Metallic Makeup in Film

Metallic makeup is easy to come by now, most brands offer an array of options from pressed shadows, loose pigments, creams and lipsticks. But the history of metallic makeup is actually quite frightening and very dangerous.

In 1938, the head of the Makeup Department at MGM Jack Dawn was tasked with creating multiple character makeups, for the film The Wizard of Oz. At the time makeup formulations were extremely limited leaving the artist to create new finishes and textures to bring characters to life. The Tin Mans makeup was quite an ordeal. How could one create the illusion of truly, metallic skin? The first approach was to apply a layer of white face paint and use actual Aluminum Dust pressed on top. Aluminum powder is generally considered non toxic in short term exposure, but it only took 10 days for the original actor Buddy Ebsen to have a life threatening reaction. The inhalation of the aluminum dust coated Ebsens lungs and caused him to be hospitalized for 2 weeks and then months of recovery. He ultimately was replaced by Actor Jack Haley. Instead of the powder, Dawn created a paste to be applied to avoid inhalation irritation. Unfortunately the formula was still not perfect and resulted in an eye infection which resulted Haley missing 4 days of filming.

25 years later, in 1964 Makeup Artist Paul Rabiger was tasked with creating a Gold covered Shirley Eaton for the 007 film “Goldfinger”. He experimented with multiple formulations ending with an unknown clear gel like formula full of gold particles. It took almost 2 hours to paint her body, but due to concerns of her being suffocated by the gold particles, they left her tummy bare and had a Dr on the set to assure Eaton suffered no injuries.  Eaton mentioned she only felt hot & uncomfortable, the director Guy Hamilton, was very concerned for her wellbeing so filmed the scenes within a few hours. After filming with the assistance of the makeup crew she was scrubbed down and had multiple sessions in a sauna to sweat out the remainder of the paint.

Let’s flash to 1991, makeup artist Jeff Dawn, the grandson to Jack Dawn, who created the Tin Man’s makeup, was tasked with creating a liquid metallic finish to actor Robert Patrick. Although the effects were partially achieved through CGI, the character had to be painted entirely silver to achieve the desired effect. Jeff Dawn has said he regrettably used a brand of aerosol chrome Christmas tree flocking. Dawn admitted that because there was no explicit label indicating it was not intended for human skin, he felt fine doing so at the time. Years later he realized how reckless and dangerous this was stating “this is back in the days when you kind of look at the can and there’s no skull and crossbones on it. So, you think, ‘This is okay to spray on someone’s face’. Nowadays it’s a whole different ballgame when it comes to safety and safety data sheets and all that. But back then, you’d smell it and go, ‘it’s extremely flammable, and there’s some smoke skull and crossbones down here, but I think we’ll be okay’”

Years later when Dawn was tasked with creating Arnold Schwarzeneggers character Mr. Freeze, for 1997 film “Batman & Robin” they painted layers of protective paint-proof glue before application of the metallic finish.

This brief snippet into makeup history is an example of how artists have always been resourceful creating concoctions to achieve their desired effects. Although it is also an example of why makeup must be properly regulated and artists need to be aware of the dangers of various ingredients we use on our talents skin.