A Look of Her Own

by Brian Ogden, Assistant Director/Communications

STARKVILLE – "Rub some dirt on it" took on a new meaning for Candace Denis this fall.

While discussing her resume and "makeup obsession" with Assistant Athletics Director for Student-Athlete Development Ben Rodriguez, he asked if she'd ever considered working with Mississippi State's theatre department. Denis was shocked she hadn't thought of that before, especially since one of her friends she'd had multiple classes with was heavily involved. She soon found herself on the crew for the department's production of Beowulf.

Denis admits she was "really ignorant" of the production process at first. Two weeks before the first show, she was called in for a crew viewing to see the actors perform without costumes, props or makeup. From that point until the final show of the semester, she and the rest of her new teammates would be hard at work for five or six hours a night.

"It involved a lot more time than I expected, but it didn't drag on or anything," she said. "I was looking forward to being there every second of it. Even behind set during the shows, it was really fun to be around everybody and see how that all works out."

The senior outfielder is known for her bold colors both on and off the field and has recently gotten into special effects makeup, but Beowulf required a more subdued approach. As an assistant makeup designer, she wasn't that involved with the heavier makeup jobs on characters such as Beowulf and his mother.

"I kind of just put dirt on people and made them look dirty like you would in that timeframe," Denis said. "My part didn't necessarily take as long, especially when you're just making people look dirty, you don't want things to look precise. It's pretty easy to just brush some dirt on even with your hands to make them look dirty."

While she played a small part in her first production, Denis has broken out some very complex makeup work to display on her social media feeds. In October, she decided to try her hand at special effects makeup, something she had no experience with.

"It felt like every week I was trying to do something with special effects," she said. "It was kind of cool to see in the month, with that being the only month I've ever worked in that realm, how much better I got."

She spent a lot of time watching videos on YouTube to see how different products looked on skin and learning new techniques for working with them. That all paid off when she decided to turn herself into a pumpkin.

Using scar wax, Denis created a jack-o-lantern effect around her eyes and mouth. It took her nearly three hours.

"That product is so hard to work with," she said. "They say it's easy. That's a lie. You really have to smooth it out to make it even with your face and make it all look really natural. It takes so much time to dry and then apply more and dry and apply another layer."

It wasn't always this way for Denis. Her earliest memories of makeup center around her mom, who also had a love of bold colors in her eye shadows and lipsticks. But unlike her sister who would help her with makeup for school dances, Denis didn't have much of an interest in the products.

"I would be one of those girls in high school that was like, 'I'm never wearing makeup. I don't need makeup,'" she said. "I did need makeup. I never wanted to, but then one day my freshman year of college I just started buying."

It started with her first foundation. Her roommate at the time was really into doing makeup as well, and together the pair turned a hobby into an obsession. Denis is proud of how quickly she developed her skills with a brush. In just four years she went from wearing nothing but lipstick to routinely spending multiple hours in front of a mirror perfecting a special effects look.

Over the summer she dyed her hair pink for the first time. It has since been blue, teal and now a deep maroon. For as long as she can remember, Denis says she's been very spontaneous when it comes to decisions on new tattoos, piercings or hair colors. She doesn't put much thought into it.

Between her special effects work and bringing her makeup onto the field as well, she's been characterized as intimidating by some who haven't had a chance to get to know her.

"I'm not small in stature and I guess a lot people tend to see bolder things like that and think people who do bold things are intimidating, not just regular makeup but the extensive colors and ranges and ways I work with makeup and hair color too," Denis said. "I guess that's what comes off as intimidating, but then people meet me and realize I'm a marshmallow. It's hard for me to really think I am intimidating. I definitely try to be sometimes, but then I think I'm just trying too hard."

She admits her role was a bit different when she first started wearing makeup in games, but after doing it once she decided she couldn't stop now. Her expression grew as her game developed. Now it has become one of her defining features on the field.

Denis said anything she wears on the field is confidently something she'd wear off of it as well, but she does use softball as a bit of a test lab. If a look can hold up under the heat and sweat of a softball game, it can probably make it through a long day away from her apartment too. Having photographers on hand to shoot the game doesn't hurt either. She gets a good look at how her makeup will photograph from every test run.

That wasn't always Denis' outlook though. Throughout her life she said people have often tried to put her in a box. Friends and people at school often limited her expression.

"For a while that worked," she said. "It totally worked, and I really tried to be like everybody else. That just wasn't good."

It's a message she's tried to share in her starting role for the Bulldogs. With her platform as a Division I student-athlete, she knows there are plenty of eyes on her, watching and imitating what she does.

"With as many younger girls watching and partaking in our sport like that – and this is very minor – but I think doing things like wearing the really odd makeup choices, having colored hair, having tattoos, having piercings, anything that's different really encompasses what I try to do every day in allowing people to know that's it's okay to be different," Denis said. "There isn't this cookie-cutter mold that we all have to fit into. You can be what you want and still be successful."

Mississippi State University Athletics

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