SNL's hair and make-up artists reveal how they transform Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon into Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton

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Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon's impersonations of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton over the past few weeks have arguably been the best part of Saturday Night Live this season.

And while the actors' impressions of the political candidates are near uncanny, what most people don't know is that a whole lot of effort goes into their appearances too.

SNL's make-up and hair department heads Louie Zakarian and Jodi Mancuso revealed in a video on Monday how the transformations are done.

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Behind the scenes: Saturday Night Live has revealed the secrets to Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon's looks for their Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton impressions 

'One of the challenging things is trying to turn one cast-member to look like a political person – especially somebody who’s in the public eye all the time,' Zakarian said.

Mancuso agreed: 'Your whole method is to really try to make that person look like them. And even if I’m styling a wig or Louie is doing the make-up, you have this little trial of just shaping something so it gives the same silhouette of the person.'

While many cast-members have played Trump in the past, Zakarian revealed that Alec 'really wanted to go over the top' for his impersonation.

'He wanted crazy huge eyebrows, huge arching over the top. He wanted to be painted bright orange,' he explained.

Making TV magic: SNL's make-up and hair department heads Louie Zakarian and Jodi Mancuso revealed in a video on Monday how the transformations are done

Although there were some setbacks with getting the right shade of orange to go with the lighting, Zakarian said that they finally reached a point where 'everybody seems to be happy' with Alec's appearance.

Mancuso meanwhile revealed that a huge amount of effort went into perfecting a Trump wig for the 58-year-old. 

'Alec, it was a process. I had to choose the colours. You have to think about lighting too which is very important when it comes to colours,' she said.

'One of the challenging things': The pair revealed that it can be difficult to accurately portray someone who is always in the public eye

'Alec really wanted to go over the top': Zakarian said that Alec 'wanted crazy huge eyebrows' and 'to be painted bright orange'

'The less hair the better in that wig. It just looks more real. He probably does his hair in five minutes and it took me probably a whole day to get it. It worked out really well with Alec, and he really looked like him pretty easy.' 

However the hair and make-up departments took a more simplistic approach to Kate McKinnon's Clinton.

'Kate, she’s petite, so everything looks huge on her,' Mancuso explained while discussing the 32-year-old Ghostbusters star's wig.

'So Hillary has a lot of hair, but I have to think about it, take it down half a scale. When it goes on Kate it seems the right shape.' 

'I had to choose the colours': Mancuso meanwhile revealed that a huge amount of effort went into perfecting a Trump wig for the 58-year-old

'Everybody seems to be happy': There were some setbacks with getting the right shade of orange to go with the lighting, but eventually they perfected the look

And Zakarian revealed that while Amy Poehler wore a tip on her nose to make it 'a little bulbous' when she played the Democratic nominee, they were careful not to go over-the-top with Kate because of the time factor involved.

'We kind of just evolved into getting the look, her lipstick colours, shaping the eyebrows to match the way Hillary’s eyebrows look,' he said.

'The other big thing we’ve got to take into consideration is what we can get on and off in the amount of time that we have. For Alec it’s one thing because he’s only in the one sketch, so I don’t have to worry about getting it off of him. 

Taking a more simplistic approach: The team didn't go over-the-top when it came to deciding on Kate's look for Hillary Clinton

A different look: Zakarian revealed that Amy Poehler (L) wore a tip on her nose to make it 'a little bulbous' when she played the Democratic nominee, but they decided against it for Kate

'But with Kate to do anything heavy, to do any kind of real crazy make-ups is tough because she’ll end up being in the monologue which is a minute and a half after the cold opener, so it’s got to be something that we can get off of her quick enough.'

He added: 'Or she’ll be in the first sketch out which is five minutes after the monologue so she’s got to be able to get her wardrobe changed, get her wig changed, get her make-up changed and be able to be out there on the floor within that five minutes.'

Mancuso said: 'The whole show is running like that. Everything is quick changes, so you’re just going. You can’t stop, you have no choice. So it’s pretty exciting. It’s an adrenaline rush for sure.'

'Everything looks huge on her': Mancuso said that they didn't use too much hair for the 32-year-old's Clinton wig, because she is so petite

Time factor: Because Kate appears in so many scenes, they stuck to recreating Clinton's eyebrows and lipstick colours so she could change into other looks quickly

Zakarian added with a laugh: 'Knock on wood, I think I’ve only missed one cue. And I didn’t miss it, it just looked like s**t.' 

Alec talked about his Trump impression during an appearance on WNYC's The Brian Lehrer Show on Election Day.

'I’m not an impressionist, per se, but if you do any kind of comedy and they ask you to do that, most of the time, there’s some degree of appreciation, I think, involving somebody you like,' he said.

'Trump is somebody who, I don’t hate Trump, but he’s not somebody I admire, so it was more difficult.'

'It's an adrenaline rush for sure': Mancuso revealed that the hair and make-up teams 'can't stop' as they change up everyone's looks as fast as possible in between sketches