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The kind of makeup that you can't make up.

Face Off is a Talent Show broadcast by Syfy where makeup artists compete by designing and applying makeup and prostheses. It is hosted by McKenzie Westmore, and the judges and guest judges are accomplished leaders in the industry such as Glenn Hetrick, Ve Neill, Patrick Tatopoulos, and Neville Page. Guest judges include Brian Grazer, Kevin Smith, Paul W.S. Anderson, Greg Nicotero, Rick Baker, Doug Jones, Len Wiseman, Gale Anne Hurd and Marcus Nispel. Every week the artists complete challenges and the judges eliminate a contestant until only three are left, who then compete one last time for the grand prize. The prizes change from season to season, but they usually involve a cash prize, a car and a supply of makeup.

Every week they face a spotlight challenge, after which a contestant is eliminated. Sometimes there is a foundation challenge at the beginning of the episode whose winner gains something to help in the spotlight challenge. The challenges are usually the sort of thing you would find in a science fiction or horror movie, but they will occasionally be given something more mundane, like aging someone or designing a tattoo.

The first season premiered in January 2011, and the second season ran at the same time in 2012. Since 2013, two seasons have aired per year, typically one premiering in January and the other in July or August. Season 13 was announced to be the show's final season.


Face Off provides examples of:

  • Accentuate the Negative: Commercial breaks are almost always set up showing something going wrong for one of the artists, and the judges' closer looks at the finished make-ups always go to break after having negative comments about one of the creations in particular.
  • A Day In The Lime Light: The main three judges themselves (Ve, Glenn and Neville) received this treatment in the season 7 special "Judge Match" which they assembled a team of past contestants to compete with each other to raise money for charity. This is the only time we saw the judges display their creative process and actually experience the competition themselves.
  • All-Ghouls School:
  • All Trolls Are Different: A season 8 challenge had the artists create trolls based off of real-world bridges. There was a lot of variation, but certain classic tropes associated with the usual folklore-boggart-type troll popped up in most makeups.
  • Ambiguous Gender: Regardless of the gender of the model being used, some of the more inhuman or alieanic designs can fall into this.
  • Amusing Alien: The Season 12 semifinal was about this trope.
  • Ancient Astronauts: A challenge from season 7 had the artists imagining and creating the aliens who inspired ancient monuments (the Pyramids, Machu Picchu, the Moai, the Stonehenge, etc.).
    • This was revisited in the season 13 episode “Aztec Aliens”. In which the artists had to make aliens that could be seen as the inspirations for various gods of Aztec mythology.
  • Animal Jingoism: The finale of Season 11 featured Mantis vs. Crane, Eagle vs. Snake and Tiger vs. Dragon.
  • Animesque: The Anime challenge from season 6, in theory. Alam's candy princess in Season 4 counts too.
  • Animal Gender-Bender: In the very first episode, the artists are tasked with creating animal-human hybrids and one of their choices in the ostrich. Both of the teams that choose it pick female models but both of the final creations are depicted with black and white feathers which are exclusive to the male of the species.
  • The Apunkalypse: Explored in the Season 11 episode "Wasteland Warriors".
  • Artifact Title: Not the show itself, but one of the teams in season 12 named themselves "Twisted Six", which didn't even last one whole episode before it became a Non-Indicative Name.
  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: The Season 7 episode "Creature Carnage" revolved around creating a make-up for a giant, rampaging monster reminiscent of King Kong or Godzilla.
  • Audible Sharpness: The Season 7 finale pick-your-theme phase involved pulling swords from stones complete with this.
    • One of the audios in Season 8's "Sound Effect" challenge included this sound, which the artists obviously interpreted as a sharp weapon.
  • Audience Participation: The audience ultimately decided who won the third season, American Idol-style.
  • Awesome, but Impractical: Some contestants get in over their heads by attempting major fabrications or animatronics that are impressive in concept, yet fail to work properly.
    • Roy, ROY, ROY. He has ambitious ideas that overshadow his (usually excellent) makeup when they don't work. See Crippling Overspecialization.
  • Ax-Crazy: The characters in the Season 7 episode "Killer Instinct", including the literal example Axe Girlfriend.
  • Bait-and-Switch: Judge Glenn Hetrick is fond of these, though mainly in the earlier seasons. It's not uncommon for him to say something along the lines of "I don't like this.... I love it!"
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: In the Cryptic Creatures challenge of season 6, Daran completely takes over the project, not listening to anything his partner says, and she, (correctly) guessing that they're going to be in bottom looks, states in a talking head interview that she'd much rather go home on an individual challenge where she knows it's her fault than be eliminated for the poor decisions of somebody else. The very next episode, she gets eliminated on an individual challenge.
  • Belly Mouth: House's candy monster (Season 4), Rachael's horror movie villain (Season 7), Nora and Scott's alien animal (season 9).
  • Berserk Button: We learn what Glenn's is during the "Dream House Challenge": Scrapping someone else's sculpt without running it by them. Nick, what the hell were you thinking?
  • Bioluminescence Is Cool: The glow-in-the-dark creature challenge from season 4.
  • Bizarre Alien Senses: Cig's alien delegate from Season 11 had heat-sensitive pits instead of eyes.
  • Black Guy Gets Eliminated First: Troy, the only African-American in Season Four, was eliminated in the first episode.
    • Averted in Season Six. Rashaad, the only African-American competitor, made it to the finale, and won, having only been in bottom looks once the entire season.
