For These Drag Artists, Makeup Is Pride

09.06.2025, 16:30 allure.com

What do you get when you ask dozens of drag artists to create beauty looks inspired by the rainbow hues of a Pride Flag? A celebration of color, creativity, and community.

“I wanted to create this series to show off bold and beautiful queer individuals living fearlessly and in all their glory,” says Jimi Urquiaga, also known as Missleidy Rodriguez, a New York City-based creative director and drag queen—and the visionary behind this project. The only prompt each artist received from Urquiaga was a color—the rest was up to their interpretation.

The result—a collection of statement-making, totally individual beauty looks—is a fitting tribute to the artist and drag queen Gilbert Baker, who designed the first Pride Flag in 1978. “Our job as gay people was to come out, to be visible, to live in the truth...," Baker later said in an interview. "A flag really fit that mission, because that’s a way of proclaiming your visibility or saying, ‘This is who I am!’”

The same can be said of makeup.

Keep scrolling to get to know the drag artists who became the living embodiment of the colors that have come to mean so much—not just during Pride Month, but all year long.

What do you love about makeup?

Missleidy Rodriguez: The ability to transform. One day I can be a fortune teller diva. Tomorrow I could be a space goddess. It doesn't matter. I have the power in my hands.

Angelina Fierce: The fact that it used to be just for women, but now makeup is for all us.

Jasmine Rice LaBeija: It gives me the ability to change like a chameleon and adapt to whatever scenario I want to.

Aimee Amour: I'm a makeup artist in and out of drag, so everything about makeup is about transformation for me.

Rayne: Honestly, it's like a war paint you put on. I put this on and no one can tell me nothing. I know I look gorgeous.

Maximo Xtravaganza (dancer): Makeup makes me feel powerful because it allows me to express how I feel inside.

Xana Whoria: I feel most comfortable and powerful in my makeup. Putting it on makes me feel like the best version of myself.

Robin Fierce: Makeup is freedom. Freedom to express. Freedom to create. An escape that can be kinda magical. But it’s also kinda like a home where you can just be you.

Plasma: It feels like I'm putting on my hero costume, my super suit. It's not a defense mechanism, [though]… it's more about unleashing your inner potential once you get rid of your outer insecurity.

What's your favorite part of the makeup process?

Briar Blush: I love doing my eyes. I think eyes are the windows to the soul.

Indigo Inferno: My lips. Lipstick is my last step and it brings everything together. I always love a nineties nude lip with a dark liner.

Daniella Darling: I'm a lips girl. Even if I have no makeup on, I still like to have a red lip. Every time I put the lip on, I feel like everything comes together and I'm ready to go.

Sunday: My favorite step is always [to put in] contacts. I love how contacts can really transform a look.

Rify Royalty: It would have to be my eyebrows.

Shia Ho: Playing with lights and darks to create shadows and highlights to change the way my face looks with makeup. Being able to transform your face with makeup is really exciting for me.

Digna: I would say lashes. Because once you get the lashes on, you just feel like you're that girl.

What was your makeup inspiration for today?

Atomic Annie: I went with sort of a '60s mod vibe.

Jazzmint Dash: A pickle. Surprise!

Lemon: I wanted to look like a deliciously sexy baby who's just come fresh out of the womb. I'm dripping and dewy.

Dev doee: When I started to think about red, I thought of roses and blood.

Oracle: [I wanted to] take my classic makeup and make it kind of like if a butterfly landed on my eyelid.

Angel Au: Watercolor. The look was inspired by Monet's “Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies.”

Mx.Ology: Vintage pin up cartoons and old style 2D animation.

Erotica: I love blending some of the kind of old-timey stage drama with a more grungy ‘80s, ’90s punk rock aesthetic.

Jolina Jasmine: I was really inspired by sunflowers. The minute that they asked me to do yellow, I had the image of sunflowers in my head.

How would you describe your makeup look today?

Chase Runaway: Soft but bold. Something that was striking, but still very smooth and sexy, floral.

Amanda Tori Meating: I have incorporated the color blue into my lips and eyes in a way that I don't normally do because I love warm tones. But today I said, let's go. Let's ice it out. Blue forever.

Beaujangless: I'm embodying green. I'm a snake, I'm Medusa, queen of the snakes.

Blue: Well, I love to transform my face. Today, it kind of looks like "Blues Clues," but I'll take it. As a cis woman that does drag, it's really easy for me to wear makeup, but if I'm going to do drag, I'm going to change my face and make it more fun.

Citrine Cash Collins: I feel like I look like I ate a bunch of Cheetos.

Photoshoot:Creative Director: Missleidy Rodriguez/Jimi UrquiagaPhotographer: Julia JohnsonBTS Photographer: Flavia DanieleMeet The Mugs Director: Mari SaraiDP: JP BlairProducer: Citrine Cash CollinsCasting Director: Jimi UrquiagaLocation: Smashbox Studios

Film:Creative Director: Missleidy Rodriguez/Jimi UrquiagaDP: Olaa OlabiAD/Editor: Elliott MoeColor Correction & Finishing: BrainwombProducer: Bonnie GrossColorist: Keith JensonGaffer: David MerinoKey Grip: Andrew ParkertonAC: Nicholas MerinoGraphic Design: Cole BryantMusic: Found ObjectsCreative Director/Composer: Adam WeissExecutive Creative Directors/Co-Founders: Jay Wadley, Trevor GureckisExecutive Producer: Katt MattSenior Producer: Nick ChomowiczProducer Associate/Composer: Margy HayesMusic Coordinator: Lee Cash ChisholmVocals: Princess Wes

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