Drag Queen Matte Is Behind the Bratz-Inspired Makeup All Over Instagram

For the past two days, my Instagram Explore pages has been completely made up of people's creepily realistic Bratz-inspired makeup they created for Halloween. (They seriously looked exactly like the childhood toy.) I'm not joking when I say that photo after photo on the grid has been made up of people with gigantic cartoon eyes and lips. In the caption for each post, one person in particular tagged as inspiration: @missgaymatte. I've never seen credit given where credit is due like I have with this look. People have even come to the defense of Matte, the 22-year-old Chicago-based drag queen, when credit isn't given.

"I don't get pressed about getting credit, though," Matte tells Allure. "The thing I love about seeing all the recreations is they give me inspiration, too. Everyone puts their own twist on it. We’re all just figuring out this Bratz doll face together. It’s not my face. It’s just a face."

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Matte started putting together said face earlier this year. After doing drag makeup for about three and a half year now, she tried drawing on enormous lips. From there, "It sprung to my mind that I could have a face in drag that was completely different from my regular face and was something that was more stylized," she says. Matte started looking to an artist known as @isshehungry on Instagram, who is known by her about 152,000 followers for her otherworldly makeup. "I was so into the thing she was doing," Matte explain. "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." That's where Bratz dolls come in. Because they already have a set eye shape, Matte thought she might as well start with something that already exists.

In August, Matte posted a picture of the look she came up with, and it went viral almost immediately. People started making fan art and sending her messages saying, "I've never seen this done before." She's doubtful about that, by the way. "It's kinda been done, but maybe not in this exact way," she says. One of the first people to actually recreate the look, though, is one of her friends. A group of them share their looks with each other on Instagram and talk about RuPaul's Drag Race.

Now, makeup artists on Instagram and YouTube stars like Promise Tamang transforming themselves into Mattes. Here are some recreations I bookmarked as soon as I saw them on my Explore page.

What you can't tell from Matte's viral selfies is just how long it takes for her to create each look. The complete process takes about three and a half hours — all for a night out. Damn. Matte doesn't do drag performances, she notes. Instead, she does her makeup and goes out with friends. What really got me was the fact that Matte isn't even a professional makeup artist either. "I just enjoy doing makeup — never taken classes," she says. "It’s all taught from YouTube. YouTube is really the best teacher, isn’t it?"

The eye makeup always comes first — before the base and everything else. Matte learned that from Miss Fame's YouTube videos (as one does). She starts by outlining everything before drawing on the pupils. Next, Matte moves onto the creases. "Then, I do a lot of squinting and blurring my vision just to see if I can visualize the proportions of this new face," she adds. Her go-to liners are Urban Decay's Razor Sharp Water-Resistant Longwear Liquid Eyeliner in Bump (a white) and Inglot's AMC Eyeliner Gel in Black. Although, she notes that her favorites are constantly changing. You can't find her brush choices at Ulta or Sephora, though. She prefers to buy her brushes at an art supply store. "That's where you can get the thinnest, finest brushes," Matte says. "I don’t find brushes to be as tiny and short and easy to get that tight, controlled line with at makeup stores." Noted. As for her essential lip products, she isn't loyal to any one brand but calls out Kat Von D and ColourPop.

Since that first post, Matte says her technique has evolved. (You can see just how much the style has changed between her first and most recent post below.) She's started adding subtle line work and details that she believes are helping her makeup read more fluidly. (I definitely agree.) "I think it’s a growing process," she adds. As mentioned, all the recreations popping up on Instagram are helping with it, and it's OK if people continue to forget to credit her. "I feel like if I continue doing what I’m doing, eventually people will realize this trend was something I had a big part in starting," she says. "We’re all a community working together on these artistic ideas together, and ideas spread a lot faster than credit does. I think credit eventually does catch up, though, and I’m at peace with that."

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