  • Blood Is the New Black: Kelly's character in the Season 8 Clive Barker Horror Villain challenge.
  • Blue and Orange Contrast: Laura's cubist man for the "Living Art" challenge, also Kris' ethereal duo from "Living the Dream", and Rashaad's rival aliens from "Heavenly Bodies"
  • Body Paint: Seasons 1, 2 and 8 had body-painting challenges. Season 5 had a special episode on the matter.
  • Bounty Hunter: The season 10 premiere the artists had to make one inspired by their Cool Starship.
  • Brutal Honesty: If the judges don't like your work, they will let you know. Neville in particular can come out of nowhere with his more brutal opinions just because he's so often quiet and polite.
    Neville: (paraphased) It looks like an anime sex doll and it's distracting.
    • Glenn also said of one makeup in the season 4 "Hell has frozen over" challenge that "It punches you in the face with how bad it sucks", but he never directly said that to the contestants who made it (though evidently they thought it was such a good line they had the "coming up next" previews make it look like he did).
  • The Bus Came Back: Most of the eliminated contestants return at the end of the season to help the finalists with their enormous final challenge.
    • Season 3 offered the opportunity for an eliminated contestant to return.
    • For season 5, the bus came back for 8 contestants eliminated from previous seasons. The returning contestants are Frank and Tate from season 1, Miranda and RJ from season 2, Alana, Roy and Laura from season 3, and Eric Z from season 4.
    • The web spin-off Face Off: Redemption allowed fourth-season contestant Eric Z. to win a spot on Season 5.
    • For the season 7 finale, instead of normally bringing back the last six eliminated contestants to assist the finalists, they instead used the last three eliminated ones and three previous Face Off winners Rayce (season 2), Nicole (season 3), and Rashaad (season 6).
    • Seasons 11 and 13 featured only returning contestants.
    • All-Star competitors return in the Spin-Off Game Face.
  • Butter Face: Ben's design for the Bridge Troll challenge is this - it's a cute girl in a bikini from behind, but has a potbelly and bulbous nose when she turns around.
  • Came Back Strong:
    • Nicole from the Third Season returned to the show after being eliminated, and the judges noted the fight that came from her after returning, awarding her with two consecutive wins. Not only that, but she ended up being the season winner.
    • Miranda, who was the third contestant eliminated from season 2, won four challenges in season 5, and it took her eleven weeks— longer than any other contestant that season— to even be on the bottom looks. She probably would've been eliminated that week if not for Laney quitting, and was eliminated the week after.
  • Captain Obvious: Crosses over into CMOF considering Glenn is usually on the ball.
    Glenn: But it doesn't look like a bull...
    Lois: That's because she's a girl. *smirk*
    Glenn ... *walks away*
  • Catchphrase: McKenzie aside there's really not a lot of catchphrases from the judges that airs. But amusingly enough, Ve tends to use 'bitchin' a lot during the post-season wrap up episodes and presumably during the season as well.
  • Cast of Snowflakes: A given when you have show centered making on monsters, creatures and characters of every shape and design.
  • Cattle Punk: The semifinal challenge of Season 8.
  • Chess Motifs: In the Judge Match special challenge.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Season Ten gives us Robert. He often gives his makeups odd pet names, and at one point he even admits (maybe jokingly?) that he pretends to infuse his creations with a demonic persona, so that if he fails the demon will take vengeance out on him.
    Glenn: You are a strange, strange man.
    Robert: Thank you.
  • Chest Burster: The "Alien Parasite" challenge from season 10 was all about this, and slime.
  • Child Eater: Tate's Troll in the Season 5 premiere is said to swallow babies. The model suggests this holding a bloody baby.
  • Chroma Key: A "Green Screen" challenge opened Season 11.
  • Confession Cam
  • Continuity Nod: The Reality TV Show Mansion usually incorporates pictures of some work from the previous season into the decorations.
    • Additionally, Season 1's winner, Connor, was a guest judge for the first challenge of Season 2, while Season 2's winner Rayce gave the contestants some pointers during Season 3's "Supermobile" challenge.
    • Both are visible in the season 3 finale among audience members. In the season 3 finale, one contestent notes that even after the show, a number of contestents and judges have remained close including living together, working on the same projects, and so forth.
    • Dina from season 7 mentions that the season 4 champion was the person to push her/inspire her to become a makeup artist. A little bit of Foreshadowing perhaps that she eventually becomes the winner of her season. It doesn't hurt to have that kind of tutelage.
    • The Season 1 Opening Credits sequence had clips of original makeups being prepped, but these have increasingly been displaced by highlights from previous seasons' creations. By Season 10, every makeup shown during the credits is a winning entry from some previous challenge.
  • Cool Old Guy: Mr. Westmore becomes this in later season when he becomes a mentor to the contestants, offering advice and direction during each challenge. Of course, being quite the talented artist himself, more than just being cool, his advice and how each contestant decides to act upon it can often make or break a makeup.
  • Costume Porn: Glenn's outfits can swing between this and Sharp-Dressed Man.
  • Creepy Doll: One of the challenges in season 8 was to create a monster based on a classic doll. There have been two others: a makeup for the horror villain challenge in the first season, and Sasha's design for a Monster Clown based on her own fear of dolls in season 7.
  • Creepy Family: Season 9's "Macabre Family" challenge, inspired by The Addams Family and The Munsters. Comprised of a big brother bully, a literal and figurative black sheep cousin, a zombie father, a creepy uncle and a maiden aunt.
