula
•cotton swabs for touching up
Tip: Moisten your face with a common face cream in order to have a nice base for the aqua make-up.
Step by Step Grumpy Cat Make-up HOW TO
1. First, find a pair of contact lenses that most closely resemble Grumpy Cat’s eyes. We recommend the maskworld Vampire Effect Contact Lenses, as these come closest to the original color.
2. Next take your modeling wax, which you’ll use later with your fishing line to create whiskers and eyebrows. The easiest way to remove it from the container is with a wax knife. Spread the wax above your eyebrows and upper lip, stroking outward along the edges to blend them as smoothly as possible into your skin. The wax does not have to be very thick, rather just thick enough to be able to stick in the fishing line. You can use your fingers or a wax knife – the latter should be curved on one side in order to smooth out the edges as effectively as possible.
3. Now you can begin applying your make-up. Using your no. 000 white maskworld aqua make-up, dab the areas around your nose and mouth, your „snout,“ as it were, with a cosmetic sponge. The general shape does not need to be very specific, as you’ll go back over it later with a make-up brush and draw in thin hairs.
4. Now take your dark brown, no. 893 Kalahari maskworld aqua make-up. As with the snout you can dab the make-up on around your eyes, forehead and chin rather generously without worrying about the shape.
5. For the darker areas of the fur around the eyes use a make-up brush still using your no. 893 Kalahari.
6. Following this, create more depth by drawing in a few hairs in no. 090 black.
7. With a fine make-up brush, draw in the contours of the nose and the bridge connecting nose and mouth and the nostrils. And don’t forget Grumpy Cat’s most important feature: her frown! For this all you need to do is extend lines down from the corners of your mouth.
8. Now fill in the nose. We recommend no. 722 Camellia.
9. Apply pink to your lips to achieve the effect of an underbite, which reinforces Grumpy Cat’s ever-terrible mood.
10. Next, using the no. 823 London maskworld aqua make-up, add a touch of warm beige to your whole face, especially your forehead. A sponge is best for applying make-up to larger surface areas.
11. Your neck and chin become white – any facial hair here gets whitened, too!
12. To lend your cat face an overall furry feel, use a fine make-up brush and no. 861 Namib, to draw in small hairs all over your face. Be aware of the growth pattern of the hair – here it grows in a circle starting at the center of the face.
13. Repeat this process with no. 893 Kalahari to make the fur appear more lively.
14. To make your white nose look even more furry, use an extra fine make-up brush to add very thin, short hairs, going slightly into the surrounding brown. Add singular white hairs, staggering where you place them all over your face, for extra realism.
15. Then mix white and black until they become light gray. With a make-up brush, dab small dots on the wax to create the effect of stubble. You’ll insert the fishing line in the dots later.
16. For extra detail work you can use a coarse honeycomb sponge with white aqua make-up to add small dots on your cheeks, neck and forehead.
17. To blend the bold black outline of the nose, go over the lines ever so delicately with pink.
18.Fishing line is great for imitating the look of whiskers. Cut your fishing line into several pieces of varying length.
19. Insert each piece into the dots you added to the modeling wax. Voilá! You’ve got realistic whiskers!
20. Insert some pieces of fishing wire of varying length into the modeling wax. The result: disapproving eyebrows á la Grumpy Cat!
21. Style your hair as you wish or not at all. Cat ears, of course, are the icing on the cake. You can either make them yourself or buy them.
22. OR treat yourself to some stylin‘ cat headwear complete with furry kitty ears. We used the hood from our Panther Premium Edition Costume and lightened it up a bit with no. 000 white aqua make-up. Alternatively, you can use our Kitty Winter Hat and darken it a bit with our black aqua make-up.
The End! Now no joy shall get past your claws unscathed. If anybody comments on your caustic ways, just let them know you have to stay in character.
There’s more where that came from! Check out some of our other professional make-up how-tos:
Pop Art
Wild Thing
We had fun once – it was awful.
The Partypoopers @ maskworld.com
