A drag queen with a talent for creating exaggerated, doll-like features with make-up is terrifying and inspiring social media users in equal measure.
Matte, a 22-year-old drag queen living in Chicago, regularly showcases her eerie Bratz doll-style looks on her Instagram account, revealing a variety of intricate styles – all of which feature the same wide eyes and enormous shiny pout.
But while some find the looks to be more creepy than cute, Matte’s remarkable skills with make-up have earned her a slew of fans – and have also inspired a host of copy cats, both male and female, who eagerly try to recreate her work.
Transformation: Drag queen Matte, 22, has earned online fame after sharing a video documenting her transformation into a living Bratz-style doll
Intricate: The Chicago-based make-up artist detailed every aspect of her transformation in the time-lapse clip, revealing how she pays particular attention to the wide eyes
Pucker up: A key part of the look is also the enormous lips, which Matte takes great care to achieve with a lot of lip liner, lipstick, and gloss
Matte first began posting photos of her transformation earlier in 2017 on her account @missgaymatte, developing her technique along the way.
And in a recent time-lapse video shared on YouTube and Instagram, the drag queen documented exactly how she transforms herself into the characters, going from bare-faced to full Bratz doll in just a matter of minutes.
The look, which Matte is able to achieve with remarkable ease, is typified by the eyes being made larger with false outlines, colored in whites and framed by over-the-top false eyelashes.
Beginning with a totally make-up-free face, Matte begins with the eyes, focusing on contouring the area around them to begin with before beginning the more intricate details of lining around them in order to achieve that over-sized Bratz look.
As well as showing off the transformation in her video, Matte has also captured what the effect looks like with just one eye at a time, revealing just how mind-bending the optical illusion really is.
Eyeing it up: The drag queen has become an online sensation thanks to her mind-bending make-up illusions
Making a mark: The Bratz doll-like look first went viral back in August, but has been developed over time
Driving it home: The drag queen sometimes includes versions of the look with just one eye done to emphasize the illusion
Spark: Matte revealed that she came up with the look after first starting with her lips and wondering how much she could further alter her face
Matte also redraws her eyebrows to look far higher than they actually are.
As for the lips, she over-lines them to a cartoonish level, expertly shading them to make the shape appear more real.
The video has attracted a huge number of positive comments from people praising Matte’s make-up skills, while clamoring for more transformation clips.
‘This was the most magical 8 minutes and 59 seconds of my life,’ one person commented on the video, while another added: ‘Your artistsy is freaking amazing!
‘You’re so talented we need more videos of you.’
Other people pointed out specific aspects of the look that they were particularly interested in, with one commenter noting: ‘It’s incredible how you achieve such huge looking eyes without fake eyelashes!!’
Step-by-step: Over time, Matte has perfected the look, adding finer lines and new shading techniques
Otherworldly: While some looks are more low-key, others feature ornate headpieces
Creepy: The living doll style might come across as slightly scary to some, but Matte’s fans are obsessed with her transformations
And it’s not just YouTube where Matte’s make-up skills have found fans.
Matte posted her first version of her now-signature look on Instagram back in August and it immediately took off; many, many versions of it later, she boasts more than 60,000 followers on the site.
Soon enough, other artists were being inspired by Matte’s looks, coming up with their own versions and even posting in-depth tutorials on YouTube.
While some of the other users gave Matte credit, others did not. But, according to the drag queen herself in an interview with Allure, she isn’t too fussed about being known as the originator.
In fact, she is sure others have achieved similar things before.
‘The thing I love about seeing all the recreations is they give me inspiration, too. Everyone puts their own twist on it,’ she said.
Experimentation: Matte is seen here displaying her ‘natural’ version of the look
Recommendations: Matte tells fans of the look to pick up Urban Decay’s Razor Sharp eyeliner and s Kat Von D and ColourPop lip products
Coming after: After Matte’s looks went viral, multiple other users created their own Bratz dolls
Proteges: Some gave Matte credit for the ideas, while others didn’t, but she claims not to mind
‘We’re all just figuring out this Bratz doll face together. It’s not my face. It’s just a face.’
In the same interview, Matte revealed that the experimentation with the doll-like features began with the lips, before it sparked her curiosity over whether she could change the other features of her face as well.
She took some of her own inspiration from another drag artist known as @isshehungry, whose specialty is changing her features beyond being recognizably human and more like artwork.
‘She does the contacts and the black liner to make it look like her irises are extended. I thought about doing that in a human form to make this doll-like look,’ said Matte.
As for how she achieves the look, she recommended that curious artists pick up Urban Decay’s Razor Sharp Water-Resistant Longwear Liquid Eyeliner in Bump and Inglot’s AMC Eyeliner Gel in Black for the best results as well as Kat Von D and ColourPop lip products.