  • Crippling Overspecialization: Several contestants.
    • Roy from season 3 was noted for his awesome fabrications (that is, non-makeup props). While they commonly added to the design, the judges did point out several times that they tended to overshadow the makeup which, of course, was what they were focused on. He has gotten better since his return in season 5, pulling off some truly astounding makeups.
      • This has been his downfall again for some of his lesser makeups, including his squid man who was supposed to have massive tentacles and his and Laura's alien creature tamer with a parasite. note 
    • Also from season 3, most of Rod's characters had almost identical faces. Ve pointed this out to him, but try as he might he still leaned towards the same shapes and was eventually eliminated because of it.
    • Wayne from season 4 was an amazing sculptor, but because he put so much detail into his sculpts he rarely had time to fully paint his models. Despite this he often was in the top looks and made it to the finals.
    • Lyma, a newcomer from season 5, is a body painter by trade. Her makeups are frequently criticized for their lack of realism and hard lines. She's eliminated in episode 6 for a combination of unrealistic painting and poor sculpture.
    • Kevon from Season 9 had amazing ideas for his characters, but had a habit of putting in too many ideas in them. He was eliminated on the Four Horsemen challenge for adding too much stuff to his character, thus not following the challenge.
    • Robert from Season 10, was fond of adding humor to the characters he made. While this helped out sometimes, it got him on the bottom looks several times for not following the challenge. This was ultimately what got him eliminated on the genie challenge.
  • Cross-Cast Role: Female models becoming male characters is more frequent than the opposite.
    • In season 3, Nicole had to use a female model for her male pirate captain becuase only female models were left. The same thing happened to Jamie in the playing card challenge of season 8, forcing her to make several changes for her King of Spades
    • The opposite was the idea behind Season 9 Gender-Swap challenge, which was meant to reflect Shakespeare's times.
    • In the Season 11 Frightening Families challenge, a male model and a female model ended up as the little daughter and the father, respectively, because the team felt they needed the element of surprise. While the judges ‘’did’’ like that creative choice it wasn’t enough to keep someone from that team from going home.
    • In the Season 12 Alien Hive challenge, both teams chose a male model to be the Queen because of their larger size.
  • Cyborg: Featured in the episode Junkyard Cyborg, from season 3.
  • Cyclops: One of the challenges in season 10 had the artists choosing an eye to use with a fitting cyclops makeup.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Glenn can really rip you a new one before you even realize what's going on.
  • Deliberately Monochrome: Chloe's mad scientist victim from season 6 and Rob's magician assistant ghost from season 10 are grayscaled.
  • Ditto Aliens: This trope proved the undoing of season 4's Eric Fox, when he got last pick in the Defiance challenge and was stuck with the identical Liberata. Unable to work his uniqueness on them, he was sent home one episode shy of the finals.
  • Draconic Humanoid: All the characters created for the Dragon challenge in Season 6. Cig's dragon kung fu fighter in the Season 11 finale, too.
  • Dude, Not Funny!: Ve's reaction to Niko's makeup for the Mad Scientist challenge (a pregnant woman with an open womb, holding the dead fetus). It was supposed to be shocking rather than funny, though.
  • Dull Surprise: Laney, who seemed to have her voice stuck on "Dull Monotone" and face stuck on "Half Stoned".
  • Early-Bird Cameo: Several species from Defiance, along with the character Irissa, appeared in one of the later episodes of season 4 during a challenge inspired by the then-upcoming show.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: Originally the illustrations of each phase of design were done almost completely digitally, there were clips of each person winning or being sent home rather than narration by Mackenzie, and more focus was placed on the home drama and struggles in the lab than now.
  • Electrified Bathtub: Robert's character for the season 10 "Whimsical Ghost" challenge died this way.
  • Elephant in the Living Room: During the Roald Dahl challenge from season 6, nobody ever mentions that Vermicious Knids actually were described and illustrated in Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator. Even Dahl's own daughter makes it sound like Knids have never been depicted before now.
  • Eliminated from the Race / Voted Off the Island: Those on the "bottom looks" as chosen by the judges are most likely to be eliminated. There is usually at least one artist eliminated each episode.
  • Elimination Statement:
    • So far, the only contestants who haven't given an Elimination Statement are the runners-up for the finals, and Joe from Season Three (he stormed off set).
    • Laney from season 5 , as she walked out two weeks before the finale due to not wanting to be in the competition anymore, being upset her last fellow newcomer was eliminated and general homesickess.
  • Engagement Challenge: Self-imposed example: Ben from season 8 promised himself he'd propose to his girlfriend if he won a spotlight challenge. His ram/cactus Planimal won one, and he popped the question in a contestant-commentary clip.
  • Epic Fail: Tate is completely at a loss for words as to how he managed to completely decapitate Laney's makeup bust while taking it out of her mold in season 5's Mother Nature challenge.. "It's made out of fiberglass, they make boats out of this shit, so I don't know... what happened..."
  • "Everybody Dies" Ending: The combat display from Season 7's final "Knights" challenge concluded with every knight, good or evil, fallen in battle.
  • Everyone Meets Everyone: Usually how the seasons start.
  • Extra Eyes: In Season 7's "Teacher's Pets", Sasha's cyclops had many extra eyes besides the main one.
  • Extreme Doormat: Sasha from season 7 who tends to let other people walks all over her in team or duo challenge even though she (correctly) thinks there's something wrong with the concept.
    • Eric Z. from season 4 was this when it pertained to Autumn.
