When Cynthia got in the chair in the morning, what did that application process look like?
Frances: We’re airbrushing the green on. It’s a liquid, and the bottles of the bespoke makeup had metal beads, so the main thing at the start of the day was really getting it really incorporated and mixed well. And then David always made it in big batches and always kept some of that batch back so that we could never, ever lose just a tiny nuance of that green.
He also developed a green primer for us as a base. That was put on by sponge or brush, depending on where it’s going, because it helped protect Cynthia’s skin. And then airbrushing very lightly. And then the contours, eyebrows, freckles, lip shape, and everything on top.
When you are working with body makeup, is there skin care preparation needed?
Frances: Cynthia’s hours were so long, so she couldn’t do facials and deep scrubs because she had no time away from work. But Cynthia is very, very into working out. I think her natural body sweated so much, it prepared itself for our work. Her skin never got dry. She naturally accepted the makeup beautifully, whether it be on her legs or arms. We never did body scrubs on her in advance ourselves. All those things that we often do if we’re going to tan them or do different colours on them, we’ll often do all the prep. We never had to do that with Cynthia. It just worked brilliantly.
Frances: She has just got great skin. She doesn’t have dry skin. She’s got that beautiful natural oils to her skin that things sit on. It doesn’t dry out; it doesn’t cake. And yeah, I’m quite amazed really, because looking after people in the past when you have to do full body makeup, it can be quite tricky. But the girls worked incredibly hard to maintain it throughout the day. They did a beautiful job and it always looked so flawless.
From getting Cynthia in the chair to her being completely greenified, how long did that process take?
Frances: The girls who made her up were Alice Jones and Olivia Jerrard. There were two people used, one for the hands, one did the face, and then Cyn did her wig. But the whole process, once we got it down, was roughly two hours and 15 minutes.
When it comes to removing the green, is it just hopping in the shower and washing it off? Or is it not that simple?
Frances: Not exactly. That’s a special remover. Three girls in the evening, they got that down to 45 minutes depending on if Cynthia had a real rush; you get it off a bit quicker. But then the average time was about 45 to remove. So all that’s incorporated into the length of her working day.
Moving on to hair, Elphaba wears micro braids. I imagine Cynthia was part of that conversation around hairstyling from the beginning?