RuPaul's Drag Race fans will all be familiar with the icon that is Raven – not only is she a season two finalist – but is most famously show creator RuPaul Charles' personal makeup artist.
The former contestant has since gone on to play a part in the infamous drag competition series' production team, and has appeared on the UK version of the show multiple times to give advice on the queens' makeup.
OK! spoke to Raven herself – real name David Petruschin – about her exciting new project, a TV show called Painted by Raven.
The brand new TV series will premiere on Thursday, November 25 on Wow Presents Plus, and sees a number of talented makeup artists go head to head in a number of creative and skill challenges.
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Similar in its premise to the BBC series Glow Up, Painted By Raven differs as its contestants all compete entirely from home, making the project completely covid-friendly.
Speaking about how the new show came about, Raven told OK!: "Painted with Raven was an idea I was presented with by RuPaul and the executive at World of Wonder.
"We sat down last summer and they said 'hey we have this idea we wanna run it by you', and we all brainstormed.
"It all came to be that it'd be a makeup competition from home, via Zoom call – as it was the way to do things back then – and we're gonna give away $25,000."
The show has been created by World of Wonder, who are the same geniuses behind the Drag Race shows and all of its spin-offs, so Raven had full confidence in the idea.
She said: "They created countless versions of RuPaul's Drag Race and it's all been so successful, so I thought 'there's no way this isn't gonna be wonderful'."
Raven revealed that she loves BBC3 series Glow Up, telling us how her new show differs from the UK show: "I've watched Glow Up, I love Glow Up, but what's very different about this show is that they are competing from home, they set up their own station and get a box in the mail, and that's what they have to incorporate into their makeup."
The new show is completely virtual, but Raven has in fact met one of the show's contestants in real life, after they came to watch a performance in Los Angeles.
Raven explained: "I saw her and I was like 'oh my gosh!' and was like 'we're gonna do a shot, do you drink?', and she was like 'yeah', so we sat and talked for quite a while after the show."
Sadly, the star "only got to meet one of them", but explained that "I'd love to get all of them together whether it be a reunion or just a party where we could come together."
As all die-hard Drag Race fans know, Raven has been RuPaul's personal MUA since season nine of US Drag Race, and whilst the show's host always looks an 11/10, he was forced to go bare-faced during the final episodes of Season 12.
Whilst the twelfth season of the US show was filmed just before the global pandemic hit us, its live reunion and finale episodes were set to take place in May 2020.
Only weeks into the pandemic at the time, everyone was uncertain of how dangerous the virus was, which saw Ru having to host both the episodes over Zoom.
And of course, due to restrictions, Raven was unable to paint Ru's face for the occasion, with the host instead opting to wear a zip-up hoodie and a facekini (which looked a bit like a wrestling mask!)
At the time, Ru was dragged by fans, who joked that the star should take inspiration from S12 queen Heidi N Closet and take up the name 'Heidi Behind Mask'.
OK! asked Raven whether or not she was mortified to see Ru wear the facekini for the final episodes, to which the star laughed and said: "You know what's funny about that is when we were gearing up to film the finale at his house.
"I was gonna test, go and wear all of the PPE and actually do his makeup but we thought 'you know what, we should just ride this one out, not do this, and keep everyone away'.
"At the time it was the beginning of all of this and we didn't know whether the virus could be transmitted through touch."
Raven revealed that Ru simply said: "You know what, I'm just gonna wear a mask with a hoodie, because everyone's wearing masks right now, so I'm gonna do it".
The makeup artist continued: "And he sent me a picture and I said 'oh my gosh you're crazy', and he just sent 'hahaha'
"It didn't pain me to watch him but I thought it was hilarious, of course I missed getting together with him, cause when we get into the dressing room it's non-stop laughs from beginning to end."
She concluded: "I thought it was hilarious especially because I knew why he was doing it, cause he was like 'well, we're not gonna do the makeup, everyone's wearing a mask so I'll do it', and what's crazier is that Ru has those masks ready at any given time."
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