These Drag Queen Makeup Secrets Are Better Than Anything You've Ever Heard On YouTube

Heavy contour, dramatic brows, highlighter you can see from space — these on-trend makeup looks may seem like they originated with Kim K. or YouTube's OG beauty vloggers, but that couldn't be further from the truth. A light dusting of reality for us all: There was a subset that made glam makeup a part of the zeitgeist decades before KUWTK, and YouTube has nothing on their tried-and-true tips and tricks.

Look to drag queens, in all their chiseled, strobed, glammed-up glory, if you want the more accurate origin story of so-called "Instagram makeup" today — and rest assured 2017's reigning queens are still coming up with the most inventive techniques around. But their impact runs far deeper than that: Drag queens have been fighting for equality and acceptance since as early as the 1800s. Today, it's RuPaul's Drag Race that's bringing it into the mainstream like never before.

"We have an Emmy and it's great, but we don’t do this to snatch trophies. The truth is that we must do it," RuPaul told an intimate crowd at an event for the show in L.A. "It's our calling, to bring love, colours, music, laughter, dancing, and joy — that is what we bring. [It's] our secret weapon in these trying times. That is how we prevail and that's how we will ultimately win."

To celebrate the show's ongoing work for freedom of expression, we caught up with four queens from various seasons to spill their top makeup tips and tricks. Spoiler alert: These beauty secrets will make you want to work.