How Megan Thee Stallion’s Glam Team Created Snake-Inspired Styles for Her “Cobra” Music Video — See the Photos

In the beginning of Megan Thee Stallion‘s highly anticipated video for her new single “Cobra,” the rapper literally climbs out of a snake’s jaws. “Like a snake sheds its skin, we must shed our past — over and over again,” she says. “Cobra” is a song about what the artist has been through over the last few years, including depression, a dispute with her label, alleged cheating and the 2020 shooting by Tory Lanez, plus its subsequent trial.

But Megan has channeled these obstacles and turned them into art, as evidenced by both the deeply personal lyrics of “Cobra” and its cinematic video, which features some truly incredible hair, makeup and special effects work from some of Megan’s favorite beauty pros.

Megan’s makeup was created by her go-to makeup artist Lauren Elise Child, and Miranda Jory created the special effects. (Jory was also behind Megan’s hilarious and on-point Gremlins costume for Halloween 2023.) At first, we see her crawling out of the snake’s mouth with clumpy, defined lashes. Later, when she’s glammed up in a gown and updo, Megan wears a metallic silver smoky eye with a super sharp wing. At the mid-point of the video, though, the rapper is seen in a glass box with prying eyes watching and taking photos as she literally peels off her skin. 

“Megan and I are always saving and showing each other inspiration and reference pictures we’ve been collecting and a lot of the time we have the same images, so we are usually in the same lane creatively already when it comes to creating the looks,” Child told Allure. “We both knew we wanted to keep the makeup very authentic but with interesting snake like details, so I took inspiration from different snake prints, textures and shapes.” 

Child’s favorite look occurs right as Megan climbs from the snake’s belly. “We wanted her to look dewy and authentic but add interesting detail that would nod to the snake she was crawling through, so I took inspiration from the snakes fangs and gave her spiky lashes with really dewy skin,” Child explained. 

Child also worked very closely with Jory and her team while prepping Megan’s makeup or coating her body with slime. “We talked ahead of time about what products would work with the prosthetics and what wouldn’t, how to remove them,” the makeup artist explained. “Beauty makeup is so different than SFX, so it was great to work with them and help complete the story head to toe.” After each take, Child and the SFX crew would have to work together to “reset” the slime on Megan’s body.