Bibliography

1. Elizabethan-Era - (Elizabeth In Colours: Gold): http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/color-gold.htm
2. Elizabethan-Era - (Elizabeth In Colour: White): http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/color-white.htm
3. Elizabethan-Era - (Elizabeth In Colour: Red): http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/color-red.htm
4. Wikipedia - (Pat McGrath Research): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pat_McGrath
5. Models - (Pat McGrath Research): http://models.com/people/pat-mcgrath
6. McQueen & I (2011)
7. NYMAG - (Alexander McQueen Research): http://nymag.com/thecut/2015/04/remembering-alexander-mcqueens-1996-dante-show.html
8. Wikipedia - (Alexander McQueen Research): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_McQueen
9. Wikipedia - (Lettice Knollys): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lettice_Knollys
10. Tudor Place - (Lettice Knollys): http://www.tudorplace.com.ar/Bios/LetticeKnollys.htm
11. All Things Robert Dudley - (Lettice Knollys): https://allthingsrobertdudley.wordpress.com/category/lettice-knollys/
12. The Virgin Queen (2005)
13. Tommy Beauty Pro - (Colour Theory): https://tommybeautypro.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/makeup-101-colour-theory-make-up-artistry/
14. Wikipedia - (Baroque Music): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque_music
15. Baroque - (Baroque Music): http://www.baroque.org/baroque/whatis#after
16. Wikipedia - (Baroque Music): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque_music
17. Wikipedia - (Contemporary Royalty): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baroque
18. Art Of Manliness - (Contemporary Royalty): http://www.artofmanliness.com/2010/10/18/the-basics-of-art-the-baroque-period/
19. Wikipedia - (Elizabeth In Her Portraits): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armada_Portrait
20. Andrew Graham-Dixon - (Elizabeth In Her Portraits): http://www.andrewgrahamdixon.com/archive/readArticle/245
21. Making Up The Renaissance - (Contemporary And Elizabethan Beauty Methods): https://sites.eca.ed.ac.uk/renaissancecosmetics/
22. Six Wives - (Tudor Cosmetics And Dangers): http://www.sixwives.info/tudor-make-up.htm
23. Elizabeth (1998)

Evaluation

    On both mine and my partners timed assessment days we was both rather prepared in terms of what worked for us in our designs and what didn’t, as we had previous worked together and practiced each look numerous of times. We was also always in contact with each other, so if one of us had an issue with anything we could work out a solution or make sure the other person had a clear understanding on what they had to achieve in the set time on the day.

    When developing my research I used the tutorial lessons we had as a starting point for me to go research more and more into designers, brands, and trends that had been inspired by the Elizabethan beauty ideal. I also used took it upon myself to find other resources to find out information, such as films, TV shows and books to help strengthen my research folder for this brief which I found very helpful to see directors interpretations of the Elizabethan era instead of just looking at designers and artists for inspiration.

   I really have enjoyed working on this brief of ‘The New Elizabethans’ and thought it was such a good starting point for our first project at university. It has made me think about a different era of make-up I may not have ever delved into, whilst it has also taught me how important the Elizabethan era was for make-up an cosmetics as a whole. Also the introduction of working with partners and working to their brief instead of your own, I think is such a good idea as in real life in the working environment you won’t always be working to your own brief and has taught me how to deal with working with clients and how to work around problems that may come up whilst working.

Make-Up Assessment: Being The Designer & Peer Review

    This is my final make-up design that I gave to my partner to execute for me for this assessment, for my design I wanted a flawless base with contour and highlight to represent the modern trend in this current day and age, but to get that Elizabethan touch to my design I decided to 'bleach' my eyebrows and make my eyelashes white paired with a red lip which has modern and Elizabethan influences. As for the white streaky hand prints down my face and body, I put this into my design because I wanted to show how Elizabethans might have applied their white base and how it might have been streaky on their faces as well, I also did this technique because I wanted it to mimic the idea of a ruff which seeing all the white lines down my neck and chest I felt this did create the illusion of one.
      I thought Annabel did a pretty good job with my design, my favourite aspects of my design that she recreated on me is the white streaks down my face, neck, and chest along with the overall highlight and contouring of the face. These was my favourite elements of her work because I wanted them to be very intense to contract against the white face and body paint that would of been applied afterwards, and I felt she captured my vision in them elements.

    However I felt like a few things could of been improved, such as the base could of been a lot less full coverage and mask like, as I did request a more natural yet perfected face. I also felt like she could of cleaned up around the brows as they did turn out very messy looking, and also made the eyelashes a lot more opaque.

    I would say that both me and my partner was well prepared in terms of what we was doing when it came to our make-up assessment as we did practice our looks a few times and I made myself clear on what I wanted from her and how I wanted her to execute my design. We also understood each others wants from this assessment and was both accessible to each other if we needed to speak to the other about a concern we may of had.

Make-Up Assessment: Being the Make-Up Artist

    When I started to meet up with Annabel and discussing our final make-up designs I thought the design was quite simple and not as challenging as I would of liked it, yet I was still happy to execute her design for her! For her design she requested me to make her face pale/white, white eyebrows, sublet contour and gold and nude ombre lips to complete the look. When explaining her look more she went on to say she wanted her design to look very stern and serious, which I got once practicing her design I understood why she put certain things into her design to create this look. After completing Annabel's design she told me she was happy with how I executed her look which boosted my confidence about the look a lot more, unfortunately the camera blew out the make-up and make it a lot less intense as it was in real life but I am happy with the overall look and pleased with my own application and that it captured her vision.

Partners Trial Make-Up

    Thursday I met up with my partner and practiced her final make-up design in preparation for our timed assessments for the next two weeks. My partner requested for me to create a smoky eye that blew out onto the sides of her face, complemented with pale matte skin and a gold ombre lip. 

