Heavenly Creatures

The promotional images for MAC's Summer 2012 collection Heavenly Creatures radiate intergalactic glamour, but I also feel like they have a slight Elizabethan vibe. The look itself seems as though mainly mineral products have been used, creating beautiful light reflective shines on areas such as the eyelids, brow bone and cheeks. The eyebrows have been blocked out and covered in a white product. Not only does this create quite an alien look, but it is also reminiscent of Elizabethan beauty standards: a higher forehead being more attractive.

The skin is so pale it appears to be almost translucent, and the plum lipstick creates a stark contrast to this. I think the darker lip really compliments the light shades used for the eye makeup, it beautifully accentuates all features but still keeps everything in proportion, which is difficult to do when there are no eyebrows. I especially love the silver and blue shades used around the eye area, and I think the silver highlight on the brow bone is stunning. For my contemporary Elizabethan character I want to create something that looks quite alien and futuristic, but that also shows clear reference to Elizabethan glamour, and I think using pale colours with a lot of shimmer could make this look work quite well.

Theatre Of The Nameless

Some of the promotional images for Illamasqua's A/W11 Collection Theatre of the Nameless really reminded me of the Elizabethans, in particular the look pictured above. Although the collection was mainly inspired by the illicit nightlife of 1920's Berlin I think this particular look has an air of Elizabethan glamour. The models curly red hair and pale skin is very reminiscent of Queen Elizabeth, although the top of the hair style is quite flapper-esque. I like this combination as I think it works very well, and although they were from completely different eras Queen Elizabeth and the flappers of the 1920's were women far ahead of their time, challenging gender roles and revolutionizing the public perceptions of women. 

I love the colour palette that Alex Box has used to create these looks, I think the red and purple tones work beautifully with the models pale complexion. The heavy contour is very striking and creates a dramatic theme, and the look in it's entirety is very theatrical. The skin has a beautiful, almost holographic alien gleam to it and I'd love to create skin like this for my contemporary Elizabethan look. I also really love the eyebrows; they're bold and harsh and make the model look slightly angry, but they flow so well with the rest of the look.

I remember seeing this campaign for the first time when I was 15 and just being absolutely mind-blow by the whole thing. The looks were so gothic and glamorous and to me at the time they really pushed the boundaries of what makeup could do. I had never seen lipstick like the shade the model is wearing in the image above. I found out that it was called Kontrol, went to the Illamasqua store and bought it, and to this day it is still one of my favourite lipsticks. I absolutely love unusual lip shades and I don't believe that any colour is unwearable. I think the look above is definitely one of the most iconic Illamasqua looks, and the Theatre of the Nameless is still such a poignant collection. I'd definitely love to use a similar colour palette for my contemporary Elizabethan makeup look, as I think the combination of purple and red shades works so well and really creates an air of Elizabethan regality.

Val Garland

Val Garland is one of my biggest inspirations in the makeup industry. I adore her work and I think her style is so unique and daring. I love that she completely pushes the boundaries with her looks and that she's not afraid to experiment with very avant-garde concepts.

image from Val Garland's MAC Masterclass 2013

Her roots lie in the alternative subcultures of 70's-80's Britain and I can really relate to this. It's clear to see that a lot of her inspiration comes from style tribes such as the Punks, Goths, Skinheads and the New Romantics, and I think it's so important to keep these revolutionary trends alive whilst modernizing them just as Val Garland does. Her work shows that it's okay to be spontaneous and it's okay to take a risk with your work, because a lot of the time it pays off and you end up creating something very innovative and exciting.

Val Garland for i-D Pre-Spring 2014

The following video is some backstage footage of Vivienne Westwood's SS12 show where you can see Val Garlands work and a short interview with her. I thought the two looks for this show were incredibly beautiful and I loved the different colour palettes. Val Garland describes the first look as a "demented 18th century baroque girl," and I can see exactly where she's coming from. I think the purple tones worked so well with the warmer colours such as yellow, orange, red and gold. The contrast was gorgeous and this particular colour scheme gave off a very regal vibe. The second look was described as a "stark warrior mask," and the main colour was blue. This look was very tribal and the use of prominent patterns around the face, especially around the brow area, gave the models an air of strength and power almost reminiscent of an Amazonian woman:

I think Val Garland always brings something completely different to the runway, her work is so easily identifiable because it's just totally unique. I truly admire the way in which she works: she's utterly fearless and I really hope I can achieve that liberated mindset one day.

