Contrasting Colours

Bleach brow evaluation in previous blog post!

Todays workshop was really fun and creative. We worked on creating looks that were all about contrasting bold colours with a 80s kind of influence! 

To begin the look of course I went over all health and safety measures such as gowning my model, cleansing my hands and adjusting her chair to the correct height for my back. As you can see my model has a front fringe so I also clipped this back out of the way.

Despite my model having no make up on I cleansed and moisturised to prep the skin and achieve a nice base to work from. 

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For the base I used my La Maquillage Palette which is a full coverage foundation. This was my choice because I wanted to cover the redness and blemishes on the face. Even though I was using a full coverage foundation I was still able to achieve a light and clean base. To do this I applied the foundation to the centre areas of the face and then blended outwards using a clean blending brush. Were there was still areas that needed covering I went back in with more foundation to conceal. I also used a pink toned concealer from Mac to cover the dark circles under my models eye. I used a really minimal amount because there was not much darkness. Checking back in the mirror this was a really great way to achieve a light clean base using a full coverage foundation. The blending brush really helped me in this case. 

Even though I was going to be using a lot of colour on most areas of the face I still contoured and highlighted. This helps to make the look really three dimensional. To create the contour I used my La Maquillage pallet again to create a darker colour. I contoured the skin using a clean brush checking in the mirror for symmetry on both sides of the face. Where the contour was too strong or there was a lack of symmetry I used my foundation brush with product still on it to even out and soften the edges of the contour. This is a really nice and easy way to correct contour mistakes. 

To highlight I used Clown White which I purchased from Screen Face the one I use is Ben Nye. This is a key product for this look and is essential for giving the colours the depth and strength. 

Instead of powdering over the entire face I really lightly dusted over the face using a fan brush making sure to only apply a fine layer. This is because I wanted to keep that healthy and glowing feel to the make up. 

 The next step for the look was to start creating the contrasting colours! I began by warming up the clown white on the back of my hand ready to use as a base for the shadows. Using a clean brush a applied this as a thin layer. This is to prevent from too much product buildup which can ruin the entire look. I have found that only a little is needed to strengthen a colour.  When applying the clown white I winged it out slightly. When I was finished I used another clean brush to blend any harsh lines and remove the excess. 
Starting at the inner corner I applied a baby blue which is a very soft colour on its own but really bright and effective on top of the clown white! I then applied my second colour which was an orange and winged the colour out slightly for a more dramatic and 80s effect. The brush technique for merging the colours was important. I used two different colours on the flats of each side of the brush and patted the colours on blending as I merged them. At this point I was careful not to put the two different colours on top of each other to much and tried to keep a clear definition between the two colours. Looking back at the photos I think I could have improved on this as there is a clear area of combined colours in particular on the left eye. This is definitely something I would like to improve for next time. 

I took the purple on top of the clown white from the inner corners and right round the crease of the eye. This also helped to bring some balance into the make up look. 
To soften all the edges of the make up I used a beige eye shadow this helps to blend each colour in to a natural tone and give the make up a lot more balance and subtlety in the right areas.  
For even more contrast to look as this was the theme I applied yellow ontop of clown white to the entire bottom lash line taking it right into the corners and back out to the end of the eye. 
To finish the eyes I applied mascara to the top and bottom lashes.

For the blush I also used clown white to intensify the colour on the cheeks. I applied a minimal amount of clown white to the cheeks using a clean brush I then patted on a orangey tone blusher to the top of the cheek bone blending it into the hair line and downwards slightly. Merging into the orange tone blusher I added a pink toned blusher. I was not completely happy with the outcome of this because I feel I haven't softened the edges of the blusher well enough the colour just stops and needs a little more blending where it ends. If I had more time I would have used translucent powder on the edges of the blush to really blend them out so the make up flows more with no abrupt finishes.

 To complete the look I used black eye liner to create lines and give the look structure. I decided these lines randomly starting with the winged eye liner and following on to were I think would best balance out each line. This came naturally as I was aiming to compliment each line by picturing in my head what would look best before going ahead with it.