    After practicing her look I feel 100x better about the assessments to come as I know what I'm doing and how to apply the products in the specific way she wanted them, I also know how to manage my time and what I can shortcut that'll still create the same effect she wants but in a less amount of time as we have to fit in clean up and shooting into the 2 hour assessment. Overall, I'm very happy with how I executed her look and I look forward to getting these timed assessments done and out the way!

Design Influences: No Eyebrows

    In my final design after practicing my final design I decided that I didn't like the idea of having strong full brows as I felt like it made the design too contemporary which isn't what I was after for this project, so this is when I came up with the idea of switching my original idea around to no eyebrows. I'd seen a lot of inspiration for no eyebrows in previous years before this project but never had gotten the chance to use them, but here are some of my favourite fashion images that have included bleached brows or had them blocked out all together.
    I really do enjoy this trend, maybe not in an everyday situation but from a fashion point of view I do really love the way it looks! I feel like it gives a very stern look to the design without even trying to come across that way and could transform any look to have this vibe at the end. Another reason for me changing my mind is because I really wanted an element of my design to embody the Elizabethan beauty ideal and what first came to mind was to have bleached eyebrows. I also like the idea of elongating the forehead which is another important beauty ideal Elizabethans would of followed.

Design Influences: Streaky Make-Up

    These are some of the images that have inspired me for elements of my designs, and as you can see I loved the idea of having the streaky in my make-up designs. I was drawn to this idea as I thought it would be somewhat different to what other people might have designed, but also I liked my concept behind it of Elizabethans applying their base with their hands so naturally it would create these streaks on their face and neck. Another idea I had behind this is as my chosen new Elizabethan is Lettice Knollys, she was known for being very sneaky, mischievous and scandals with men so my idea of the streaky make-up stems from her hiding from everyone else and trying to show people something that she's not. For colour choices I decided to go with white for the reason that white shows shows innocents and purity which not only links in with a the historical Elizabethan make-up, but also would show the message that Lettice would want to project to people as an outside image to hide from that fact that she isn't very innocent or pure at all.

Design Influences: Dewy Skin

    In my final design I wanted to have a very contemporary trend at the moment at that is dewy skin or strobing, which is where you scrap the heavy contouring and focus on fresh skin and intense highlighter on the high points of the face. These places are the cheekbones, brow bone, above the arch of the brow, cupids bow, middle of the forehead, chin, tip of the nose, and lastly the bridge of the nose finished off with a finish spray to help settle the powders and blend the highlighter into your skin even more.
    Why did I choose strobing as my contemporary trend in my final design? Because I personally really love highlighted skin and I also wanted an element of my personal style in my design too as well as it meeting with the current trends going around in the make-up world. I also chose to have highlighted skin as I thought it would create a pretty contrast between the white painted streaks down my face and chest, as a different twist on an Elizabethan make-up.

Partner Practiced My Design On Me

    From todays lesson me and my partner go together and sat and practiced both our looks on each other to prepare ourselves for our timed assessments and this is my design with the few different changes after my own trial. As you'll be able to see from my previous post I chose to change a few things from my original design, such as making the eyebrows and eyelashes white and even though those was the only main changes it has really bought it from a very modern editorial look to a more contemporary Elizabethan look.
    As for how my partner performed when creating my look, I was very happy with how she executed certain aspects of my look however the only thing I could change is how heavy she went with my base as I wanted it to look fresh and dewy. I was mostly worried on how she'd create the streaks down my face, neck and chest but after she done it I knew I had nothing to worry about as she really captured my vision for it.

Trial Of My Chosen Design

As I had chosen my final contemporary Elizabethan make-up look, I decided to execute the look on myself to see how my partner would recreate this on me during our times assessment. To start off I perfected my base with my usual foundation and concealer, then contoured and highlighted but added extra shine to the cheekbones to make the look even more contemporary. I then filled in my brows extra strong to follow with the strong brow trend going on at the moment, but decided against mascara to put an editorial feel to this look and I finished off my base with a bold red lip with was a classic in the Elizabethan era. Now for the main focus of the look, the white hand stripes going down the face and neck which represented the idea of an Elizabethan ruff. To create this I decided to mix Charles Fox Super and Aqua Colour and painted it on both my hands and dragged it down my face and neck and built up the colour to my desired intensity and streaky-ness.

    I'm very happy with how this turned out, however I feel like the overall design is quite plain, to change it up I was thinking of 'bleaching' my eyebrows and applying white mascara to my eyes to lean this look a bit more onto the Elizabethan side as at the moment like I said the look is a bit too contemporary and plain for my liking.

Elizabeth In Colours: Gold

    Gold is associated with Royalty and the Nobles, meaning only people of high status could wear or be associated with the colour gold and people who were allowed to wear gold during the Elizabethan era, as decreed by the English Sumptuary Laws were Duchesses, Marquises, and Countesses. The symbolic meaning of the colour was for divinity, majesty, and wealth which is another reason why wealthy people was associated with the colour gold, because they was the only people that could afford to own it or wear it. Fun fact about gold, is that it was often used for high Holy Days and festival days - the seasons of Christmas and easter.

Elizabeth In Colours: White

    The Pristine white colour was difficult and expensive to produce and therefore wornby the wealthy. Only those who could keep their clothes clean, meaning they had servants, would wear the pristine white colour. The symbolic meaning of the colour white was purity and virtue, which is why Queen Elizabeth was famously pictured in a white gown conveying a visual image of the 'Virgin Queen'. Like gold, white also has a Biblical meaning for holiness and is the Christian colour for all high Holy Days and festival days of the Church  Year, especially the seasons of Christmas and Easter. The colour white is also used for baptism, marriage, ordination, and dedications which links back to white being associated with purity and virtue. The people who were allowed to wear the colour white during the Elizabethan era, as decreed by the English Sumptuary Laws, were lower and upper classes.

