Caked in make-up: how Anya Tisdale reclaimed ‘cakeface’ with these pudding portraits
This is A HOT MINUTE WITH, a quick-fire interview series championing all the rising talent catapulting into fashion, art and music’s fickle stratosphere. From pinch-me moments to bad dates and even worse chat-up lines, think of it as an overindulgent conversation – like the ones you have in sticky club toilets at 4.A.M. Except these guests don’t regret the overshare…
Courtesy of @anya.tisdale
NAME ANYA TISDALE
AGE 20
LOCATION Boston, Massachusetts
PET PEEVE When people show up late!
PARTY TRICK I can eat a whole apple, including the core (no stem though!)
FAMOUS CRUSH RICO NASTY
Twenty-year-old Anya Tisale takes the cake for her make-up artistry. So much so that she’s amassed over 49,000 followers for her ‘cakeface’ looks, with frosting swirls and all. Remember all of the maraschino cherry cakes littering your Instagram feeds with delicate ‘Happy Birthday’s’ scrawled in neat handwriting onto heart-shaped gateaux? They might say you can’t have your cake and eat it too, but no one said anything about wearing… In a bid to reclaim the term used as a derogatory insult for a person wearing a lot of make-up, Tisdale wanted to flip the definition into a new and more optimistic meaning.
Translating the slighting ‘cakey’ comments into satirical drawings on the face, the Boston-based make-up artist began her culinary-inspired project in the OG lockdown. While most of us were gauging banana bread, Tisdale picked up her brushes to explore the news ways of tackling societal slurs, using Instagram Live to showcase her design process with her followers. Talking Rico Nasty, the definition of beauty and what make-up she’d take to Mars, Anya Tisdale has turned a tumultuous year into a smile with extra frosting on top. After all, in times of crisis, we all know that stressed spelled backwards is desserts.
Scarlett Baker: Who is Anya Tisdale? Can you tell us a little a bit about yourself and where you grew up?
Anya Tisdale: I’m an artist based in Boston currently! I grew up in the city, so I’ve always been surrounded by a lot all at once. I’ve always been into painting and drawing, and in March last year I started to expand on make-up as being one of my art forms! It’s been just under a year since I started exploring creative and editorial-style make-up.
SB: What’s your first beauty memory that you can remember?
AT: Definitely adding white eyeliner on my waterline in the 8th grade because I wanted my eyes to look HUGE. People thought I looked crazy, but it got the job done!
SB: How would you describe beauty?
AT: Individualized and rule-breaking! There’s really no one way to achieve beauty; it’s different for everyone and that’s what makes it such a special thing to try to reach.
SB: What are 3 products that you can’t live without?
AT: A pair of long lashes, coloured blush, and a fake freckle product! I love Likely Makeup’s lashes and Clown Blush, and Pseudo Labs Phreckles are my go-to faux freckle product.
SB: How did you get your creative footing and make the decision to become a make-up artist?
AT: I had always been a creative person and was often practicing different art forms, but having all of the free time that I did during quarantine really allowed me to explore make-up more. It honestly happened by accident - I was just posting my make-up looks to Instagram that I was proud of and people seemed to enjoy them, too!
SB: What prompted your cake-themed make-up looks?
AT: I kept seeing all of these cute, ‘cottagecore’ themed cakes showing up on my Instagram explore page and thought that these would be awesome to turn into a make-up look! I also thought about how people used to call people who wore a lot of make-up “cakeface” as an insult, and I wanted to flip its definition around into a more artistic and creative meaning!
SB: What’s been your favourite look so far?
AT: My favourite look thus far has been my funfetti cakeface look - I loved taking the pictures for it and creating the different coloured frostings!
SB: What’s been your most complicated look you’ve created so far?
AT: The most complicated look I’ve done thus far has got to be all of the cakeface looks! Full-face make-up is DIFFICULT! I commend artists who specialise in full-face creative make-up, you really have to use every skill you know!
SB: What prompted you to share your work on social media?
AT: I just wanted to share my art and the things I’m passionate about with people! I also like to view my Instagram as a kind of documentation of my progress! I love seeing looks I did in the past in comparison to more recent looks I’ve done, and being able to see the improvement!
SB: Where do you get your references/inspiration from?
AT: I can get inspiration from just about anything; objects, natural elements, my friends, my partner, other amazing artists. Anything!
Courtesy of @anya.tisdale
SB: What advice would you give to somebody who wants to hone their skills as a creative/MUA?
AT: My number one piece of advice is that experimentation is your friend! Experiment with new styles, new techniques, new products, and just have fun with it! You may discover something new about your artistic style that you can use to really individualise your work and make you stand out from the rest!
SB: What changes do you hope to see within the beauty world over the next year?
AT: I hope to see more inclusivity and versatility in the types of make-up we see and the types of artists we see! I want creative make-up to be the new normal.
SB: If you could have your cake and eat it too, what kind of cake would you be eating?
AT: The Chocolate Tower Truffle cake from the Cheesecake Factory!
SB: When you’re not exploring different make-up looks, what can we find you doing?
AT: Probably playing Pokémon or Animal Crossing on the Nintendo Switch, or feeding my hamster, Soma, a carrot. I also love to watercolour paint and draw.
SB: If you could draw on anyone’s face, dead or alive, who would it be and why?
AT: It would 100% be Rico Nasty, I feel like our styles really align!
SB: How would you describe your relationship with make-up?
AT: I think we’re good friends! But sometimes we need our own time and space.
SB: The most iconic make-up look of all time is…
AT: Honestly anything with glossy lids or bleached brows! Those are power moves.
SB: Do you get into a zone when you’re creating? Do you have any particular music on or be amongst certain surroundings?
AT: I just do my work at my desk! I like to go on Instagram Live sometimes to interact with my followers while I work.
SB: How far do you think make-up expresses parts of our identity that perhaps our clothes do not?
AT: I think it goes a long way! Our faces express a lot more than clothes can, so enhancing them really amplifies our identities!
SB: If you could take any make-up product to Mars and introduce it to an alien, what would it be and why?
AT: False lashes! Imagine an alien with super long lashes. I just feel like it’s such an interesting and crucial product in the make-up game.
SB: Describe your lockdown experience in three words.
AT: Challenging, reflective, and innovative.
SB: What’s the worst fashion trend you’ve partaken in?
AT: Oh wow… probably exclusively wearing yoga pants with Uggs with the tops rolled over so the fur was showing. That combo just screams bland.
SB: If you could listen to one song on repeat for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?
AT: Homecoming by Green Day! I love a good rock opera.