  • Eyes Do Not Belong There: Several of the veteran's creations in season 5's Stylized Fantasy Setting challenge, where their theme was a blind witch who sees through her servants. Notably, the faun had eyes on his horns and forehead, and the pixie had eyes on it's earlobes.
    • The birch entry from Season 7's twisted tree-creature challenge had eye-like markings all over its bark/skin.
  • The Family That Slays Together: The basis of one challenge in season 11.
  • Female Angel, Male Demon: Whenever there is an angel and devil challenge, contestants will almost certainly do this. If someone decides to create a male angel, it will always be a Fallen Angel or a fighter angel. And, if there is a female demon, she most likely won't be ugly.
  • Festering Fungus: Season 12, "Feral Fungi". Each team had to turn a real-life fungus reference into a parasitic, zombifying species.
  • The Freakshow: A challenge in season 9, in which the artists should pick a sideshow attraction name and use it as inspiration for a fantasy character.
    • One of the families in Season 11's "Frightening Families" was a more realistic and scary take on this.
  • Friendly Rivalry: Competitors on the show are refreshingly good sports, and are frequently seen helping each other with their projects. Common examples are helping open and clean molds, or teaching each other how to use unfamiliar tools and materials. Given that special effects makeup is a very niche, collaborative field in an already small industry, being an ass and not working well with others backfires easily. Many former competitors have gone on to work together professionally, and the season 3 finale revealed that several former competitors had gone so far as to move to LA together to support each other while pursuing their careers.
    • Averted in Season 1 due to Early-Installment Weirdness and overall Jerkassery on the competitors - Tom and Jo were out for Megan's blood because of how much she was riding on Conor's skills and not her own.
  • Fur Against Fang: The double challenge before the finale in season 6. The first week challenge was to create vampires based on legends from different cultures. The second week challenge was to create werewolves who could hunt them down.
  • Gender Flip: Adolfo and Lyma's Humpty Dumpty supermodel, as well as Eddie and Scott's waitress take on the Man in the Moon, in the Mother Goose challenge. Additionally, Gage and Sam from season 1 swapped their own genders in the "Family Plot" episode, where they had to disguise themselves from a loved one with makeup.
    • One challenge specifically required contestants to swap two models' genders.
    • "All That Glitters" from season 9 had the artist having to change male models into female Shakespeare characters, just like it how it was in Shakespeare's time.
  • Genius Bruiser: Glenn can probably name any, every, and all part of the human body by their anatomical name (quick, do you even know that the line of the cheek has a name? Glenn does!) as well as dropping obscure words like they're written on note cards. And yet he's also the judge that has the smallest personal censor - Neville will at least pause to find a way to say things gently and Ve will use humour words ('goofy') to lighten the blow. Glenn will just outright say he doesn't like something and that he thinks it's a stupid idea. Season 7 judge, Lois Burwell, strikes a balance between Glenn and Ve - she can be pretty blunt and tends towards agreeing with Glenn more often than not, but tends to be so in a somewhat proper manner.
  • Good Angel, Bad Angel: Mentioned in Season 11 "The Devil is in the Details", being the inspiration for the challenge of that week.
  • Green-Skinned Space Babe: Season 8's "Miss Intergalactic" challenge was a Beauty Contest for them. This trope shows up in other alien-focused challenges as well.
  • Grimmification: Many challenges are to take something normally cheerful and darken it in some manner. Often this happens when it isn't part of the challenge criteria, as most contestants have heavy backgrounds in horror and monster makeup.
  • Heart in the Wrong Place: A costume of a re-imagined, horror-themed Tin Woodsman featured a bare chest with a gaping hole where the character's heart is missing. Naturally, it's very high on the left side.
  • Heroic BSoD: Laney has one after Eddie's elimination. It results in her having to leave the competition.
  • Hillbilly Horrors: The basis behind Stella's creation for the Halloween Horror Nights challenge
  • Hive Mind: Title of the second episode in Season 12, when the shops created Insectoid Aliens inspired by wasps and termites. As such, each team made an Insect Queen, a Drone and a Worker alien (plus a hatching egg prop).
  • Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Had their challenge in season 9.
  • Humanoid Aliens: Most makeups in any alien challenge, except when the challenge calls for something else (e.g. the "Alien Animal", "Alien Parasite" and "Green Screen" challenges).
  • Imaginary Friend: Theme of a season 8 challenge.
  • Irony/Pun: In Episode 4 of Season 5, Frank says of his creation when he's called up that it lost its eyes through evolution. Glenn immediately afterwards praises him and says he's "Made a ton of intelligent design choices this week".
  • Incongruously-Dressed Zombie: The mob of extras made up as zombies as a foundation challenge on season 4 were mostly dressed in everyday street clothes, but a couple of the men wore surgical scrubs, one of the women had on a ragged wedding dress, and a chef's hat is visible in one of the group shots. Contestants regularly dress their own undead creations in odd outfits for spotlight challenges, to make the finished products distinctive and capture the judges' interest. This can also overlap with Jacob Marley Apparel, particularly in the "Surprise of the Century", " The Dancing Dead", "Death's Doorstep", "Alice in Zombieland" and " The Laughing Dead" challenges.
  • Inkblot Test: The artists used it as inspiration for a Foundation Challenge in Season 9.
  • It's the Same, Now It Sucks!invoked: The judges have criticized and even eliminated contestants for relying on the same forms and techniques for two or more makeups. The most notable example is Rod from Season 3, but Meg and Jordan from Season 9 and Tyler in Season 11 are also included.