Elizabeth In Colours: Red

    The colour and material used in Elizabethan clothing was extremely important. People who could wear the colour red was dictated by Elizabethan law, these were called the Sumptuary Laws. The colours of Elizabethan clothes, including the colour red, provided information about the status of the man or women wearing them. This was not just directed by the wealth of the person, it also reflected their social standing. The meaning of colours during the Elizabethan era represented many aspects of their life - the social, religious, biblical and Christian symbolism was reflected on the colour red.

    The symbolic meaning of the colour red was of fire and associated with power and importance. Red is also strongly associated with the 'Redcoats', used for the British army uniforms in the later English history. Another meaning of red, is meant to describe the clothing of valiant men, meaning that they're strong and courageous or determined.   

Face Chart #6

My final design I wanted to go for something dark and dramatic, linking in with my third design in the way of her character being more dark but in an obvious way instead of it being more subtle. I created a black smokey eye with the idea of the gold still on the eyes and cheek bones and a stronger contour compared to most of my designs. This design is one of the strongest designs in the sense of her eyes being dark, and her features being stronger compared to the other designs, however it is the most modern design I have done without much reference to the Elizabethan era.

Face Chart #5

This design I wanted to go back to the gold concept about Lettice craving fame and to be in Elizabeths shoes, so I used the same technique of creating the tear drops of gold from both eyes, mouth and incorporating it onto the cheeks so the face becomes an overall shade of gold. I like this design as I think it has a very editorial feel compared to a traditional Elizabethan make-up that we've researched before.

Face Chart #4 - Final Design!

For my forth design I wanted to use the dragging method again but in a different way so I thought about adding the paint down the face as well as the neck. This idea came to mind as i wondered how the Elizabethans would of applied their make-up and it must of been streaky and patchy so this dramatic example would of gotten across of that inspiration. I also used the same idea of the red lips in a reference to being a 'whore' and promiscuous and the strong brows that add that modern touch, but bold brows are meant to make you seem more youthful and innocent which is something that Lettice craved.

Face Chart #3

For my third design I wanted to keep things very neutral, but sunken in to create a dark, mysterious vibe about her without using dark colours in a more obvious approach which I think summed up Lettice perfectly, as it really reminded me of something that Lettice would of actually worn make-up wise. For the lips I went for a bitten effect as during Elizabethans reign to create that so desired pinkish colour to the lips people would of using berries or bitten their lips, so I thought having an ombre/bitten effect on the lip fitting this make-up well. To make this look a lot more contemporary I decided to make the brows much stronger than they would of had them to add a more modern twist on a pretty Elizabethan look.

Face Chart #2

For this face chart I wanted to make to reference to the Elizabethan ruff, but in a different interpretation by using white body paint with my hands and dragging down from the jaw line onto the neck. I wanted to create the illusion of a ruff as in most of Lettice's portraits she is wearing a ruff but also in general Elizabethan portraits the sitters would be wearing a ruff. For the eyes, I wanted to show jealousy as this emotion came to mind quite a lot when researching Lettice, so I decided to have a green haze of shadow around the eyes with slight definition by using darker green shades round the inner and outer corner of the eyes. Looking back at this design I'm not 100% sure about the green eye make-up and had a thought of switching out the green to the make-up in my third face chart, and I thought that would complement the bold white ruff more.

Face Chart #1

My first face chart I was inspired by the classic Elizabethan red lip, but added a modern twist by creating tear drops of gold going down onto the lid and mirroring it on the bottom lid. I created this as Lettice is known for being second best in the sense that she only got Dudley because the Queen was finished with him, and after she was banished from the courts she still tried to live up to her status, I also chose to use the gold as it symbolises how fame hungry she really is and it's all she really wants to see for herself. For the red lips, it was a reference towards the Elizabethans but it also relates to the devil and it has connotations of being linked to stereotypes of being promiscuous, as in her going off with Dudley and betraying the Queen.

Pat McGrath Research

    Pat McGrath (born 1970) is a British make-up artist and has been called the most influential make-up artist in the world by Vogue magazine. McGrath credits her mother for her love for fashion and make-up, saying that she'd comment on clothes as they watched classic movies together. She's also had no training in fashion or make-up, only having completed an art foundation course at a Northampton college. McGrath once said about her career; "I really love being a make-up artist. It never gets mundane or predictable and every shoot and show is different."
    McGrath's career breakthrough came while working with Edward Enninful in the early 1990s, when her innovative use of colour "brilliantly solved the world's ennui with grunge". She has worked along side designers such as Prada, Miu Miu, Dolce and Gabbana, and John Galliano. As a make-up artist, McGrath is known for her wide range, according to Edward Enninful, her work spans from "the highest couture or club kids". She's also known for her inventive use of materials, her most creative make-up is handmade, and works mainly with fingers instead of brushes. In an interview with Vogue UK during London Fashion Week, McGrath explained her creative process, saying; "I'm influenced a lot by the fabrics that I see, the colours that are in the collections and the girls faces. It's always a challenge but that's the key - to make it different every time."

Designer Inspiration: Alexander McQueen

 Alexander McQueen Fall '15

One of my favourite Elizabethan inspired looks which I think is pretty historical in my opinion. I love the use of the pale skin with the light eyebrows and eyelashes and the use of a warm eyeshadow to really contrast between the white eye lashes. The lips also drew me in to these images as compared to the whole look the lips stuck out to me the most as they're so different to the rest of the face as even though they stick with the historical Elizabethan theme they're rather glossy compared to the matte complexion.
"The finished look really draws attention to the face and enhances each girl's natural, individual beauty."

