Just as unicorns have become a staple in the food world, mermaids have full-on infiltrated the beauty sphere, inspiring gorgeous makeup looks [1], products [2], and even brushes [3]. Many makeup artists mimic the tail-flipping mythical creature using glitter galore and pretty blue hues, but one talented artist just showed another — darker — side of mermaids, and the internet is freaking out over it.
Got bored last night and turned myself into a mermaid. I'd rather be swimming with the fishes anyway 🐬🐟💖🌊🐠 pic.twitter.com/rfaZN6ffAu [4]
— channingjudith🦋 (@ChanningCJudith) May 18, 2017 [5]
Channing Carlisle [6] took a slightly shocking route with her hyperrealistic mermaid-inspired look: she transformed her leg to make it look ripped open to reveal scales underneath. I'm not gonna lie; at first glance, I thought it was pretty darn gruesome and took the mermaid trend a bit too far. But once I saw that it was all done with special effects makeup (and no skin was actually harmed in the making of it), I realized it's extremely impressive. I can barely even apply my eyeliner properly, but Channing somehow managed to make her leg look like a prop from the set of a mermaid murder-mystery film. This girl's got crazy talent, and that's something to be celebrated just as much as a MUA nailing the perfect cat eye.
It seems like the internet had somewhat similar reactions. When Channing shared the double-take-worthy image on Twitter [7], it garnered more than 50,000 retweets and nearly 200,000 "likes," not to mention that tons of fans and followers responded to her tweet sharing their praise for her mind-blowing makeup skills.
@ChanningCJudith [8] I keep staring at this trying to see the flaw. Great job
— *Fake black person (@MicFizzle) May 18, 2017 [9]
@ChanningCJudith [10] @stratfordneymar [11] me looking at this for 5 minutes trying to understand how you even did all of that and pulled it off so flawlessly pic.twitter.com/qVP0WXvdyJ [12]
— 🌻💛✨ (@fuckedfenty) May 18, 2017 [13]
@ChanningCJudith [14] This is literally so inspiring I'm obsessed
— aliyah cantu (@_aliyah_Cantu_) May 20, 2017 [15]