This makeup transformation video will really make you think about how we perceive gender

We’ve seen some pretty mind-blowing makeup transformation videos in our day. There was the girl who turned herself into Barbie’s doppelgänger, the lady who makeup-magicked herself into a Rambo lookalike, and the woman who, with the power of her brush and palette can turn herself into, well, basically every celebrity.

That all said, the latest makeup transformation video on the scene, “Crossover!,” in which a woman’s face is transformed so she presents as male, is not only super cool to behold, it’s also extremely clever in how it challenges gender perceptions.

The geniuses behind this vid are makeup artist James Kaliardos and model DJ Chelsea Leyland. One woman’s face is transformed in the video, but from October 2nd through the 4th, Kaliardos and a team of makeup artists will be at the ready at the Move! interactive fashion and art exhibit at Brookfield Place in downtown Manhattan to make people over as different genders. The makeup-artists will be wearing cameras on their heads to document the transformations, and the results will be posted to the Brookfield Place website.

So what was the inspiration behind this project? As Kaliardos explained to Refinery29, “We wanted to offer participants the opportunity to see themselves differently than who they are every day. We figured the most powerful change would be to cross over to the opposite sex.”

In the preview video, Kaliardos uses voiceover to walk us through how he made over Leyland so that she would present as male in the time-lapse video. Here are some of our favorite steps:

The contouring (always a highlight of any makeup transformation vid):

The changing of the eyebrows:

The application of the stubble:

So this is the “before”:

And this is the after:

Makeup, you are amazing.

To check out the vid, head over to Refinery 29.

Related:

What drawing faces taught me about gender

MAC’s new makeup line is unisex and we love it

Images via Refinery29