Alexander McQueen Spring '10

Another famous look from McQueen is from his Spring/Summer show of 2010. The whole look isn't very obvious to be Elizabethan, the look is very alien and animal like, but I loved the use of no eyebrows and weird element to the look which is what I think of when I think of the Elizabethans would, weird. I just think this take is a very extreme interpretation of the Elizabethan beauty ideal, however I still wanted to include this look to show how modern and extreme people have taken their inspiration.

Alexander McQueen Fall '09

Like the pervious design, it is yet again another extreme interpretation of the Elizabethan look but unlike the pervious one there is more connotations of Elizabethan make-up. The use of no eyebrows, pale skin, and red lips, although they're extremely overdrawn to me it still fits into the category of Elizabethan.

Alexander McQueen Research / McQueen & I

    I may have watched this documentary many times over but it never gets old to watch how one of my favourite designers developed himself as the rebel king of fashion and created brilliant, offensive, beautiful and outrageous creations while it still explains how it all came to a tragic, savage end yet he will still live on as one of the greatest British designers in history. One of my favourite quotes from this documentary I believe really sums up the rawness and just how cutthroat the whole fashion industry can be in a few simple words; "This is a fable of fashion, a world that discards it's past in an instant and drives its creators relentlessly in search of the next best thing".
    The documentary opens up with McQueen and former friends talking and describing the environment they grew up in their late teens and early twenties in East London, they described the club environment as "drug induced acid house" then went on to explain how everyone would dressed up in a very fetish/drag style to go to these clubs and they all took inspiration for their outfits from Westwood and Galliano. This is probably some of the earliest fashion influences that McQueen would go on to use in his early shows, however it was a world away from his first day job as a tailor at Savile Row. A few years later McQueen then went to Central Saint Martians to look for work as a pattern cutter and tutor but was turned down due to him being the same age as the students, he then went back a second tine with samples of his tailoring and was offered a place that same day and was now an MA student of fashion. In 1992 the annual graduation fashion show came around and this is where McQueens designs would catch the eye of fashion stylist Isabella Blow who then went to describe he clothes as; "They moved in a way I've never seen...It's about sabotage and tradition", Isabella bought all of his collection and launched his name onto the fashion circuit and marketed him to the press as 'Alexander McQueen' instead of his full name.

    After McQueen then moved into housing that also housed other new designers and used his social services money to fund for his fabrics and materials to create most of his early collections, and at just aged 24 he staged his first fashion shows where he hired models that where cheap but full of attitude. 

"It was like a mixture of misfits. People from Soho and Saint Martians was gate crashing high fashion".

    In a lot of his early shows McQueen developed a reputation of controversy and shock value, they showed a lot of deep emotion and an element of violence in them. They was kind of electric, even if you didn't like it you couldn't dismiss it and there was a rawness that people needed at the time and made people sit on the edge of their seats waiting to see what was next. However people wasn't prepared for the collection he put down the runway in 1995 called "Highland Rape". This collection was probably one of his most controversial collections as it bought up connotations of misogyny, sexual violence, and how McQueen perceived women. 

"Normally a fashion show is someone on a pedestal being lifted up, and suddenly here we are with someone that's two foot away from you that looks like they've been attacked and he's sort of saying "and what the fuck are you going to do about this?""

    McQueen has been credited with bringing drama and extravagance to the catwalk. He created a new twist to his shows which often shocked and silenced his audiences, as well as the silhouettes he created have an element of fantasy and rebellion of fashion, which was evident in his 1996 show in the dilapidated Christ Church in East London. Models walked to the soundtrack of organ music and gunfire, Dante was a commentary on war and religion and a few designs featured photographic prints from the Vietnam War, the depicting Christ on the cross, and headdresses of metal thorns and horns. To me this was a turning point in McQueen's career as he took all that aggression from his early shows and turned it into something so full of tragedy, sadness, and beauty. 

    After just 8 collections, Givenchy contacted McQueen and offered him the title of head designer to help bring Haute Couture back into the 21st century. Sadly his first collection was a failure, yet for his second collection with Givenchy he bought back the old silhouette and reinvented it to make it more modern and trendy, this same year one of McQueens best runway shows of Spring/Summer 1999 where a single model was on the runway being rotated while two robotic guns spray painted the dress with black and yellow paint. McQueen then left Givenchy in 2001 and signed a deal with their rivals Gucci. 

    When McQueen was designing for his own line, you could see that he'd adapted from that French influence as his silhouettes had gone from being aggressive to much softer images of women. By 2000 he'd created close to 30 collections in 3 years while his own brand went global, as well as designing collections for himself and Gucci he also was designing menswear, trainers, and a jeans line etc.
    Spring/Summer 2010 was one of McQueens final shows before his death, and fashion critics said "McQueen had never been better". The collection was a mix of jungle and animals prints, such as python and butterfly with rainforest colours like khaki green and brown tones mixed with blues and blurred prints. The silhouettes was also beautifully created with built up hips and shoulders with nipped in waists and short hemlines, with shoes in the new McQueen armadillo style. 

