Vintage Inspired Gothic Makeup

I am calling this vintage inspired rather than vintage because it is not accurate to any one period and is very much of a mixture of '50s inspired vintage and Gothic elements.  

Raven recently bought me the Adare dress by HellBunny, which is an A-line skirted, sweet-heart neckline dress in a vintage-inspired cut reminiscent of '50s designs, but with a Gothic print and Gothic detailing in the ribbons up either side. I will do another blog post that is an outfit post for the dress;this is just about the make-up.

Doe-eyed selfie.

I was aiming for make-up that complemented the vintage theme of the dress and the outfit I was wearing, and that wasn't to overtly or traditionally Gothic, as the weather and the outfit were both quite summery, so I did not want to wear lots of heavy make-up. I opted for tinted primer, concealer and powder rather than thick foundation, and also wore sun-screen because it was bright out and I burn easily. I contoured my cheeks and used a little shimmer. Pale skin was fashionable in the '50s, so I didn't really have to do anything there!

I'd rather condense selfies into not too many images.

Whenever I think of '50s pictures of women, I think of that rich red lipstick. I was trying out a new lipstick I'd bought - 'Russet' by Miss Beauty London. It's a really rich, almost blood-red colour, and I think it makes a nice pop of dramatic colour without being too bright to be Gothic as I felt a rich, bloody red would be a bit suited. My lips were over-drawn slightly for that full, pouty Marilyn Monroe look.

The eye make-up is certainly more a nod to the Gothic than to vintage styles; from what I have seen of vintage make-up adverts, pin-ups and photographs, eye makeup tended to involve black mascara and winged eye-liner to create definition without being the dramatic centre of the look. I went for something heavier as one of the trademarks of Gothic make-up is dramatic eyes. I lined both lids heavily and went with the 'cat' winged looked, then made them smokey with a black blending into a rosy red; this was to complement the red of the lipstick. I used white on the inner corner and waterline to give a more doe-eyed look.

Very blurry feathers close-up.

None of my make-up designs are complete without me drawing something in eye-liner, and as there are feathers on the dress, I decided to draw a few feathers encircling one eye. Drawn designs are something of a trade-mark of mine, and the outfit certainly wouldn't have suited any of my elaborate scrolling foliage, so I drew some feathers, carefully placed to help define my cheek-bone. Certainly this is not very vintage, but it is very much me. 

One thing I feel I should have done but did not, is fill out my eyebrows more. I usually have eyebrows that are plucked to a thin line, and most vintage looks, especially those of the '50s, have fuller, defined eyelashes, and while I did pencil them slightly to darken them, I was unsure about successfully filling them out when there's so little of my natural eyebrows left. Also, I don't usually use blusher, so I think I may have ended up a bit heavy-handed on this look. A much more pastel pink would have probably been more suitable. 

This is quite the deviation from how I normally look, so I would appreciate constructive criticism (and links to tutorials I can follow, in order to improve.) 

Purple Lipstick, Cyber-Goth Makeup and Goggles

I am terribly sorry for being late in participating in Sophistique Noir's Monthly Theme!

I had forgotten that this month's theme was purple. Well, when I first read it, I was going to showcase my lovely plum and black flocked bedding (as opposed to my black-on-black flocked bedding, or my charcoal and black 'damask' patterned bedding, or my piles of black cushions... I am one of those Goths whose preferred aesthetics are applied to most of what they own.) but then I forgot about it entirely and did not get around to photographing the bedroom. 

Oops.

So, something else purple! Here is some Cyber-Goth style makeup I did last summer. I'm wearing my micro-braid wig, which has a few purple braids down one side, and my goggles have purple lenses (made from an old translucent document wallet that I cut up!). 

As you can see, terrible selfies taken on my onboard webcam, again. This is what happens when I want  pictures of me and Raven is out working! All selfies taken either in the mirror or with funny out-stretched arm movements look even worse, and as Raven is quite possessive of his photographic equipment, and I'm too polite to touch his tripod without asking, I haven't got around to just mounting a camera on a tripod, sticking a cushion where my head will be to focus on, and then running back around to where the cushion was with the camera set to take a picture via the timer. 

Anyway, the micro-braid wig is self made, and the makeup was done to match. The lipstick is a metallic purple that is almost iridescent made by Stargazer. The eyeshadow is actually black and silver, but with a touch of purple under my eyes. I don't have purple eye-liner, sadly, it just looks that way in the photograph.

I like drawing elongated corner on my inner eyes, but rarely do I get them as neatly done as here. I almost always get them wrong, however much I practise. I did decorative shapes around one eye in eye-liner, and as per usual I didn't do both. This is because a) it's really hard to get the symmetry exact, and b) I think that it becomes too much and looks cluttered if I do both sides. 

I am actually wearing a 'spaghetti straps' tank top! With my braids obscuring the straps, it looks like I'm not wearing a top, but I am. You can just about see a purple goggle-lense in this last picture, and it shows the dots and lines and suchlike around my right eyes. I'm so used to doing foliate designs and swirls; the angular design and dots were a bit different. I also like how this picture shows how the silver eye-shadow goes right up to my nose, but the eyeliner from the inner corner is brought upwards with a bit of black eye-shadow to the crease, to give a more distinct eyelid, and to make my nose look narrower.

I think this post also shows a little of how varied my style can be. One day I can be all black curls and lace and frills, and another day I am all spikes and goggles and purple lipstick! I wear things because I think they look nice, and I refuse to get pigeonholed into one specific style.