Crimble Nebula Eye makeup

Just a wee one as I haven't posted in a while. Thought I'd try to upload a video as it wasn't worth many pics but alas it didn't work... Now my green hair has washed out/grown out so much I thought it kinda matches the nebula print on my new leggings. So once again my mother would be proud of my coordination skills. Legs, hair and eyes this time. 

El cheapy products used:

Maybelline Eye Studio in Chocolate Chic.

L.A. Colours in Sunshine (yellow)

Some old pale to mid green eyeshadow in two shades - no idea what brand anymore, possibly Rimmel.

StarGazer eye dust in no 33 (super emerald green)

Collection 2000 Dazzle Me! In Fairy Dust (lilac/purple)

YSL Shocking Eyeliner in black 

Rimmel's 100% waterproof mascara in Black.

StarGazer Glitter Shaker in white

Essentially the method is just a blend across the whole lid of the eye. This particular one went (from inside out): White->pale green->darker green->purple->brown->yellow.

Unfortunately it's quite easy for it to look like a bruise, so I toned down the purples with more green which helped. 

Then I added some extra loose white glitter and added a few adhesive bindi's to the inner corners and in the traditional '3rd eye' point on the head.

I may have added more yellow looking back at these now. I'm typing retrospectively. 

So yeah, pretty pleased but experimenting took a little while. Was sodding ages before I made it out! 😝

Norkina Commission

So one of those lovely festival ragdolls hired me for a new project on Friday night: to turn the lovely Jennie into the fairy lantern Norkina! 

So Norkina usually looks like this:

So you can see I had my work cut out for me!

Incidentally that's Jennie holding her up on the left!

Unfortunately as we were rather strapped for time it was somewhat difficult to take step by step pics as I went along so here's just a verbal breakdown of what happened:

1. Paint face, neck and ears white, ensuring it had a good solid base and was worked into the hairline a little. 

2. Loading yellow onto the same sponge I went over Jennie's nose and a little across her cheeks and upper lip to create a "central glow" effect that had a large ambient blur into the White, turning it a little creamier and warmer.

3. Mixing green and red on the back of my hand to a warm, dark tan/mid brown colour to match the willow being used in the costume, I painted circles n a goggle fashion around the eyes and 'spiked' petals out equally and outlined a huge spiky set of lips going from ear to ear. I also framed her face outline and painted a divided isosceles triangle over the top of her nose in the same patterns as Norkina's.

4. Really disliked the eyes/lips line work, and after further criticism from Jennie's daughter I agreed and wiped the lines away.

5. Repaired the White/yellow inner and went back to make smaller but similar markings to the eyes and lips, but this time I gradually made the eye "petals" get smaller as they came under the eye and whilst the mouth was still outsized, the lines were much smaller than before.

6. Added highlights and shadow lines in black on the edges of some of the brown to give more depth to the "willow". A few touches of gold glitter gel on the brows, head, cheeks and chin to catch in the light finished the face off.

7. Finished painting the remaining skin visible on chest, neck and shoulders adding it thicker over the collar bone, bust and shoulder blades for a little more depth and worked a little into the hair around the face and voila, it's time for the fairy to go to the party!

This paint only really worked due to the nature of the costume but I think we were both pleased with the overall effect!

On retrospect I think I shouldn't have joined the nose triangle lines to the top of the 'mask' but that's how lanterns are constructed. It would have made for a prettier but less acurate look overall. I would also have spent the time fixing the lines on adding more to Jennie's chest and neck and. Added a little more yellow there too, to blur the difference between costume and paint ideally, but it was an excellent learning curve for me and I think it all works. 

Such a fantastic and unique concept for the costume too!

Lantern Festival Tutorials

So I was thrilled to be asked to run a couple of workshops/tutorials for the finale performers of this years' Ulverston Lantern Festival by my hoop teacher - the spectacular performer Miss Jennifer (Street) of Matrix Circus, who was putting together an Arts Council UK funded piece. 

My job was to help the community folks involved really get into their characters for this years theme: Out of the Toy Box through face painting. Whilst I was there to suggest tweaks and alternatives, my role mostly involved teaching the skills I have and inspiring the performers to adapt and create their own individual personas. This collective was known as The Community Spark Project.

My workshops involved helping each of the core groups; the rag dolls, clowns and China dolls with some ideas on how they want themselves to look and feel, how that might be expressed to an audience at a distance, whilst being lit ambiently by fire and LEDs. 

Here is an example of the small packs I put together to suggest ideas and alternatives for the clowns:

It was important not to be too prescriptive but also to have a cohesion overall to how the makeup will look for each person. My style sheets were examples of variety only so that everybody could ideally take their ideas in the direction they felt comfortable with, so that I wasn't telling them which was right or wrong.

Hopefully everybody felt happy with the ideas they came up with and I taught a few helpful tricks to ensure a bold look with a solid finish could be reached. I was really proud of what everyone created and judging by the photos - it really brought all the costuming and performance together for a polished finish the entire town turned out to witness.

Whilst I may have assisted in a few faces, the vast majority shown here did all or most of it themselves. 

The clowns:

The Rag Dolls:

The China Dolls:

I don't claim any credits for taking these pictures but as you can see the makeup turned out a treat in the darkness:

(Incidentally that's also me second from the right at the front with the red drum light)

All in all I had a wonderful time, it all went pretty smoothly and everyone seemed happy at what they had created and the performance was excellent. Things to learn for next time: find a better supply of sponges and don't forget to cover any makeup tables as despite using the oh so soluable snazaroo, there was some scrubbing involved...