    Sadly, on the eve of his mothers death McQueen took an overdose of cocaine and sleeping pills then hung himself in his wardrobe ending his own life on February 11th 2010. On 17 February 2010, Westminster Coroner's Court was told that a post-mortem examination found that McQueen's death was due to asphyxiation and hanging.  On 28 April 2010, McQueen's death was officially recorded as suicide. McQueen, who had been diagnosed with mixed anxiety and depression, took an overdose prior to hanging himself. He had taken drug overdoses in May and July 2009. Prior to hanging himself with his "favourite brown belt", the inquest recorded that he had slashed his wrists with a ceremonial dagger and a meat cleaver. Coroner Dr Paul Knapman reported finding "a significant level of cocaine, sleeping pills, and tranquillizers in the blood samples taken after the designer's death."  
    Right before McQueen's death, he had an eighty percent finished Autumn/Winter collection, 16 pieces, presented during Paris Fashion Week. Editors have said that the show was "hard to watch" because it showed how McQueen was obsessed with the afterlife. The clothes had a medieval and religious look, with basic colours such as red, gold and silver with detailed embroidery. Each model was given accessories to show his love for theatrical imagery; "each piece is unique, as was he" said McQueen's fashion house.
    In tribute to McQueen, musician and friend Lady Gaga performed an acoustic, jazz version of her single "Telephone" at the 2010 Brit awards. Other artists also commentated on his death including Kanye West, Courtney Love, and Katy Perry. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York also hosted an exhibition of McQueen's work in 2011 titled 'Savage Beauty'. The exhibition's elaborate staging includes unique architectural finishes and soundtracks for each room, also due to the popularity of the exhibition it then became a traveling exhibition and appeared in London's Victoria & Albert Museum between 14th March - 19th July 2015.

"Birds have movement, they have freedom they're wild and they don't have to be responsible to their ability to fly and I think he makes clothes fly." - Isabella Blow on 'what is Alexander McQueen?'

Historical Elizabethan Make-Up

    In one of our recent seminars we was told to recreate a historical Elizabethan make-up in a few simple steps! We also learnt that we could use our Charles Fox Super Colour palette for mascara, brows and pretty much anywhere on the face and body, which came in handy for todays lesson as we had to create white eyelashes and brows to complete todays look.
 
Step 1:

Prime, apply foundation and powder using Illamasqua Skin Base in the shade 01 until your face has an even pale white finish.

Step 2:

Using Charles Fox Super Colour palette and a mascara wand, pick up some of the white body paint onto the brush and brush though the brows and eyelashes until they're completely white.

Step 3:

Next using the Charles Fox blush palette apply a pink or red blush to the apple of the cheek in a circular motion until you have your desired intensity and shape.

Step 4:

Lastly, using the Charles Fox lip palette apply a red lipstick to your mouth trying to not be too tidy with the shape as Elizabethans wouldn't have brushes to apply a crisp lip line so keep that in mind when you recreate this for yourself.

Basic Eye & Lip Application

    In Thursdays practical lesson we learned about basic eye shapes and how to contour the eyes by using make-up, I was unable to attend this lesson, so in my spare time I practiced the same techniques that was used in the lesson on myself.
    I started off by analysing my own eyes to figure out what eye shape I had and came to the conclusion that my eyes was fairly even, then took my Lorac Pro palette and used two neutral shades on a fluffy blending brush to apply it to my crease. To apply the shadow I looked forward to find my crease, which is the natural crease where your eyeball and eye socket meet and placed my brush in that crease and slightly higher to create the illusion of a higher, rounded eye shape. I then used wind screen wiper motions from outer to the middle of the eye and continued until my eyeshadow was blended and at my desired opacity and added a highlight shade onto my lid and brow bone to make those areas of my eye pop out from the shadow we created.

The next step was to perfect the lips. Our lecturer gave us a unique technique of applying lipstick to the models lips, is to take an angled brush and turn it on it side then start at the top of the lip and drag down to the corner of the lip. And when it comes to the bottom lip, start from the corners and drag till you reach the middle then repeat on the opposite side then fill in lip.

My New Elizabethan - Lettice Knollys

    Lettice Knolly, Countess of Essex and Countess of Leicester, was an English noblewomen. After her marriage to Elizabeth 1's favourite, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, she incurred the Queen's unrelenting displeasure.

    Lettice came to Court as a maid of honour at the start of Elizabeth’s reign and soon established herself as a girl of spirit, beauty, and ambition. She married, in 1561, Walter Devereux, Viscount Hereford, who was created Earl of Essex in 1572. By him she had Penelope, Dorothy, Robert, Walter, and Francis. In the summer of 1575, on progress with the Queen, Edward Arden, sheriff of Warwickshire, refused to wear Leicester’s livery for the festivities at Kenilworth because he had “private access to the Countess of Essex.” According to one account of the incident, Arden called Leicester a “whoremaster”. The anonymous 1584 pamphlet known as Leicester’s Commonwealth claimed that Lady Essex was pregnant by Leicester immediately before her husband’s return from Ireland and that she had an abortion.

    When Lettice was at Court in Jul, 1579, with a new wardrobe that rivalled the Queen’s. When her marriage to Leicester became known, the Queen is said to have boxed her ears and banished her, saying that as but one sun lighted the sky so she would have but one Queen of England. Away from Court, Lettice went out of her way to be mistaken for her royal cousin, riding through the streets of London in a carriage with her ladies in coaches behind her, and so forth. She planned to marry her daughter Dorothy to the King of Scotland. When the Queen heard of it, according to another Spaniard, Mendoza, she swore she would “sooner the Scots King lost his crown” than be married to the daughter of a “she-wolf.” She also said that if she could find no other way to check Lady Leicester’s ambition she would proclaim her all over Christendom as the whore she was and prove Leicester a cuckold.

My Halloween Make-Up!

    Halloween is finally here so it's time to get spooky! I've always celebrated Halloween but never experimented with special effects before so this was very new to me but I was so proud of my end result and can't wait for next year to roll around! To create this gory slit neck effect I used toilet paper and liquid latex and layered it up till I got my desired shape and size and waited for it to dry. I then carefully started to cut away at the layers of latex and toilet paper and avoiding actually cutting my own skin, and pulling and tore away extra tissue paper to create the uneven tore effect until I was happy with my desired wound. I then painted in the blood by using different shades if red and also black around the edges of the wound to add depth and create a dry/old blood effect and just kept adding colour until I was happy with how it looked! I so wish I had some fake blood to finish off the look and took it to a whole new level, but for this end result I was still so proud of it considering it was my first go at special effects make-up and I plan to do so much more this coming year!