  • Jacob Marley Apparel: While this trope was featured in quite a few episodes (see Incongruously-Dressed Zombie), it was a requisite in the season 10 challenge inspired by Beetlejuice, "Death's Doorstep", which was to create a Silly Spook based on a humorous obituary.
  • Jerkass: Frank from Season 1. He gets better in Season 5. As Roy puts it:
    Roy: When Frank's nice, he's nice. When he's not, he's the king of assholes.
    • Joe from Season 3, despite only appearing the first episode, was a complete jerk to his partner Tommy. Not only did he prevent him from contributing his ideas to the design of their character, but went as far as degrading him and bragging about how much better he was. It was also clear from the start that he could not take criticism when the judge from the foundation challenge did not like his character. Even worse, Tommy has said the edit was kind to Joe, meaning there was more bad stuff we didn't get to see.
    • Season 4 Autumn could give Frank a run for his money. She rapidly gained a reputation among the other contestants as being hell to work with, to the point that literally everyone after the first episode who has teamed up with her gets a talking head interview where they express their fear at what's going to happen because of it. She also had very little respect for the judges, on multiple occasions questioning their judgment. For example, one episode she rolled her eyes at the judges after they criticized her makeup. Unsurprisingly, she was kicked out that episode, and when she was eliminated, they didn't even give her the consolation speech at the end. And then on her way out, instead of being the good sport most contestants are, she blamed the partner she had been incredibly pushy towards.
  • Job-Stealing Robot: The robot challenge from season 6. Said robots were a construction worker, a firefighter, a photographer, a hairdresser and a surgeon.
  • Kaiju: Season 7's aforementioned "Creature Carnage" challenge.
  • Karmic Jackpot: Tate, in season 5's Future Frankenstein episode, helps Laura out modeling his hand for her creepy umbrella handle. A few weeks later, during the Living Art challenge, he smashes that exact same hand with his gigantic mold and has to be hospitalized. Cue Laura leading the charge to get his mold cleaned out and filled with latex while he's gone. Given that the judges hated his concept enough for him to get in bottom looks despite doing a good job with execution, Laura and the other contestants almost certainly saved him from elimination.
  • Kensington Gore: In one episode the contestants had to mix up Kensington Gore and create a crime scene that was then critiqued by an actual retired homicide detective. Some of them used way too much.
  • Kindhearted Cat Lover: Glenn, of all people, is this, as he revealed in the "Judge Match" Episode.
  • Lighter and Softer: In Season 8's "Imaginary Friends" challenge, the child advising Julian requested a rather gruesome zombie character, which Julian had to tone down into something that wouldn't give the other child-advisors nightmares when it walked out on stage.
  • Literary Mash-Ups: The first "Focus challenge" (face makeup only) in Season 9 (and in the whole show) was inspired by this genre, particularly by the horror-oriented Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.
  • Living Toys: The "Magical Marionette" challenge from Season 11, taking inspiration from Pinocchio. Also the Deadly Dolls challenge in season 8 and Child's Play in season 10.
  • Mad Scientist:
    • A season 6 challenge, but rather than creating mad scientists, the competitors created the victims of their torture tools.
    • Laura's funny ghost from season 5 and Graham's anime alter-ego from season 6 were mad scientists.
  • Magma Man: "The Infernal Core", Anthony's entry for the Season 4 DC Superhero challenge.
  • Major Injury Underreaction: Tate barely has any reaction at all to his massive mold smashing down on his hand in the Living Art challenge of season 5 and doesn't even realize he needs to be hospitalized for it until he sees how much it's bleeding. Completely justified by the fact that it was almost instantly numbed by damage.
  • Mars Needs Water: One spotlight challenge required the creation of aliens whose home planets are in great jeopardy. Naturally, one of the planets is running out of water.
  • Mix-and-Match Critters: The intent of the Season 7 episode "Animal Attractions" was to make a mix-and-match critter of the designer's choice.
  • Monkey Morality Pose: The last stage of "The Gauntlet II" was to create a trio of horror characters who conveyed this idea.
  • Monster Clown:
    • A season 7 challenge required contestants to use their worst childhood fear to create a scary clown makeup.
    • The Halloween challenge from season 5 also included two Monster Clown characters.
  • Mother Nature: The theme of a challenge in Season 5.
  • Mouth Stitched Shut: Jordon's entry in the Season 9 Addams Family/Munsters-inspired challenge.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Laney from Season 5, to an extent, if only because she's also a model herself as well as a SFX artist and she almost is always dressed up with makeup applied unless she's in the lab, making shots that flip between her in the lab and her in the confession cam somewhat jarring.
    • McKenzie herself is this for the show in general. This is downplayed when she had to present outdoor in exchange for more practical attires.
  • Multi-Armed Multitasking: Season 6's Tyler's Anime alter-ego.
  • Multiboobage: Al's six-breasted chest piece for a female werewolf in Season 12.
  • Multiple Reference Pun: In the Season 8 episode "Royal Flush", contestant Adam has to turn the King of Clubs card into a character. His concept is both a King of Clubs and a King of (night)Clubs.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Frank, as one of the veterans in season 5, says he experienced this reaction when he realized how much of an ass he made of himself in season 1 and disappointed his father, who had been rooting for him. He vowed to win season 5 in his dad's honor, as his dad had died about a year prior.
