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.