Sugar Skull Make-Up!

    Last Thursdays make-up lesson we created a day of the dead inspired look! I was super excited for as I love the history around day of the dead festival, as it's a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and is acknowledged around the world in other cultures. The holiday focuses on gathering family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died, and help support their spiritual journey.
    I started off by applying a white base to my model, I wanted to stay with a more traditional approach to my look than try and make it modern and then I got started with creating the eye sockets, which I drew large circles around the eyes and over the eyebrows and filled them in with a dark blue colour from the Super Colour palette from Charles Fox. I then used an orange shade from the same palette to create some contrast and drew on scallops around each socket then outlined in-between the socket and the scallops with a light blue shade just to tidy up my design, and then went and added a small decorative dots in each scallop to finish off the eyes. Sugar skulls are all about decorating the face, so the more little details you can fit in the better your sugar skull will look! I then started to focused on the lips, which started off with me using the black from the same Super Colour palette and carefully drew lines extending from the corners of the mouth then creating teeth lines over these extended lines and over the mouth, and to add further definition I added shading on the inside of the lip to create a bitten/spooky effect to my sugar skull. And finally I then went and added some further details like the nose, spiderweb and swirls around the face, again trying to get as much detail and design work into my sugar skull as possible.
    Looking back at my final design, I realise that I could have changed things up slightly to improve the overall look of my outcome as I feel like I could of done things differently. For example, the spiderweb on the forehead I feel looking back at it now that I could of made it look a lot more clean and sharper than what it ended up looking, as it looks very out of place like it wasn't meant to be there. Also the shape of the nose is another area of the make-up that I'm not too happy with, I feel like I could of made it more atomically correct but instead it looks more cartoonish. However there are some areas of this make-up look I do like! Like the eyes, out of the whole make-up look the eyes are the area I'm most proud of as I felt my line work was pretty good for some of first times in trying to do something fiddly, and also my symmetry work I felt for my first time in trying to achieve something like this was pretty good as well!

Different Ways Of Applying A White Base

    Today I decided that I wanted to try playing with my some of my white bases in my kit and see how I could apply them, to get some inspiration for my final designs for this project and these are my end results working with different techniques.
    I started applying my Charles Fox Aqua Colour in white by using my hands and dragging the colour down and around my face and my neck like the second and third image above. This effect is probably my favourite out of all four of my examples as I think it really embodies how the Elizabethans would of applied their base, and the way it just falls down the face adds a completely different mood to the Elizabethan make-up, also a mysterious or hidden vibe, just like the streaks down the neck, I think it gives the illusion of a ruff around the neck.
    My other examples includes stippling the product onto the face, and applying the white base with my hands but in a rough, messy effect which ended up creating some areas thicker than other areas on the face which I ended up really liking as it created an exaggerated version of how the Elizabethans would of applied their base. The same kind of effect was kind of created with the forth image where I stippled the product onto the face, which ended up looking like the base was wearing off the face which I also enjoyed the effect of. Overall I much prefer the third and second image as it has more of a rough texture, and also embodies the techniques the Elizabethans would have used which I look forward to using some of these techniques in my final designs.

Contouring And Highlighting

    Contouring and highlighting, one of the biggest beauty tricks around at the moment from subtle and almost nothing on the skin, to dramatic Kim Kardashian hardcore contouring and 'baking' highlights, you name it, it's probably been done in the highlighting and contouring world! But as you'll be able to see from my images above, we went very natural with our contour, highlight and blush which is perfect for our beauty portion of this project.
    I started by applying the foundation to my models skin but not powdering, as we started to contour with cream products this'll help it apply much smoother to the skin and once I was done I then went and powdered the whole face to stop creasing. I then enhanced the shadow we created and added a small touch of bronzer and blended upwards into the small touch of pink blush I applied just above the contour and slightly onto the apple of the cheek, and then moved onto highlight. For highlight I used my glam glow palette and used the highlighter that leaned more on the chrome side, then took a small fluffy brush and dusted a small amount on the very tops of the cheekbones, again blending into the blush very slightly.
    I was very pleased with my contouring and highlighting I did in this lesson and thought when I get round to shooting my beauty images, this sublet contour will really enhance shadows and light on camera making the models skin glow and creating an overall more pleasing image. I also can't wait to try out some of these techniques on my male model for my final beauty images!

My First Make-Up Look At Uni!

