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Our cat-loving reporter decided that this year, for Japan’s Cat Day, she’d become a jellicle cat

Katy Kelly Feb 28, 2020
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A makeup studio augmented all her feline facial features until she could pass for Bombalurina!

Our reporter Natsuki Gojo loves fashion, makeup and fancy butler cafés… And she also loves cats! February 22 in Japan is known as Cat Day due to how it’s read in Japanese: all those twos, or nis, sound like the nya-nya sounds that cats make. And for Cat Day this year, Natsuki was determined to do something special.

“When you’re gazing at a cat that’s just purring away, doing whatever it pleases, don’t you sometimes think ‘Wow, I wish I was a cat too?'” Natsuki asked fervently, before immediately answering her own question: “I do! All the time!”

While we’re still working on the technology to transport human consciousness into the body of an adorable cat, Natsuki found the next best thing: a Tokyo makeup studio willing to teach her how to do her own makeup to look just like a cat.

▼ Here’s Mitsuyoshi Make Up Studio, who offer the lessons.

Mitsuyoshi offers all kinds of classes on makeup, so Natuki recommends locking your choice down and then opting for the Individual Lesson where you get a one-to-one sesh with a professional makeup artist. And the lesson only costs 3,000 yen (US$27) for the first hour, with 1,000 yen for each 20-minute extension after that.

▼ Here’s where the magic happens.

Mitsuyoshi specializes in stage makeup, but they’re willing to instruct you in any style you’re eager to learn. They’ll teach you everything from Halloween styles to cosplay makeup, natural every-day looks to the perfect wedding visage. Natsuki urges even regular people who aren’t interested in stage makeup to check out their services.

Of course, her mind was already made up well in advance, and her request to her instructor was:

“I really, honestly want to become a cat… So please teach me how to do my makeup like the cats in the Cats stage show!”

The lesson started with Natsuki’s teacher confirming that she really did in fact want to learn Cats-style makeup, then proceeded into a step-by-step explanation of each stage of applying the look. After each step, Natsuki would repeat what she was shown by the teacher. This way she got some real hands-on (or is that paws-on?) experience, all the better to recreate it on her own later.

First up was creating a base, for which Natsuki used a dark beige “grease-paint” (oil free foundation common in theater).

▼ “The mystical divinity of unashamed felinity…♪”

Oil-free foundation is common in stage makeup as it covers up pores and won’t melt away under stage lighting. Now that we have our base, it’s on to the next step…namely drawing the forehead and nose.

Time for more greasepaint, this time in white. Natsuki daubed white paint onto her face to create the illusion of a Y-shaped nose. If the top of the white shape is too narrow it can end up looking more like a horse’s nose; Natsuki reports that you should use the location of your pupils as a guideline to make sure this doesn’t happen. Once you have your feline nose-shape painted on, border it in dark brown paint and blur it gently to create shading on your forehead.

Now, let’s add a little more color!

▼ Shadow in the pointy corners of your kitty face with orange and yellow paint for emphasis!

Then use about a teaspoon of white face powder to lock in your paintwork. Natsuki patted her face liberally with a powder puff to make sure every spot was coated in a fine layer of powder.

Now for the fun part. Using black liquid eyeliner, you can etch in the finer details of your feline face: namely the nose, huge, expressive eyelashes and the little hints of lip. Tips Natsuki gleaned from this part of the process include drawing the eyelashes like a parallelogram against the eyes themselves, using a sloping curve like a fox’s happy, closed eyes. As for the whisker dots, it’s easier to keep them balanced if there’s an odd number: three or five will do the trick.

When adding the whiskers, Natsuki opted for a dark-brown powder. If you want more striking, darker-colored whiskers, using theatrical paint is acceptable here too. She also used a brown eyebrow pencil to color her eyebrows.

There’s one bonus to being a human and not a cat, and that’s that humans have lips. Since Natsuki’s look is based on the Cats musical rather than a real cat, she was permitted to get as intense with lipstick as she wanted. After all, that’s the only way to ensure the audience can see all your expressions.

The finishing touch is to use white powder or liner to highlight the cat whiskers, by drawing thin white lines underneath each one. The kind Natsuki used here is a long-lasting white powder foundation that can be applied dry or wet, known as “two-way cake” foundation; white eyeshadow also would work well for the same purpose.

And now, for the grand reveal…

▼ The only way to improve Natsuki’s chances at the Jellicle Choice: a pair of digitally-added kitty ears.

▼ A fur-raising transformation!

Natsuki’s one-on-one makeup tutorial took around one hour and twenty minutes, meaning her lesson cost came to 4,000 yen in total. Not only did she get a stage-perfect makeover that would bring a tear to even Andrew Lloyd Webber’s eye, but now she has the know-how to recreate said look wherever she wants, and on whoever she wants. She was also allowed to consult her artist on advice and have her answer any questions she wanted along the way, meaning this price was a bargain in Natsuki’s book.

▼ We can’t promise your artist will be as willing to do cute cat poses alongside you afterwards.

The Mitsuyoshi location that Natsuki visited is in Tokyo’s Iidabashi neighborhood and will be relocating to elsewhere within the city in April, and the company also offers lessons in the Shinjuku district, where their instructors are waiting to help you learn a whole new way to present yourself!

Images © SoraNews24
Related: Mitsuyoshi Shinjuku lesson site, Mitsuyoshi Make Up Studio
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