  • Naked First Impression: Episodes that feature body-painting always reveal the nature of the challenge to competitors by having a line of models walk on-stage in the buff. Any artist who responds with a wince, a double-take, or other visible dismay is guaranteed a Reaction Shot.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: Some of the challenges invoke this trope, with themes like "Zombie Apocalypse In Wonderland" or "Alien Werewolves".
  • Non-Mammalian Hair: Usually, the models' hair is covered up if they're meant to be some kind of alien or non-mammalian creature, but Roy once did a snake creature and not only put hair on it, but put awkward-looking and rather jarring hair that almost ruined the entire thing.
  • Obligatory Joke: Some of the obituaries for the "Whimsical Ghost" challenge. Some episodes titles count: of course the episode about monkey aliens is called "Monkey Business"!
  • Odd Couple: The aptly-named Season 11 episode "Odd Couples". They were also Adventure Duos.
  • Off with His Head!: Season 7 episode "Off with Their Heads" challenged the artists to design a "theme park version" of Greek gods/goddesses, as well as the head of a monster they had killed. This concept was also present in Stella's "Horror Villain" (a hillbily holding a woman's head) from the same season, and Miranda's Season 5 "Funny Ghost" makeup (Marie Antoinette holding her husband's head).
  • Oh, Crap!: Tess has this reaction in the Season 6 episode "Guitar Gods" when one of the flimsy horns she designs falls off with almost no effort, right in front of the judges.
  • One-Steve Limit: Averted. So far there have been 3 Anthonys (one of which prefers to go by "Ant"), 2 Gregs (Both of whom where the first to be eliminated in their respective seasons), 3 Erics (2 of which were on the same season and had to be referred to as Eric Z and Eric F), 2 Lauras, 3 Jasons, 2 Scotts, 2 Georges, 2 Samanthas (both of whom went by "Sam"), 2 Katies, 2 Jos (One male and one female) & 3 Megans (one prefers to go by Meg). Season 10 had Robert and Rob in addition to Melissa and Mel.
  • Our Cryptids Are More Mysterious: Season 6 had a cryptid challenge. Among them were the Chupacabra and The Jersey Devil, and also the lesser known Mapinguari (from Brazilian Folklore), Vodyanoy (from Slavic Mythology) and Bunyip (from Aboriginal Australian Myths).
  • Our Dragons Are Different: The show has had two dragon challenges, the first one with Chinese dragons (season 3) and the second one with Western dragons (season 6).
  • Our Gargoyles Rock: The episode "Gargoyle Guardians" from season 11.
  • Our Genies Are Different: Season 10 had the challenge of creating genies who matched their unique vessels.
  • Our Goblins Are Different: The Season 4 premiere challenge. And indeed none of the goblins created looked alike.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: Happens whenever one contestant's/team's work is bigger and overall better technically and conceptually than another contestant's/team's. Especially made obvious when the makeups are all lined up.
  • Pastiche: Besides the usual challenges themed after various genres and their Tropes, there are also the challenges inspired by the style of popular and acknowledged works and artists (Tim Burton, Star Wars, Dr. Seuss and Clive Barker, to name a few).
  • Paper-Thin Disguise: The Season 1 episode Family Plot required the artists to disguise themselves as a store clerk and assist their family members in a wig shop without them noticing. Megan was eliminated for having nothing to show for herself by the end of the week and attempting this trope, with Ve pointing out that Megan's mother probably knew that it was her, but was smart enough not to say anything until Megan revealed herself.
  • Parasite Zombie: Season 12's "Fungal Zombie" challenge revolved around this concept. Each team chose a fungus species to inspire the design of their zombies.
  • Pixellation: Used for body-painting challenges to blur nude models' naughty bits.
    • Roy's Zombie Queen of Hearts makeup had exposed nipples, which had to be blurred out for TV.
  • Plague Doctor: Michael's Superhero in the DC challenge (Season 4), "Elijah, Bringer of Plagues", was not-so-successfully modeled after a plague doctor.
  • Planimal: The "Dangerous Beauty" and "The Hunger Games predator" challenge.
  • Playing Card Motifs: The "Royal Court" challenge from season 8 had the artists creating a character incorporating a playing card character and a suit.
  • Playing a Tree: Roy's idea for his Mother Earth character was also based around a tree.
  • Pretty Boy: In season 1, one of the challenges was to take soon-to-be-married couples and turn the groom into a bride and vise versa. Tate exploited his first pick to choose the Asian couple with a pretty boy groom, reasoning that making women look like men isn't as difficult as making men look like women.
  • Previously on…
  • Product Placement: Most frequently with Kryolan, which supplies the show with makeup.
    • Some challenges also seem to have Product Placement as part of their intent (G.I. Joe and Monster High, for example), and others are obviously meant to promote Syfy shows (Defiance and The Expanse).
    • Season 11 had considerable Product Placement for Hyundai, especially during the "Wasteland Warriors" episode.
  • Pun: Neville can be fond of these.
  • Pun-Based Title
  • Put on a Bus: All of the eliminated contestants... who return at the end of the season to help the finalists with their enormous final challenge.
  • Reality Show Genre Blindness:
    • It's pretty surprising that so many contestants don't learn how to do beauty makeup prior to getting on the show. It's fundamental for many challenges and many character archetypes, and many grandiose designs have fallen flat because the artist didn't know how to do a proper beauty makeup.
    • There's also many artists who don't really get how to make a "whimsical" make-up, and will often end up doing a horror make-up instead, not understanding how to introduce soft aspects to make their character look more silly and friendly as opposed to scary and inhuman.