    On Thursdays lesson with Kat we had to use our monochromatic face chart and recreate it on someones face! I was super excited for this lesson as this was the first time I'd created a look and done a full face of make-up on someone since being at uni, it was amazing to see your own face chart to finally be seen on someones face and to overall have fun while creating it.
    I started off by creating a very pale complexion to my model using a mixture of her normal skin tone colours and the Illamasqua white as I didn't want her to be pure white, I just wanted to create the illusion of a very pale face as I was using warm orange tones and I thought having a pale face would help my look standout a lot more than if I kept her national skin tone which is yellow based and rather tanned.
    I then moved onto the eyes, I wanted to create a sunken in effect to the eyes and to create this I used the Charles Fox bright eyeshadow palette and the different tones of orange, yellow and a burnt orange red. Starting with one of the orange shades I packed this onto the lid and slightly blended up into the crease to create a base to work my eyeshadows around, I then started to build deeper shades of orange into the crease creating definition to the eye and start to create that sunken in, blown out effect. Next I decided to go in with the orange red colour and added this into the crease, again creating more depth the moved to the inner corner of the eye up near the brow bone and started to flick shadow up into the brow to create a blown out effect. After I had got my desired opacity I wanted to make this look even more warm so I took the yellow shade in the same palette and added this around the edges of the look which also helped me blend out the eyeshadow even more and the eyeshadow was complete!
    Using the same Charles Fox bright eyeshadow palette I started to contour the face, by using the orange and yellow shades in this palette to match the eyes. I took my Zoeva small buffing brush and started to contour the face by building up the colours and also blending them out using the same yellow shade.
    While creating this look I wanted to keep it very soft and blown out which I believe I achieved when executing my look. Looking back at my design now I wish I used a small line of eyeliner to help ground the look and help tie it all together and also adding more definition to the eyes as even though this look is very dramatic, I felt it didn't have much definition at the eyes which I think eyeliner would of solved this issue. The lips is another part I wish I could of changed and made them so much more dramatic and opaque by over lining them slightly to give them more body, then going in with a orangey red Charles Fox super colour and used this method instead of just using a thin layer of orange lipstick. In my future looks I will keep this small details in mind, and hopefully execute it in a much bigger and better way as I keep learning new techniques!

Analogous Face Chart

    Analogous: For this face chart I wanted semi dramatic make-up, so I created a purple wing of eyeshadow and a pop of blue on the lid, this whole look I wanted to be dramatic but in a much softer way compared to my first design. Seeing as the eyes are so cold you need that extra bit of warmth from the skin, so I added bronzer as well as a pink blush to tie the look together, I then went and created an ombre lip of a rosy lip moving into a light baby pink. I chose to do an ombre lip to add dimension to the lip so they aren't just flat, and to also make the colour much softer than if it was just a flat bold colour.

    In conclusion, I do really enjoy doing face charts and how my outcomes looked in the end. However, I do think I need to work on getting fine details into my face charts as I feel like they'll just stay in this basic format which will make me not grow and learn from doing face charts, and hopefully keep improving over the years I have to do them.

Complementary Face Chart

    Complementary:  I wanted this face chart to be more of a festive and subtle look, as compared to my pervious design this one would be quite wearable when it comes closer to winter. On the eyes I'd apply a slight wash of green on the eyes to act as a base colour and to contrast between the red lips, with a touch to glitter to make the eyes more dramatic or going out, with rosy cheeks which will act as a slight contour on the face and to finish off a bright punchy red lip! Who doesn't love to rock a red lip?

Monochromatic Face Chart

  (L-R) Monochromatic: For this face chart I wanted there to be a blown out effect with the eyeshadow by hollowing out the eyes and cheeks. For this whole look I used Charles Fox bright eyeshadow palette and for the lips I used the Charles Fox super colour. I started off with the eyes by layering up the orange, yellow and orangey red shades and building the darker colour into the crease while focusing the orangey red shades in the inner and outer corners of the eye. After I had reached my desired intensity I went to contouring the face, I got a flat brush and placed it at the sides of the face and blended upwards towards the cheek bone. Lastly the orange lips I used one of the colours from the super colour palette and applied it to the lips.

Colour Theory!

    The colour wheel is divided into three different categories: primary, secondary, and tertiary.

Primary: three primary colours are: red, yellow and blue. These colours are considered to be foundation colours because they are used to create all other colours.

Secondary: combining two of the primary colours, three secondary colours are formed. 

Tertiary: the six tertiary colours are made by combining a primary and an adjacent secondary colour. These are: yellow-orange, orange-red, red-violet, violet-blue, blue-green, and green-yellow.

 Warm colours: bright, passionate and tends to be eye catching colours. Warm colours include red, orange and yellow and also variations of those three colours.

In the make-up artistry, reds can be both cool and warm. If the red is blue based it is cool, but if the red is orange based it's warm.

Cool colours: normally seen as calm, soothing colours. Cool colours include violet, blue and green.

In make-up the same theory applies with the colour green. If the green has more gold/yellow undertone then it is warm. However if the green contains more blue undertone then it is cool.

Analogous: looks created by using three or more colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel.

Complementary: created by combining colours from opposite sides of the colour wheel.

London: National Portrait, Charles Fox & MAC!

    Last Thursday we all took a trip to London to visit the National Portrait Gallery and was encouraged to take a peek into the new MAC store in Carnaby Street, Illamasqua and Charles Fox.
    Our first stop was The National Portrait Gallery and saw the Elizabethan section for inspiration for our work, which I did gather some inspiration by seeing the portraits of Tudors that we'd been talking for the previous month. Even though not all the portraits was of Elizabeth it was interesting to see people who was related to her, such as King Henry 8th and Anne Boleyn and see how they was portrayed back in the 1600s. What really interests me is the use of symbolism in Elizabeth 1st portraits, the uses of powerful objects like her crown, her scepter and the globe was a big use in her portraits which shows that she's the ruler of her nation and also what she plans to take over one day.
    I also took a serious look at the make-up and hair used in these portraits, which was also very inspiring for my final pieces as I feel as if I have a better understanding of what was the beauty trends around that time, and also how Elizabeth changed the beauty ideal when cosmetics was created. During my time in the gallery I took away so much inspiration for my final outcomes and also how I would position my models when photographing them.

    Our last stop was, of course the MAC and Charles Fox stores in London! I will admit, I went slightly over the top when being in these stores but that's one of the reasons why this trip is rememberable! But the MAC store was the biggest thing planned for us, as we had a tour of the brand new store and got to view and buy their pro products with a discount of 35% off! (I low-key died a little). The MAC tour consisted off us being bought around the new store and having demos on how to use their pro products and what would be useful to have in our make-up kits in the future, (which is when I decided I need everything in the store).
    Finally, I really enjoyed this trip and I'm so thankful that our lecturers was able to take us on this trip to help us with finding inspiration for our final make-up and hair outcomes and I will defiantly be using a lot of the things I bought, and learned today in my work in the future.