Contemporary Portrait Reflecting Wealth

The image I have chosen to analyse is one of the promotional images released for Lady Gaga's music video to her song G.U.Y, as I think it truly reflects wealth and riches through a wide variety of elements.
The setting is Hearst Castle in California, famously known for it's stunning Roman inspired architecture and it's lavish and opulent interior. The castle itself was extremely popular among the Hollywood elite in the 1920's and 1930's although to receive an invite to visit Hearst Castle was highly prestigious. Greta Garbo, the Marx brothers, Clark Gable, Charlie Chaplin and Joan Crawford are just some of the castle's famous guests.
Personally I think this whole image really gives off a Versace vibe, and although the swimming costume worn by Lady Gaga in this particular shot is by upcoming Spanish fashion label POL, her look really reminds me of a young Donatella Versace - with the obviously expensive long blonde hair extensions, black outfit, and an entourage of conventionally attractive men.
The main colours in this picture are blue and gold - obviously gold is commonly associated with wealth and prosperity, however blue is often representative of royalty, and this particular colour scheme definitely accentuates the theme of wealth within this image. The pairing of these two colours is also highly aesthetically pleasing and creates a serene and relaxed mood, whilst retaining the element of luxury.
Lady Gaga herself is the epitome of a wealthy, powerful woman. The way her body is positioned on the floating chaise-lounge shows that she is very much in control even though she is lying down, and her entourage seem more like servants, treating her with total adoration as though she is a modern goddess. The pose also slightly reminded me of Alexandre Cabanel's The Birth of Venus. She has adopted common stereotypical activities of the wealthy Ancient Romans and Grecians, for example reclining while being fed fruit by a slave. She is in the centre of the photo so is obviously supposed to be the main focus, also the fact that the chaise lounge is red while everything else in the image is blue or gold draws the viewers attention to Gaga even more.
The video for G.U.Y can be seen in full here. It is clear that throughout the film wealth, luxury and female empowerment are common themes, and the setting of the video almost seems like an otherworldly historical paradise:

Complimentary Makeup Look

For my Complimentary face chart I decided to work with purple and yellow, as I absolutely love the way they look together. I think when put side by side deep purples and bright yellows create a gorgeous contrast - they clash, but in a really striking way.
I wanted everything about this look to be bold, so I designed it with a very dark lip, thick dark eyebrows and heavy eye makeup. I feel that yellow and purple are vivid, powerful colours when used to their full extent, and I wanted my design to reflect this. I wanted this look to have an air of gothic glamour to it, but also with a grungy feel, so I smudged the eyeliner and made the eyebrows look very untamed and hardly groomed.

Products Used:

• Fraulein Concealer Palette
• Sugarpill Eyeshadows in 2am and Poison Plum
• Illamasqua Eyeshadows in Hype and Obsidian
• MAC Lipsticks in Heroine and Punk Couture
• MAC Kohl Power Eye Pencil in Feline

Analogous Makeup Look

For my analogous look I decided to use purples and blues, as I haven't really experimented with them much so far on this course, but I absolutely love the way they look together. When designing this look I was very inspired by outer space and I wanted to create something quite alien-esque, as I feel an affinity towards anything that looks like it came from another planet. I am often inspired by the solar system, and colours like blue and purple always remind me of meteorites and nebulae. The astral sphere on the forehead was inspired by David Bowie's iconic Ziggy Stardust makeup (by Pierre Laroche) but I also wanted to make it look somewhat lunar.
When applying my design I felt that the blue was far more dominant than the purple, so I decided to add in some purple contouring around the collarbone area in order to make the look more analogous. I think this worked well and I was happy with the result seeing as it wasn't planned. I also decided to not have any eyebrows because I think this gives the look more of an alien vibe. I also tried to stick to quite rounded, circular shapes to coincide with the astral sphere and general planetary theme. Overall I really enjoyed creating this look and I am pleased with the final result.

Products Used:

• MAC Full Coverage Foundation in W10
• MAC Studio Fix Concealer in NW15
• Illamasqua Translucent Loose Powder
• Illamasqua Sculpting Duo in Lumos and Heliopolis
• MAC Mineralize Skinfinish in Lightscapade
• Urban Decay Eyeshadows in Gonzo, Urban and Chaos (Electric Palette)
• Sugarpill Eyeshadows in Poison Plum, Velocity, 2am, Mochi and Afterparty
• Kryolan Eyeshadow in Sage Blossom
• Lime Crime Lipstick in No She Didn't
• Illamasqua Lipstick in Apocalips

Monochromatic Makeup Look

For my monochromatic look I chose to work with the colour red. This look was heavily inspired by the makeup of Japan's geisha's - I often find inspiration from different cultures within Eastern Asia as I love their dramatic performance makeup and I think the colour schemes are beautiful.
Red is a very powerful colour and sometimes it is thought to be too overpowering, as a small amount of it can completely dominate an entire makeup look. However, I wanted to use the colour excessively on all of the key facial features. Because of how bold a colour red is I didn't want to use it to create a toned down look, and I tried to refrain from using the pink shades. I mainly wanted to portray the colour at full volume.