    • Lastly in the trio of blindness, there are artists who don't really like doing horror/grotesque make-ups, so when they are forced to by way the challenge, they make very questionable choices in their anatomy and color palettes that winds up making their monster look goofy as opposed to frightening.
  • Reality TV Show Mansion: Where the artists live during the competition, although this has been phased out in later seasons.
  • Recurring Extra: The same models are used over and over and are seen in close-up for the "morphing" shots, although they seldom say anything and their names are almost never mentioned.
    • Those very familiar with the show found it jarring when they brought in some never-before-seen models in season 5.
    • Averted for the nude body-painting challenges, which use different models, and other specialty builds such as the Giants theme which used only large men.
    • Also averted for many of the finales, in which the makeups are applied to guest performers with specialized skills like dancing or sword-fighting.
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: The reptiles chosen for the "Dangerous Beauty" Planimal challenge, to those that knew anything about them, were somewhat unimpressive in terms of danger to humans, being a monitor lizard, a green tree python, and a chameleon. The first two are strong with sharp teeth and could hurt you, even if they couldn't kill you; however, the less said about the dangerous chameleon, the better (though to be fair, this was about genetically engineered predators, and chameleon genes would definitely be useful in a genetically engineered sci-fi superpredator). Someone must have been using this trope and thinking reptiles would automatically be seen as dangerous. Definite overlap with Somewhere, a Herpetologist Is Crying.
  • The Right Hand of Doom:
    • Derek's Thug and Roy's City Watch in Season 3's Dishonored challenge.
    • Season 8's Adam incorporated this into his design for the "Creepy Doll" challenge and was eliminated in the same episode. For the "Transformation" challenge in All-Stars he did it again with his team's character, landing on the top looks.
  • Rock Me, Asmodeus!: Surprisingly, only two out of the five rockstars in "Guitar Gods" were demons of some kind. One (Rashaad and Tyler's) is a demon himself and the other (Cat and Niko's) made a Deal with the Devil to become a god.
  • Rule 50: Season Three gives us Alice's Adventures in Wonderland meets Resident Evil... with the Resident Evil Film Series' producer/director, Paul W.S. Anderson, as a guest judge for that challenge, no less!
  • Scary Scarecrows: The Halloween challenge in Season 5 included two scarecrow makeups.
  • Secret Test of Character: The premier of season 9 was this, as nobody was eliminated. The Judges specifically gave the contestants a highly-difficult first challenge in order to test their limits from the get-go.
  • Serial Escalation: The finales of each season demonstrate this:
    • Season 1: A diorama-style exhibition for a party with several big-name makeup artists in attendance.
    • Season 2: The models perform choreographed dance routine to a live audience.
    • Season 3: Not only is the audience live, but so is the finale itself.
    • Season 4: Cirque. Du. Soleil. In water.
    • Averted in Season 5. Obviously there was only so much bigger you could go than Cirque du Soleil in water, so the season 5 finale was scaled back to a ballet performance of Swan Lake with themed costumes and make ups the contestants had to create.
    • Season 6: Live dance routines at a nightclub.
    • Season 7: A full-blown battle between opposing pairs of knights, played out on a spectacular set used for medieval dinner-theater jousts and duels.
    • Season 8: Create four film franchise heroes based on a genre to be judged at a public showing at Universal Studios
    • Season 9: Create two (later three) characters based on a script to be filmed for a short film.
    • Season 10: Create two characters for a horror short in accordance with an up-and-coming young director's vision.
    • Season 11: Create two characters based on animals for a choreographed martial arts fight, which was filmed by a guest action-movie performer/director and played back for the judges with added (often bloody) F/X.
    • Season 12: Create three characters based on a specific theme (Mad german scientist lab, egyptian demon summoning and hellish throne room) for Glenn Hetrick's haunted house Journey Into Fear.
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: As the season 3 finale revealed through cut footage, Neville and particularly Glenn are fond of this.
  • Seven Deadly Sins: The challenge for the Halloween special of Season 5. All seven makeup artists chose a colored apple and did a costume for the sin that corresponded with it. Frank ended up getting sent off for creating something 'on the lowest hanging branch' for the sin of gluttony.
  • Shout-Out: Too many to list, like you should expect from a special FX-themed show. There are countless references to movies, TV shows, books, artists and sometimes music videos that either inspired the challenges or feature the tropes being explored by them.
  • Signature Headgear: Season 3 & 5 contestant Roy is seldom seen without his straw cowboy hat.
  • Single Tear: Present in Phil's character in Season 12 "Possessed Possessions", a mother who mourns her dead baby and is possessed by them.
  • Snake People: With human bodies and snake heads, unlike the usual application, in Season 7 "Serpent Soldiers". The same for S3 Roy's Wesen in the Grimm challenge and S9 Jason & Ricky's Mayan gatekeeper.
  • Special Effects Failure: In-Universe, given the point of the show. Not only the bottom looks, though; top looks often are not completely camera-ready either.
  • Special Person, Normal Name: Season 9's Nora names her team's aliens José and Brenda.
  • Spin-Off: Game Face. Basically Face Off with the format of Chopped: stand alone episodes, each one featuring four All-Star contestants competing in three challenges for a $10,000 prize.
  • The Stoic: Glenn has smiled less than a handful of times and laughed only once. And in the latter case (despite evidence to the contrary and Neville teasing), he tries to brush it off as 'just a chuckle'.
    • Averted in the Season 12 finale, in which Glenn laughs like a loon while watching people's reactions to the haunted house monsters.