Baroque Music

    Baroque music is a style of music composed from approximately 1600 - 1750. This era followed the Renaissance, and was followed in turn by the Classic era. The negative use of the word comes from a description by Charles de Brosses of the ornate and heavily ornamented architecture of the Pamphili Palace in Rome. Although the term was used in architecture and art criticism in the 19th century, it wasn't until the 20th century that the term "baroque" was applied to music.
    Baroque music forms a major portion of the "classical music" canon, being widely studied performed and listened to. Composers of the Baroque era include Johann Sebastian Bach, George Frideric Handel and Alessandro Scarlatti. The Baroque period saw the creation of tonality. Baroque music expanded the size, range, and complexity of instrumental performance, and also created opera, cantata, oratorio, concerto and sonata as musical genres. In addition to producing the earliest European music familiar to most of us, the baroque era also greatly expanded our horizons.
    Although the baroque period ended over 250 years ago, traces of the era can be heard everywhere. Some of the most influential compositions are regularly performed in concert halls, many of the musical genres still in use today, like the oratorio, concerto and opera, originated in the period. Twentieth century composers such as Ralph Vaughn Williams, and Benjamin Britten paid homage to the baroque in their works. Its influence can be heard outside art music and into free movement between solo and jazz can be sometimes compared to baroque music, and parts of Bach and Vivaldi have been known to appear in solos of heavy metal guitarists.

Contemporary Royalty

    For my contemporary portrait that shows royalty I decided to use one of my favourite fashion brands, Dolce and Gabbana. If anyone has been their runway shows or fashion editorials you'll know that the majority of them follow this trend of baroque which I really relate to royalty.
    Baroque is often thought of as a period of artistic style that used motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension and energy in sculpture, painting, architecture, literature, dance and music. The style began around 1600 in Rome which explains why Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stafano Gabbana incorporate their heritage into their work and baroque was also created around the same time is Queen Elizabethans era and before the Renaissance.
    Another reason why I associate baroque with royalty is because they always have crowns which is symbol of royalty and their use of Monreale's famous Byzantine and Venetian mosaics bring a romanticised view of the Catholic Church which also explains their use of decorative crosses throughout their designs and adverts. Roses are another form is symbolism that Dolce and Gabbana use, but more specifically red and white roses. Red roses mean true love and whits is silent or innocent, wistfulness, virtue, purity, secrecy, reverence and humility which sums up Queen Elizabeth herself, another colour scheme they use on their flowers is red and white together which symbolise united which relates to the Renaissance.

    Celebrities have also adopted this desire to be royalty and have expressed this though advertisements for their world tour to perfumes. I think this really shows the impact that Queen Elizabeth has had on all classes around the world and everyone has a different image of what they see as royalty, for example look at the difference between Beyonce and Katy Perry's promo pictures, they each have a different view on Queen Elizabeth and have thrown in their own spin on the look. Katy's look is so much more simpler yet saturated with colour compared to Beyonce's where she is dressed head to toe in pure gold, however they do have many things in common too such as their sceptre which has also been adapted to suit their own person image, and their crown to really finish off the whole royal look to their campaign.

Fake Bleaching My Eyebrows!

    I know what you're thinking, but why?! Well to answer your question because I was inspired! If anyone has seen pictures of Queen Elizabeth 1 you'll notice the eyebrows, or lack of eyebrows I should say, and if you see any fashion shoot or runway you'll come across images of the models with bleached eyebrows as the designers are inspired by the Elizabethan era.
    The Elizabethans loved that look of a large rounded forehead as they thought it made them look smarter, to achieve this look they would shave the first two inches of their hairline which you'll see from the Queens portraits and any movie adaptation the actress that played Elizabeth would have to do the same. And lastly they would keep their eyebrows light, and now it's my turn to try it out!
    I didn't want to go to the fullest for my first go so instead of using bleach I used a concealer that matched my skin tone and an eyebrow spoolie to brush the product though my brows. To make sure I got every inch of each hair I brushed the hairs upwards and downwards and repeated till I got my desired opacity. The results was interesting to be completely honest, it did freak out my flatmate and according to her I looked "alien", although this hasn't got the exact effect of bleaching your eyebrows, I still felt very weird wearing no eyebrows. I did notice that my face looked very elongated compared to when I had my eyebrows natural and I didn't hate the finish product! Even though I wouldn't of worn this outside, It isn't a look I would dismiss although even for the final look for our Elizabethan make-up which I was contemplating on recreating anyway.
    Overall I'm happy I did this little experiment as research for my final make-up outcome and would defiantly think about recreating this look again on other people and maybe my model for my final outcome!

Illamasqua 'Once' Collection

    When searching brands and designers that had been inspired by the Elizabethans I came across this contemporary version by Alex Box. As you can see her vision of the Elizabethans I think is more contemporary than historical, however you can still tell that it's Elizabethan inspired compared to some interpretations of this look where they're so modern only a few aspects really relate. What really drew me to this collection is the obvious wardrobe choice, but also the make-up has so many elements that just scream Queen Elizabeth 1, like the very light hair and eyebrow hair along with the circular application of the rouge. However she has made this look contemporary by making the skin very glowy and shiny and also sticking with a peachy nude instead of the classic red.
    "Old cannot exist without new, juxtaposition exalts the differences, She endures, her spirit is encapsulated, timeless and as present and as vital as the morning light, whilst everything around her gently decays. She feels both vintage yet with a modern vital spiral. Beauty endures." - Alex Box