Practising Pale.

In our make-up practical this week we looked at how to create the pale Elizabethan look through applying textural make-up. I found this experiment fun! I had my make-up done first and it took a while so by the time I got to actually try out the technique I had very little time left but if I am honest, it helped. Part of the idea behind this look during the Elizabethan period was that women's faces looked AWFUL and not in any way perfect. I think the misconception with a lot of my experiments is that it has to be perfect but in this case it really REALLY didn't need to be.

I started by mixing the rich liquid foundation by Illamasqua with the matte primer to create a white mixture which we had to cover the face with. Once that was done we had to blend the white in so that it was blended properly and slightly smoothed over. Then using an eyebrow brush comb the white foundation back and forth through the eyebrow so it is just as white. Then powder the face, this was easy because normally we have to make sure it isn't visible on the model but it was meant to be a powdery look which helped. Then using the plastic part of the eyebrow brush we had to comb through the eyelashes, top and bottom, with the white foundation. Lastly, using a pink powder blushes, apply small circles onto the apples of the cheeks and onto the lips. So the only colour on the face was meant to be the blush of the cheeks and lips. Eye make-up was unheard of during the Elizabethan period so making the face as plain as possible was actually quite tricky... Especially under a time limit.

And then of course I had the added benefit of a red haired model so that added to my Elizabethan look, along with the hand made ruff we made for photographic purposes.

Before

 After