If you’re squeamish, you’d better click away from this article now. Still here? Cool! Let me introduce Kryolan, the make-up brand behind many a (yucky) special effect in film and theatre.
After my visit and seeing what felt like a hundred varieties of blood, I had questions. Thankfully, Dominik Langer was there to answer them. He’s the company founder’s grandson and one of the Berlin brand’s three CEOs.
What was his job back then? He was part of a team that produced make-up for the first German colour film. The 1941 movie was called Women Are Better Diplomats (original title: «Frauen sind doch bessere Diplomaten»). Then, during the Second World War, he began studying chemistry. He realised early on that he wanted to develop and produce make-up for the world’s stages one day.
After 80 years and three generations, you’re still a family-run company. Is this advantageous for a brand like Kryolan? I wouldn’t necessarily call it an advantage. But it creates the opportunity for a close exchange with artists working backstage or behind the camera. When they encounter challenges or express wishes, we take them on. Many new products have come about as a result.
What’s your personal relationship with make-up? I didn’t like it when I was a kid. I’d see it at carnival, for example. Later, however, I was happy to offer myself up if someone wanted to give me a cool makeover. By cool, I mean special effects with blood and stuff. These days, I’m regularly in the lab testing the textures of our developments, though I’m not actually a make-up user myself.
Finally, a self-serving question: which Kryolan product would you recommend to me as a non-professional? Definitely our lip oil. I use it myself every day. It makes my lips supple and protects them from drying out.
Header image: Handmade ears and horns made of latex for special effects. Photo: Natalie Hemengül
As a massive Disney fan, I see the world through rose-tinted glasses. I worship series from the 90s and consider mermaids a religion. When I’m not dancing in glitter rain, I’m either hanging out at pyjama parties or sitting at my make-up table. P.S. I love you, bacon, garlic and onions.
I can buy blood, pus and even vomit here. None of it real, of course – though surprisingly realistic replicas. The brightly coloured pigment jars and rows of glitter tubes look almost bland next to them. Where am I, you ask? In Hamburg, at the busy Kryolan City Store near the Jungfernstieg. This is one of 50 stores worldwide and the hotspot par excellence for make-up artists of all sorts. From natural-looking make-up to radical transformations with prosthetics for film and theatre – professionals will find everything they need for their craft here.
On the left is 200 millilitres of fake vomit, on the right a large pack of mud effect.
Dominik Langer is 41 years old and lives with his family and a dog in Berlin. After completing his business studies, he spent a lot of time abroad, including in India, Spain, Chile, Argentina and England. He loves getting to know people and their cultures while travelling. He’s been the CEO of Kryolan together with his father Wolfram Langer and his brother Sebastian Langer since 2015. In his spare time, he also coaches a youth soccer team.
Dominik, Kryolan is nowhere to be found at Sephora. I know of it primarily from Halloween tutorials showcasing special effects (SFX) make-up. Even so, you’re a big player in the beauty industry. Dominik Langer, CEO: We’re a niche player, first and foremost. Our core clientele is make-up artists working in theatre, film, television, beauty, fashion, body painting and special effects. But we do also have products in our portfolio that make-up fans love, like our setting spray, which went viral in a TikTok video.
I read that Kryolan produces an estimated two-thirds of the world’s professional make-up for film, television and theatre. Is there a (film) project in which your products were used that you feel a special connection to? It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that Kryolan has probably been used to some extent in just about every movie ever produced. At least that’s what I hear from international make-up artists. I found the effects in the movie Cloud Atlas with Halle Berry really impressive. She played six different roles in it. For one of them, the colour of her skin had to be lightened. Our Dermacolor Camouflage Cream was used for this. No other product could achieve the same effect.
Halle Berry as Jocasta Ayrs in Cloud Atlas (2012). Source: Warner Bros. via IMDb, Photo: Reiner Bajo
KryolanDermacolor Camouflage Cream Mini Palette 18 Palette
18, Mini 3
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Kryolan was founded in Berlin by your grandfather Arnold Langer, who studied chemistry. How did he come up with the idea of applying that knowledge to the cosmetics sector? My grandfather had a passion for books and poetry and was already an enthusiastic theatregoer as a teen. Although he came from a poor background, he tried to go to the theatre as often as he could. During his teenage years, he was offered an apprenticeship there through his church congregation. These were his first points of contact with cosmetics.
These are Kryolan’s Cream Color Circles. There’s a palette in the range that was designed with the colours needed to create a black eye.
Noses made of cold foam.
On your website you write: «At Kryolan, we make make-up. But not like anybody else. Because unlike everybody else, we actually make our make-up.» For people without a behind-the-scenes view of the industry, what does that mean? Most brands don’t actually develop and manufacture their own cosmetics. Many brands are the result of an idea. That’s to say, they approach a cosmetic manufacturer with their concept, and then a service provider fills and packages the product with the appropriate branding. It’s not unheard of – common, even – to have the same product from different brands. Just in different packaging. We, on the other hand, develop, produce, assemble and market our products ourselves worldwide. Of course, with the support of sales partners in over 90 countries.
Professional setting powders filled in kit-friendly containers.
You mentioned that you work closely with make-up artists when developing new products. Can you tell me more about that? We have a network of make-up artists all over the world who either contact us or we contact them. It depends on the project. For the 2019 TV series Chernobyl, for example, we were contacted by make-up artist Daniel Parker. He was looking for particularly skin-friendly make-up that could be used on children to recreate burns. We took note of his wishes and developed a few samples, which he then tested on set. However, those scenes ended up not making the final cut.
Incredible! In addition to all kinds of eyelashes, there are also hand-knotted beards, moustaches and eyebrows made from real hair.
And what’s the process like for in-house ideas? Our own team of make-up artists comes together every quarter to test our developments on different skin types in front of the camera. The development team is then also on site and can make direct adjustments to the products. When developing our 4K Digital Complexion series, for example, we spent a week testing the products in a film studio under different lighting conditions and in front of different cameras. We needed an expert team to tell us exactly how the make-up should work. Development can take two to three years in complex cases.
Which development are you particularly proud of? Is there one in particular that you think has shaped the make-up landscape? There are a few. One of them being our camouflage range, Dermacolor. It’s very popular worldwide, appreciated by many. Thanks to its very high coverage, it can be used to cover skin anomalies, tattoos, dark circles and much more. I’m also very pleased with our relatively new Digital Complexion range. It has a soft-focus effect and was developed specifically for 4K and 8K camera technology. We like to call it Photoshop in a bottle!
A customer getting her make-up done in the store.
Speaking of blood: you also have some interesting products in your range, including all kinds of fake blood, vomit, pus, etc. Do you have any exciting anecdotes about them? Among other things, we developed artificial blood for the play «Die Nibelungen», during which 700 litres of blood was supposed to flow down a staircase in each performance. The requirements for the blood were that it be easy to wash out and not too expensive. On top of that, it also had to create nice sounds; microphones were installed along the stairs to make sure the dripping noises could be heard clearly. The flow speed was also of great importance.
What colour eyeblood would you like? Red, dark red or perhaps green?
You also offer very specific courses, such as for people in dance, but also for the fire brigade, army or police. Government authorities in particular are a target group I wouldn’t have expected to find on the list. What’s up with that? Our product range can be used in a variety of ways. People who do dance need long-lasting products that they can rely on. We introduce them to the relevant products and application options in our courses. The Red Cross, the fire department and the police, on the other hand, rely on realistic accident and emergency scenarios for training purposes. Think open wounds, burns and so on.
After all the realistic-looking body fluids, these glitter-filled tubes are a real treat for my eyes.
