Juno Birch Breaks Down Her “Alien Queen” Beauty Routine
Who is Juno Birch? It depends on the day, but there are a few key themes: she’s a stunning alien with a penchant for retrofuturistic styling, cat-eye sunglasses, and Jennifer Coolidge. The Manchester-based drag queen has turned pop culture gender tropes into art with her sculptures of exaggerated beauty norms and possesses a natural skill for mixing up pastel foundation shades. “The first time I painted myself blue, I was at a Halloween party,” she remembers. “I attempted to be Miss Argentina from BeetleJuice and I turned out just looking like a crusty Smurf.” Over the years, the look has evolved as a technique that brings her visions and illustrations to life. “When I was growing up trans, it was quite alienating, I felt like a ‘homemade’ human,” Birch shares. “This alien bitch is a stunning woman who crash-landed on Earth in 1962, and ever since she’s been trying to disguise herself as a human—but not really succeeding.”
Aside from her favorite directors like John Waters and Tim Burton, Birch pulls references from “really tragic” characters in films that are “falling to pieces, but they’re really fabulous at the same time.” Think Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep’s characters being spray-painted by Bruce Willis in Death Becomes Her, or Glenn Close crawling through the mud in high heels in 101 Dalmatians—and, of course, actual aliens. “Mars Attacks! is like, totally one of my biggest inspirations for my looks,” she admits. Even the custom platinum wig she commissioned was designed to recreate the film’s teased-out ’60s styling.
“I don’t really see this as like, an alter ego,” Birch explains. “This is just an extension of me—a more fabulous version of me. I feel like I can just do anything when I’m dressed like this.” Whether it’s pushing a shopping cart of “human” items through Tesco or attending Manchester’s iconic Cha Cha Boudoir drag night, the makeup palette du jour is selected to match her current mood. “When people ask me what color I’m going to be and how I decide, it’s literally just like choosing a dress—whatever I feel like wearing.” During the transformation, Tak Shindo’s “Flamingo” track can be heard blasting past the mirror. “I love listening to music that you can imagine hearing in an elevator. I love the awkward-glamour feeling it gives me, and it makes me get into character.” For tools, Kryolan’s TV Paint Stick and Ben Nye’s Super White Face Powder are the essentials that perfect Birch’s otherworldly pastel hue, mixed by hand on a scrap of tin foil and finished with bright white highlights that mimic those from her three-dimensional artworks. “I started doing this on my sculptures first, and now I’ve started doing it on my skin,” she says. “A lot of my sculptures are like, celebrations of trans bodies. For such a long time, I was insecure about my Adam’s apple, my deep voice, the beard and everything. Now it’s something that I’m not ashamed of.”
Today, the look is all about violet-contoured cheekbones and faux-injected lips painted in her favorite electric pink Trixie Cosmetics lipstick. “It’s called ‘Stacy’ and it’s the best pink ever!” she enthuses. Even the eyebrows penciled into a pin-thin arch are social barometers—a little too high and it’s an alien with attitude. Pull the end down a bit lower onto the temple and “she’s nice again.” Either way, Birch says, a steady hand isn’t always a must. “I’ll literally just draw lips all over the place, wonky eyebrows, rollers hanging off—it’s kind of like the alien woman has been through a hedge, and she’s really stunning.” As fashion month fast approaches with the promise of uninhibited global style statements, catwalk fantasies turn spacey. “I’d love to walk in a fashion show that’s very vintage and space-age ’60s inspired,” she imagines. “With a space helmet on and loads of oxygen pipes draped along the floor behind my platform heels—I’d love that.”
Director: Lily Rose Thomas
Executive Producer: Hayley Williams
Producer: Tommy Banham
Director of Photography: Diana Olifirova
Focus Puller: John Millman
Sound Recordist: Martin Folkes
Runner: Sam Osborne
Editor: Oli Carr, Ben Corfield
Colorist: Tim Smith at Cheat
Sound Designer: Josh Grey-Jung
Originally Appeared on Vogue
