Make Up

You may have noticed I’ve been rather inactive lately. I’m currently back at my mother’s for the summer break, and as she’s away to visit her relatives in Belarus (which I deeply envy), I am here without much possibility to take or pose for photos. I basically lack either models or photographers, beside transportation to interesting places, and this forces me to a hiatus. Nevertheless, I’ve gathered interesting ideas for some photos I could do on my own, and so I am going to explore the tricky world of self-portraiture.

I won’t tell you which directions there self-portraits will take, but I can say that a very important feature will be make up. As I will be limited in the set, the main focus of the photos will have to be me, and my make up will have to be flawless, often even themed for particular concepts. As I’ve never written about my make up, I think it’s a nice way to break the silence.

Most obviously, my skin is far from being flawless. I’ve long since overgrown puberal acne and such problems, but some pimples occasionally show up, I often have hollows under my eyes, and a generally mixed skin which causes my complexion not to be homogeneous. Of course, this means I have to wear make up when I model, and I do also on particularly important occasions. I tend to avoid wearing any more than a concealer on everyday basis as I don’t want to stress my skin more than it’s strictly needed.

Up till some months ago, I had little to no idea about what making up actually meant. Most often, I would simply try and cover major imperfections with the wrong concealer rendering my skin even less homogeneous, try and apply it all over my face ending up with an awfully thick layer over it, or just causing some other epic fails. Also, I strictly used black eye pencil slightly faded on my eyes, with little to no variation. I must thank my dear Briar Rose for teaching me the fine art of proper make up, which improved not only my actual appearance, but also my rendition in photos, with considerably less amount of Photoshop needed to correct the mess I used to do. Also, she taught me to vary my eye make up and get different effects by combining eye pencil and eye shadow. I call her the official sponsor of my beauty case, as I always end up buying new cosmetics whenever we meet.

Currently, my standar make up consists of:
• Kiko Instant Perfection: it levels, smoothens, destresses and hydrates the skin, protecting the pores from being occluded by next layers;
• Kiko Skin Tone Corrector, Green: as my skin is inhomogeneous and I have redder spots beside my nose, this helps me correct my complexion making it uniform;
• Kiko Full Coverage Concealer 02: I only use small amounts of this in limited spots, such as eye circles and little pimples, as it is rather thick, but the results are remarkable and I wouldn’t need further make up at all after this;
• Kiko Skin Evolution Foundation 01 Porcelain: it’s a light yet covering foundation, which perfectly levels the skin without overloading it;

• A very slight veil of powder not to have a sticky skin.
• MAC Tinted Lip Conditioner, Petting Pink: it moisturizes and prevents lips from chapping, levels their colour and gives a very slight brilliance; it also tastes wonderful.

I still have to properly experiment with eye make up, but currently the products I use, to various degree of success due to my inexperience, are:
• MAC Technacol Liner: one of the best eye pencils I’ve ever used, easy to apply both clear and faded;

• Sephora Waterproof Kohl and Liner: it’s very thick and pigmented and useful for a heavy touch on the upper eyelid; I try to avoid using it on the lower eyelid as it tends to be a bit messy;

• I also have a couple of Kiko eyeshadows, but still have to experiment with them.

I use this lovely Neve brush set, which was a gift of my dear Briar Rose, to apply foundation, lip conditioner and eyeshadow, and aftermaths I take everything off with Kiko Eye & Lips Remover, which simply does miracles even with heavy and layered make up such us that of Happiness. It leaves the skin a little greasy, so I carefully clean it with Roberts rose water after I’m done.

So, here is the secret to how GothicNarcissus has such a flawless skin. Well, it’s thanks to Kiko, MAC and in particular Briar Rose.