Products Used:

• MAC Matte Lipstick in Viva Glam 2
• MAC Nightmoth Lipliner
• MAC Red Lipmix
• MAC Black Lipmix
• Illamasqua Cream Blusher in Libido
• Fraulein Concealer Palette
• Sugarpill Love+ Eyeshadow

Achromatic Makeup Look

For my achromatic face chart I decided to create a very sculpted, angular, geometric-inspired look. I wanted to experiment with the ideas of contrasting shades and symmetry, so I chose to have a white eyebrow to provide stark contrast to the dark eye and lip makeup. As well as being achromatic, I wanted this look to focus on the use of shapes, and I chose more angular shapes because I think they work well to create a sharp, striking look. However, I also contrasted the hard edges with more curved shapes around the inner corner of the eye. I added the white dots (using Illamasqua Precision Ink in Scribe) to contrast the black eyeshadow.
Geometric eyeliner has been a recurring trend in the world of fashion and makeup for a long time now, and I thought that it would work really well with an achromatic look due to the impact made by dark, sharp edges. If I re-did this look I would definitely like to try the eyeliner in white, or maybe have one eye with black liner and one with white. I really enjoyed creating this look and would absolutely love to put it into practice at some point.

Products Used:

• MAC Full Coverage Foundation in W10
• Fraulein Concealer Palette
• MAC Black Lip Mix
• Illamasqua Eyeshadow in Obsidian
• MAC Fluidline Gel Eyeliner in Blacktrack
• Illamasqua Precision Ink in Scribe

Colour Theory

Colour theory is often seen as being the universal guide to colour mixing and colour combination. The colour wheel is the visual aid for this, showing the three main colour categories: primary, secondary and tertiary. The basic concepts of colour theory have been in existence since the 1400's in the writings of scholars such as Leone Battista Alberti and Leonardo da Vinci, but Isaac Newton is often credited as having discovered the main principles of colour theory through his experiments with light refraction, and in 1706 he developed the first colour wheel.

A simple colour wheel showing which category each colour falls into

The colour wheel is essential for understanding how colours are mixed to create different colours, and it shows us that infinite colour mixing is possible. The way in which the colour hues are organized in a circle shows the relationships between the individual colours in the three categories:

In the colour wheel above we can see that when red hues are mixed with yellow hues it creates orange hues. Red and yellow are both primary colours, and orange is the product of the combination of these two, meaning that it is a secondary colour. The secondary colours are created from mixing two primary colours and the tertiary colours are created by mixing a combination of primary and secondary colours. For example, when yellow hues (primary) and green hues (secondary) are mixed, yellow-greens are created (tertiary). By looking at a colour wheel we can see exactly what colours we need to combine in order to create the new colour of our choice.

In the arts, colour is the essential mean of conveying visual and sensual expression, whereas in psychology colours are the stimuli which influence behaviour and the psyche. Although these are two separate fields, interpretation of colour is key in both of them.

Defining Colour:

The three main factors of describing any colour is the lightness, the saturation and the hue. The hue is the specific tone of the colour and the saturation is the intensity of the hue. The level of saturation can be a grey tone, which means there is no saturation, or it can be extremely vivid, in which case there is a high level of saturation. Finally, the brightness of a colour is the level of lightness or darkness in a colour and this factor ranges from black (no brightness) to white (full brightness).

Colours can be divided into many different categories, and the following categories are very important when discussing colour theory:

• Analogous: Similar shades which are located together on a colour wheel

• Complementary: Colours which are located opposite eachother on a colour wheel

• Achromatic: Blacks, whites and greys (also referred to as greyscale)

• Neutral: Beige and brown hues, and colours with grey undertones

• Chromatic colours: The colours featured on a colour wheel

• Monochromatic: Working from one shade of a colour to another, for example the darkest shade of green to the lightest

Different shades of a colour can also be considered to be either "cool" or "warm." Cooler shades tend to have grey and blue undertones, whereas warmer colours have red and orange undertones. However, this doesn't mean to say that you can't have a cool red or a warm blue.

John Galliano A/W 2007

John Galliano's A/W 2007 show was an Elizabethan wonderland in pastel colour. In true Galliano fashion the collection screamed quirky grandeur, the show itself was the embodiment of avant-garde tea party debauchery, and Pat McGrath's makeup artistry complimented and contrasted each individual ensemble perfectly.

Each makeup look had the same basic structure: pale skin, thin/blocked out eyebrows, very rounded eyeshadow following the shape of the eye socket, and a prominent angular lip. Some looks had brighter blusher and the colours of the eyeshadow differed between models, although the inner corner of every eye was highlighted with a vivid shade which contrasted the general colour scheme of that specific look. I adore the variety of these looks, the colour palette seems endless but each look works so beautifully. I particularly love the combination of lilac and bright yellow and I think it's brilliant that Pat McGrath hasn't been afraid to put clashing colours together, because the final result is so striking and really captures the essence of the show through the medium of makeup.

Of all the makeup looks throughout the show the one pictured above is definitely my favourite. I absolutely love the shape of the eyeshadow, it completely rejuvenates the cliche "smokey cut-crease" by extending the shadow under the eye in a swirling motion. The blending on this look is flawless and I adore the white eyebrows. The achromatic eye paired with a striking dark wine-red lip is a stunning combination, and the pale skin and red hair screams Elizabethan glamour. I will definitely be using this image as inspiration for my final look, as I think this is a beautiful contemporary interpretation of classic historical beauty.

(Photos from vogue.co.uk)