  • Superhero: Done thrice, first on Season 3 (make a superhero and their sidekick based on Cool Cars), then on Season 4 (in a collaboration with DC Comics) and again on season 8 (with the twist of the artists being their own inspiration and model).
  • Taken for Granite: The Foundation challenge in "Off with Their Heads" (Season 7) was to create a victim of Medusa.
  • Tear Off Your Face: Julian and Ben's entry for the S8 "Sound Effect" challenge is a demon who does this to people and wears the faces himself. They call him "Face Off demon".
  • There Can Only Be One: Only one person can win the spotlight challenge at the end of the episode, even when working in teams. Which McKenzie will always point out, As You Know-style.
  • This Is a Competition: Very, very often. Those who take it too far usually suffer for it.
    • Connor from Season 1 proved to be an exception. He actually said "This is a competition" early in the finale, displaying the exact attitude of the trope, and won.
    • Joe in Season 3 had this or some other issue. The lack of information coming from the fact that he stormed off the set in the first episode of the third season for being in the bottom looks. He was subsequently disqualified and not invited back.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: Will sometimes pop up whenever an artist is faced with a challenge that is clearly outside of their comfort zone, like when a gore artist is asked to do beauty make-up, or a whimsical artist is asked to do horror. Some artists have cringed at the body-painting challenges because they're uncomfortable with the models' nudity.
    • This trope is now the Pavlovian response to any time McKenzie says "just one more thing" – her way of introducing a new twist or addition to each challenge.
  • Took a Level in Kindness: Frank from season 1, upon returning in season 5. Season 1 Frank is widely regarded as the single biggest tool the show has ever seen, but his intro in Season 5 shows that he came to deeply regret his behavior, and was shown to be much nicer and a much better person, to the point where when Tate's hand got smashed by his mold, he was the third person shown to help get his massive mold open and cleaned while he was hospitalized.
  • Totem Pole Trench: The concept of Roy's "Funny Ghost" makeup: a pair of vaudeville little people who died while in such a getup, and are stuck that way in the afterlife.
  • Transformation Sequence: Each spotlight-challenge costume is shown in close-up to we viewers, as the model undergoes a CGI morph from human to whatever-it-is.
    • Done twice for each entry in Season 11's "Jekyll-And-Hyde" challenge: from human to early-stage transformation, then from early-stage to late-stage.
    • Also done twice in "Extraterrestrial Enterprise": One from human to retro 60s alien, then from 60s alien to new 10s alien
  • Tribal Face Paint: The foundation challenge in the season 9 "Freak Show" episode was to do one of these.
  • Troll Bridge: The real-world bridges that served as inspiration for the Troll challenge in Season 8.
  • Two-Faced: Plenty of the finished makeups have asymmetrical faces, one side disfigured by injuries or cybernetics. A few have two faces in the literal sense (e.g. the Giants and Torture Cellar challenges).
  • Vain Sorceress: A challenge in season 10 focused on this, with contestants having to make her true evil looking self.
  • Valkyries: They were the theme of a Foundation challenge in Season 10.
  • Viewers Are Goldfish: Every episode explains the purpose of design, sculpting, molding, and applying makeup. With the exact same clips to demonstrate, and near-identical voiceovers from contestants.
    • Recent seasons have downplayed this, only showing the clips in the first episode of each season.
    • The Confession Cam aspect of the show has shades of this. The most obvious example is season 5's Living Art episode. Tate smashed his hand while tipping over a heavy mold, and from that point on in the show we're reminded constantly by Tate and other contestants that, well... he hurt his hand.
    • If something particularly notable happens during a week, usually the episode will focus on primarily on that artist and those who get involved.
  • Wedding Episode: For the show's 100th episode, Season 9's paired contestants made up seven real engaged couples, who then got married on stage in their matching make-ups.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: During Season 12 episode 3, Dream House, then-foreman Nick gets harshly called out by the judges for outright removing the clay from fellow teammate Jill's mold without her permission, calling the act both taboo and outrageous. He is eliminated the same episode for exactly this reason.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: Contestants kicked off in the first couple of episodes, obviously. Some otherwise-interesting characters are sent off-stage after an initial inspection as neither top nor bottom looks, so the artists don't get to explain their backstories to the judges. Some characters produced for foundation challenges don't even rate a full-screen view, just a momentary windowed view in a montage.
  • When She Smiles: Glenn is usually The Stoic, so the occasions when he smiles are a welcome relief for most contestants and often make him look like a very different person. To say nothing of the rare instances when he actually bursts out laughing (like when Logan describes his humanoid dragon makeup in a deep, comic book voice in Season 8's "Super Selfies").
  • Winter Royal Lady: Season 11 had a "Snow Queen" challenge.
  • The Worm That Walks: The basis behind George's killer clown make up based on his own fear.
  • Wrong Genre Savvy:
    • A lot of challenges have involved taking a sweet theme and make it darker. Which is exactly what several contestants did in season 5's Mother Goose challenge. Unfortunately for them, they were supposed to make whimsical characters, not scary or grotesque ones.
    • In general, many of the contestants have backgrounds in horror-themed makeups and have difficulty breaking out of that skillset when asked to do something Lighter and Softer.
  • WTH, Costuming Department?invoked: Sometimes the contestants will remark that the wardrobe people sent them horrible stuff that's not at all what they asked for. The biggest example was in the mother nature challenge of season 5, where two contestants complained about them screwing up their orders, forcing them to work with what they were given.

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