GENE'S
MAKE-UP
THE EVOLUTION OF THE MAKE-UP
The make-up went through many changes before it
became what we know (and love) today:
Gene
played around with his image for a while, but it somehow always centered around a demonic
look. On pictures 1 to 5 you can see early variations of his make-up, starting out in late
1972 when he just painted his face white, and added some red eye shadow (picture 1). Over
the next few months the make-up evolved into the demonic character we know today.
Picture 5 shows Gene in the spring of 1973, and by then the look was slowly coming
together, even though it would still be refined some more times. From the hairline and down his forehead, there was now a
black triangular shape, resembling Bela Lugosi's hairstyle in the original Dracula movie.
And the batwings around the eyes had also begun to take shape.
Picture 6 is from the late summer, and now the batwings had started to look like they do
today, even though the tips were bending back, but soon they started to point upwards (see
picture 7 underneath here, taken in the fall of 1973).
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Picture
7 is from the photo session for the debut album's cover (which would be the fall of 1973),
and the upper tips of the batwings were now bending upward. More interestingly Gene now
had three lower tips at the corner of each eye (you'll have to look very closely to see
that!)
Picture 8 is from January 8th 1974 (according to the Farewell Tour book), when KISS
officially signed their contract with Casablanca Records. The batwings are here much more
angular, and the tips are moved away from the forehead.
Picture 9 should be from around February 1974. The shape of the batwings are now more like
we know them, even thought the upper tips are still moved pretty far back. Now there is
only one tip at the side, this one pointing upwards.
On Picture 10 another point had been added, one just under his eye, pointing outwards.
This photo is from the Spring of 1974.
Picture 11 shows the progress of this: a little later in 1974, Gene had started to paint
the last point downwards instead. The make-up pretty much stayed this way until early
1976!
Picture 12 is a very rare variant of the make-up! I have only seen a few photos of this
variation, from around the summer of 1975. Look closely and you'll see that Gene has TWO
small tips at the brink of his nose, instead of just one!! Most photos I have seen is
from an outdoor photo session in front of The Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, but I have
also seen a few concert photos!
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For
the European tour in 1976, Gene had added another point down (picture 13) to his make-up.
This was altered slightly over the next year or so, ending up like the one we know today
(picture 14). The three outer points (one up, two down) had become broader, instead of the
thin points on picture 13!
There is another variation from the Love Gun tour. Many people has wondered why
Gene's make-up looks different on the cover of Alive II. As you can see in picture
15, Gene had dropped the two upper point at the brink of his nose. The rumor has it, that
Gene also extended the two downward tips on the nose, to under the tip of the nose, where
they were join! It is hard to determine if this is true... I have not seen any photos
where the connection is clear, and it is usually hard to see, since the part of Gene's
nose is usually in shadow!! This was apparently only for the shows in Los Angeles in
August 1977 when Alive II were recorded, and the reason was to be able to pick out
photos from this occasion.
The make-up stayed more or less the same as in picture 14, for the rest of Gene's career,
with a few small variations. For the 1979 and 1980 tours Gene broadened the make-up a bit
more (picture 16). But by the Creatures Of The Night tour (picture 17), the make-up
had again been slimmed down, to look like the 1977 variation.
When KISS jumped back into the costumes and make-up for The Grammy Awards Show 1996, Gene
had seemingly forgotten what his make-up looked like... as you can see in picture 18, his
make-up resembled the style used before the European tour in 1976 (picture 11)!! It was
only at the Grammy Show that his make-up looked like this. For the rest of the Reunion
tour and the Psycho Circus tour the make-up looked like the 1977 variation (picture 14).
For the Farewell Tour, Gene altered the make-up just slightly. If you look closely at
picture 19, you'll see that the two tips at the brink of the nose had now been extended a
great deal.
Many thanks to Jan Laursen for letting us use these pages.
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