Scar Experiments / Doll times again

Okay so it's long been time I finally did some scar experiments considering when I first purchased my rigid collodion and it's been a funny sort of day so here goes: The vague plan is just to freestyle some in different ways to show new scarring, old scarring etc and just to have a play around with a new type of 'material' to see what I can do with it.

1. Face bare of all makeup (listening to Metallica sing about scars fyi) for comparison.

2. Marked out a few rough scar lines with a black eyeliner:

3. First layer of rigid collodion (smells funny, kind of sweetish and I bit like nail varnish/pear drops). Starts to work within about 30 seconds.

4. Second layer starts to indent my skin a bit more, feels about as tight as a face mask but not terribly uncomfortable. It's slightly tingly as it dries but not painful to me. I would wonder how someone with more sensitive skin might fair..

5. Tried to layer in a bit of liquid latex for texture, but mostly it stuck strands of my hair to my head. 2nd an third layers starting to feel tighter, works better on my head and eye more so than my cheeks (strangely). The funny expression below is to show how tight and dramatic it's getting.

6. Unflattering upshot shows the indentations best. The headphones are also holding my hair back and yes, I'm still listening to Metallica!

7. Adding in a bit of reddish lipstick and smudging it along the lines of the forehead scar.

I also added some regular foundation and matt powder in my usual tones over the cheek scar and added some white eyeshadow to highlight the depth of the scar as it was just what I had to hand. I Did a bit too much on the eyes though, so it looks a bit 'garage doors'.

8. The best looking scar I think. Close up. Ignore the scuzzy looking texture of the liquid latex, it didn't really work the way I had in mind (to wrinkle the skin nearby) and note how much the rigid collodion moves the fine skin on my eyelid!

9. Added a ittle more red to the end of the existing black cheek scar and added more collodion thickly. Quite like the way it starts to buckle if I stretch out my jaw as it dries. Putting makeup over it looks well, quite shite really but I was kind of thinking it might age the scar along the healing process if it's no longer as freshly red and swollen. Perhaps a pink base would have worked better?

10. Well, couldn't just leave it looking normal now could I?! 

Transforming the rest of my face into a workable overall look which was vaguely like a broken doll.

11. Close up of a red-based scar work looking quite nice and fresh - like a scab.

12.  And some edited pics to finish.

In conclusion, I'm fairly happy with the overall result considering I was just using my usual makeup and quickly freestyling how it might work. The rigid collodion works pretty fast but does leave quite a shiny finish that was peeling up in places. I'm curious to try this again but using a water-based makeup as a base instead of it being straight on bare skin (pretty much) to see if it works in much the same way. 

I probably spent nearer an hour tinkering around and faffing about with the doll makeup look, but it really can be a quick process just to add onto normal skin. I wish I'd tried just adding the rigid collodion onto unmarked skin without pencilling on any sort of guide but I'll save that for my next plan (split face, using a large scar as the divide down the centre of my face).

I very foolishly just peeled off the bits of rigid collodion after wipes and cleanser failed to move it at all, which was easy but quite painful (like ripping off a well-stuck plaster) and am kicking myself for not trialling the Mastix remover. Lessons learned there!

Cheering myself up - channelling circus/doll/Bianca Del Rio

Okay, I'm full of cold and feeling guilty I've not done any makeup blogging in ages so this was a quick one just to have the transformation into something much faker and prettier than my slug self today.

Based on an inspirational pin found on Pinterest.

1. No makeup selfie (omg...) try to ignore the scabby red nose.

2. Base layer of white (hard to get smooth today due to a lack of patience and a mixture of dry, scaly and sore skin from my cold. I only partly blended it into my neck and ears, but took it up to the hairline. 

3. I reaaaally couldn't be arsed with false eyelashes or faking out my eyebrows so I thought, bugger it, just paint over the buggers. I took the black to about half way through my eyebrows and added flicks to the ends. It's all gone a bit Black Swan..

4. Adding in a fake bottom 'lash' and dusting the bits between with grey eyeshadow.

5. Eyebrow wonk catastrophe!

6. Makeup wipes got rid of it and started again, this time a bit thicker unfortunately but less lop sided! Maybe it's just my face...and the lights....and I'm feeling ill....ahh, fuck it!

7.Adding in some pink blush much lower down on my cheeks than usual, it seemed really heavy up close but comes out less so in the pics. I've also added in the fake lash lines and added yet more grey eyeshadow to in between. - note to self, don't be an idiot, do the lashes last in future. Dumbass...

8. If I could have been arsed, I'd probably either have added in a dot of colour to the middle of the black circle bits on the end of the 'lashes' or used dark sticker/bindi things, but..

9. No, no, no - NOW is the time for the awkward sticker sparkly shit... Oh why did I start this again?! 27 sparkles later I finally get a few in the right bits of my face..

10. Oh..I don't have a giant heart shaped gem to stick to me.. Umm, heart shaped button and some Mastix adhesive it is!

11. I added a little black eyeshadow to darken the grey used earlier and also to matify my eyelids which are prone to dissolving when using water based makeup. Finally for some lippy in a different shape to my lips and a black outline to tie it all together better and voila!

12. Fix my hair a little better, add a sparkly tiny hat and dick about with some filters for a final effect:

Kit used: Snazaroo facepaints in black and white, grey and black eyeshadows, pink blusher, silver sparkly bindis, hot pink lipstick, Mastix adhesive. 2 types of sponges and 3 brushes of differing widths. All in all, took maybe 30-45mins. 

Hardest bit was not blowing/touching/scratching my nose! Bloody colds..

On retrospect, some falsies would have finished it all off, but as I say, this was an impromptu quick makeup idea that might work for an upcoming party!