Makeup Ideas, Face Charts and Practise

Look 1

My inspiration behind this makeup design came from Diane Kendal’s makeup look created for Alexander McQueen’s Fall/Winter 2012/13 show. This particular makeup inspires me being it is so haunting. The use of colours and shapes alongside the bleached brows and partially blocked out lips make this look very daring, slightly alien and unapproachable, linking well to a different approach on a tribal theme and drifting towards a warrior character. I opted to add a splash of colour to the centre of the lips in the style of war paint, to further compliment the tribal warrior theme.

When applying this makeup design, I began by blocking out my eyebrows using spirit gum. However, I did not flatten the eyebrow hairs and simply brushed the spirit gum through as I wanted my eyebrows to look bleached rather that non-existent! After the spirit gum had dried, I swept a small amount of translucent powder over my eyebrows before applying D32 to help add warmth and conceal dark tones in the brows. I powdered again then applied a concealer shade that matched my skin, blending out the edges for a more realistic looking coverage. I then mixed together two shades of Mac Face and Body to create a base slightly paler than my natural skin tone, so the eye makeup would really pop. Once the base was applied, I used my Mac Pro concealer palette to conceal under my eyes and used the darkest shade to create a subtle contour on my cheekbones. I set with powder.

To create the eye makeup design, I began by mapping out a rough shape along the sides of my nose and over my eyebrows using Ben Nye Glam Shadow in the shade Aubergine. I then blended this shade along with Black Brown to add depth. I used a clean fluffy brush to blend the edges and soften. I then used what was left on my concealer brush to conceal my lips before using my finger to simply smear a lip shade down the centre of my lips.

I did not opt o apply any further eye makeup as I not only wanted the makeup to look raw and tribal but I wanted the makeup to also communicate the natural aspects of tribal Africa, as colours worn  on the face are used to communicate status and religion rather than to enhance the natural facial features. 

After creating this look, I decided it was not the look for my character. I think the shape of the lip did not transfer well to the face and the shade was not vibrant enough to compliment my headdress. However, I like the appearance of fresh and glowing skin created by using Mac Face and Body and would also like to experiment with making the eye makeup a bit more elaborate. I think the shapes created around the eye are too structured (maybe too square?) so I would like to soften the shape. 

Look 2

This makeup look was partially inspired by the previous makeup look I designed above. I decided to incorporate the same shape along the sides of the nose and around they eye, but make it more elaborate. As I am using brown feathers with orange tips to feature on my mask/headdress, I decided to integrate orange into the makeup, while till keeping that tribal feel. So I decided to use a bright orange tone under the eye and bring it down onto the cheek- a daring and vivid style.

I kept the rest of the makeup fairly simply, adding to the warrior of nature vibe by highlighting down the centre of the nose and cupids bow heavily. I feel that the gold sheen from the vanilla pigment and the orange tones on the eye added a sense of heat, representative of Africa.

Once again, I used Mac Face and Body as a base makeup due to its light coverage with a dewy look. I feel a full coverage makeup base is not representative of a natural tribal warrior and think the dewy skin can resemble a glow caused from the heat and fighting. It keeps the overall look natural. Once I used A concealer to hidE any dark circle and blemishes, I set the base with translucent powder.

I then blended the bright orange shade from My Mandy Gold Le Maquillage palette under my eyes, adding it more liberally in the centre and blending outwards and downwards. I used my finger to further blend the product for an even blend. I then used brown shades from my Ben Nye Glam Shadow palette to shade down the sides of my nose, into my eyebrow and onto my top lid.

To finish the look, I simply used my finger to apply Vanilla pigment elaborately on the bridge of my nose and on my cupids bow. 

I love the use of orange and brown tones used together in this look! I think the makeup looks hot and fierce. It is definitely more of what I am looking to achieve in my final design. I think the makeup look is raw and natural, while the orange is fierce, representative of the warrior theme. I think the shape created on the eyes and down the nose is quite animalistic, channeling horns or antlers, which I think portrays the tribal theme well. I am going to design more makeup looks incorporating brown and orange tones...

I decided to apply the makeup design I created on my model, as I know the use of highlighting and bright orange shades would appear different on her darker skin tone and eyes. I used Makeup Forever cream foundation in Caramel P4 alongside a mix of Mac Face and Body in shades C3 and N5 to create a perfect base that matched her skin tone. I lightly powdered her skin to set the foundation using Mac Prep+Prime loose powder and applied the eye makeup and highlight products. I decided to add a more aggressive and tribal fell to the makeup that also had a high fashion feel by using a small amount of spirit gum to brush my models eyebrows upwards. As her eyebrows were quite long and black, a tribal feel was created.

Although I am pleased with the shape of the brows ad the use of orange in the makeup, I can see that there is still something missing. I think the use of heavy highlighting in certain areas elongated my models face unlike when practised on myself. I will adapt on this look by maybe adding a deep lip colour to match my models hair? Or completely start again! 

Look 3
This look was inspired by my favourite makeup artist, Pat McGrath. I saw an image of an eye makeup she had created for Margiela A/W 15 which was not only highly creative but the design looked as if it could have been influenced by tribal themes due to the use of bold black markings and eagle wing shape. As I wanted to incorporate a bright orange tone into the makeup, I decided to incorporate into the eye makeup to make the design my own...

My inspiration- Fierce eye makeup by Pat McGrath

I created the shape for this eye makeup by firstly drawing the shape onto a clear pliable sheet. I then cut the shape out and placed the stencil under my eye and secured it in place with surgical tape. On my first attempt at filling in the stencil I had created, I used black Mist FX body paint. I gently pressed the product over the stencil with a small brush. However, when I removed the stencil, the body paint had bled outside the edges... It's consistency was too runny. I removed the makeup and started again and used Mac Blacktrack to fill in the stencil, as it has a much thicker consistency and dries quickly. Although it is not as black as the body paint, I had much better results! Nevertheless, problems occurred when I attempted to blend the Blacktrack into the orange makeup- Blacktrck does not blend easily! To overcome this, I used a small amount of black Supracolor to blend the black and orange tones together. The orange product is a foundation from the Mandy Gold Le Maquillage palette.

I absolutely love this eye makeup I created (although it is nowhere near as good as Pat McGrath's!) But I do think I did pretty well to create quite a neat shape and blend of colours. I would complete this look by applying a sheer foundation, such as Mac Face and Body and a colourless lip, highlighted at the cupids bow. I would really like to use this in my final design as I think it has a real tribal feel, however, I am wary of running out of time...