THE DESIGN: period makeup ancient egypt

DESIGN STATEMENT

Ancient Egyptians, Cleopatra, in particular, have been portrayed throughout the decades as a popular make-up look of that time period with added eye-liner.  I wanted to attempt to recreate the simplicity of an authentic ancient Egyptian look, in colors that they really would have been able to create,  without the spin of modern make-up trends.

RESEARCH

MAKEUP, MATERIALS, AND TOOLS

THE PROCESS

Note on Ethnicity: This academic assignment is to apply the make-up look on ourselves.  If choosing a model, best practice would be to choose a person of ethnicity in the near east or Egypt, with medium skin tone, who could have brown, hazel or green eyes.

MAKE-UP

1.  Apply Barrier spray to clean moisturized skin

2.  Apply mid tone over entire face and neck

3.  Apply highlight above brow, to the centerline and tip of the nose, above the natural cheekbone, and to the tip of the chin.

4. Apply shadow to the sides of the nose, below the brow, below the cheekbone,  to the jawline and above the chin.

5. Blend highlight and shadows well.

**highlight and shadow should not be a corrective or extreme contour, but only to restore the natural tone and shape of the face in stage light, to look as if not wearing a base make-up.

6. Apply blush color to the cheekbone along a natural line as if sun kissed and blend.

7. Powder with translucent powder to set.

8.  Apply black brow pencil, using black cream make-up to fill a well shaped natural brow fully black.

9. Use black liquid eyeliner to extend the brow into a horizontal line about a finger width away from the hairline.

10. Thickly line the entire upper and lower lash lines with black liquid liner and extends from the outer corner of the eye parallel to the brow line. 

11.  Line just above the upper black line with green liquid liner.

12.  Fill the remainder of the the lid (below the crease) with gold glitter and extend between the parallel lines, so that the entire area is filled.

**Research images rarely show this glitter. Egyptologists believe it was made from crushed beetle wings, and was not preserved in artifacts. I am taking some creative license regarding the placement of this product.

**Do not blend the eye liners. The products applied were typically not mixed together, to avoid chemical reactions of the pigments.

13.  Apply matte  lip color to the natural shape of the lip.

14.  Powder again.

15.  Optional to add mascara, or possibly white to the water line to further define the eyes for stage, although there is no real evidence for these historically.

WIG

1. Steam and brush out the wig to straighten as much as possible

2. Trim ratty ends from the wig

3.  Section off the hair following the wefts and set all but the crown with small rollers in a spiral curl, steam 20 sec per roller.

4. French braid the crown laterally in alternating directions to capture the short hairs and extend braids into the longer hair framing the face and secure with black elastics

5.  Remoave the rollers and seperate the curls using the rat tail and fingers to create individual spirals and spray each spiral with wig spray.

6.  Use additional steam to pull the spirals to increase length

7.  Use copper beading wire and glass beads to adorn the ends of the wig braids.

8.  Pin curl or braid the model's hair flat and apply a black wig cap.  Secure with bobby pins.

9.  Apply the wig and secure with wig pins.

10. Optional to add white clothing and necklace to add to the historical look.

REFLECTION AND CRITIQUE

I feel that the application went as planned with a few adaptations.

I ended up pin curling the front and crown of my hair, but braiding the back into two braids to pin up.  The texture of the curls was pretty dense, so the thickness of my hair in the rear of the wig cap was not visible.

I ended up using black cream makeup in addition to the black liquid eyeliner for a smoother, thick line.

I did opt for mascara to finish the look for stage.

The finished look in the stage light seems shiny in the photos, so another layer of translucent powder might have reduced that.

I am pleased with the overall look, especially the transformation of a seemingly unusable wig into a totally different look.