Eye make-up tips from Moulin Rouge's head dancer

Caroline Raynal is the new ‘meneuse de revue’ of Le Moulin Rouge, and the eyes are the focus of her stage make-up. She’s given Cover Media some tips to help you achieve her look.

Le Moulin Rouge performers always have perfect make-up, especially the ‘meneuse de revue’ – the principle dancer of the ballet. You might be surprised to learn she doesn’t have a private make-up artist to help her get ready though, she actually applies her own cosmetics.

“We don’t have a make-up artist to do our make-up. Because we have to do our make-up every single day, you have to study how to use the liquid eyeliner,” she explained to Cover Media.

Regular practice is the main secret for a perfect feline flick. “As we have to do it every day we’re pretty quick, but if you don’t do it regularly, it’s quite difficult,” she added.

Eyeliner is not the only thing she uses when it comes to her eye make-up; lashes are very important too. Not everyone is able to apply falsies on their own, but she has some rules to help. “We (the dancers of Le Moulin Rouge) know how to put the fake eyelashes on,” she explained. “Everyone has their own technique because everyone has got different eye shapes and depending on that you put the eyelash on a different part of the eyelid. Normally I lift up the outside of the eye, I lift up the eyelash to open the eye there.”

Once your fake lashes are done you can apply eyeliner, and the dancers have a rule for this too. “(You have to add some) eyeliner under the eye. Don’t put it directly on your eye line; doing it this way helps open it a little bit to make your eyes a lot bigger than they really are,” she advised. What are her favourite make up brands? “Usually I use a lot of MAC make-up and Make up For Ever”, she added.