As the head makeup artist for “Heated Rivalry,” Joan Chell had to break the ice with the show’s actors fairly quickly.
She tells Page Six Style she got stars Connor Storrie and Hudson Williams’ makeup “down to a fine art” while working on the Canadian hockey romance, often spending “three hours every morning” preparing them for the show’s steamy scenes.
“They were so good. It was like they were part of the [makeup] team as well,” she says, quipping, “They made great assistants to us.”
Now, with the show blowing up in a big way, Chell’s makeup choices have legions of fans talking — particularly Williams’ freckles, which she created using a $10 Maykoo stamp, pens for touch-ups and lots of continuity photos.
Maykoo Freckle Pens
“I love Korean products,” says the Toronto-based beauty pro, who was fresh off filming the upcoming movie “Forbidden Fruits” — and applying similar freckles on actress Lola Tung — when she got the call for “Heated Rivalry.”
Maykoo Freckle Stamp
But while she admits the actors’ freckles “turned into a whole other phenomenon,” pigment pens weren’t the only product she kept on hand for Williams (Shane Hollander), Storrie (Ilya Rosonov), François Arnaud (Scott Hunter) and the rest of the buzzy cast.
We asked Chell for all her behind-the-scenes secrets, from fake sweat to real bonding moments.
Gearing up for spicy scenes
When it comes to the show’s bedroom scenes, Chell needed products that could take the heat in more ways than one — like Patrick Starr’s One/Size Setting Spray “to get a little more staying power,” so she and her team “barely have to go in and fix anything” between takes.
“When they’re in their intimate scenes and there’s friction, and then they’re in the sheets … all those [things] sort of add up,” Chell adds. “They alway seem to pick white sheets!”
Patrick Starr One/Size On ‘Til Dawn Setting Spray
Sweating it out
Chell sweats the small stuff. The beauty guru perfected each character’s faux perspiration using a mix of water and green jelly (which contains glycerin and silicone) to “hold the [sweat] beads” between takes.
For moments where characters needed more of a subtle “sheen” instead, she applied Egyptian Magic All Purpose Skin Cream for an “illustrious glow.” (“It’s so good on the skin. It helps with dry patches,” she says.)
The only time they actually used real water was when Williams’ character shot a soda commercial wearing a soaking wet T-shirt.
“The wardrobe people had a bunch of water bottles, and they were just pouring it all over him,” she laughs.
Egyptian Magic All Purpose Skin Cream
Think about ink
The naked truth behind the stars’ tattoos? Chell had to hide everyone’s ink, from Williams’ many tiny tats to Arnaud’s house-shaped back tattoo. (“We see his back a lot,” she notes.)
The makeup pro created multiple custom shades for each actor — as she says “every part of the body was slightly different” — using products like Dermablend’s Leg and Body Makeup and several professional palettes.
While Chell always used “tons and tons” of makeup covering the artwork each morning (even if intimate scenes weren’t on the call sheet until the evening), the crew also brought a “body bag” full of products to set for occasional touch-ups.
Dermablend Leg and Body Makeup
Back to skincare basics
It’s not all spicy scenes and flashy freckles on set; Chell also ensured that all the actors took care of their skincare basics during filming.
She relied on lots of multipurpose products from Canadian brand Living Libations — including the Frankincense Cleanser Moisturizer — plus a “ton” of packs of Clean & Clear Oil Control Film. (“We spent a lot of money on those,” she says of the latter.)
Living Libations Frankincense Cleanser Moisturizer
Clean & Clear Oil Control Film
Blood, sweat and tears
It only took Chell “15 minutes at the most” in the hallway of the hockey arena to do special effects makeup for Shane’s injury scene.
“We shot the hospital scene before the actual scene on the hockey rink where he gets hit,” she reveals. “So you’re kind of going, what would he look like on the next day?”
Bonding with the stars
At the end of the day, the most powerful ingredient in the beauty pro’s arsenal can’t be bought at Sephora. Chell raves about the cast’s camaraderie, saying the fledgling A-listers were “so easy to work with.”
Some of her favorite moments included the scene where Storrie and Williams kiss in the lake at the cottage, as she recalls the crew laughing when the stars “had to get into ice cold water” for each take.
The trio also shared plenty of memorable moments in the makeup chair.
“Connor used to come into the trailer with his Russian accent,” she remembers. “It was hilarious. After a couple weeks, I was like, ‘I forgot what you actually sound like.’ Then he was laughing and he [went] back into his non-Russian accent.”
Calling Storrie “just the sweetest,” Chell adds, “I gravitate [towards] adopting a lot of my [actors]. I call them my kids.”
Why Trust Page Six Style Shopping
This article was written by Hannah Southwick, Commerce Associate Editor for Page Six. Hannah spies deals on actually affordable celebrity-worn styles, puts celebrities’ brands to the test and finds the beauty products that keep stars red carpet-ready. She consults stylists and industry pros — including celebs themselves — for firsthand product recommendations, trend predictions and more. In addition to writing for Page Six since 2020, her work has been featured in USA Today and Parade.
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