Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Mizz Worthy's Illamasqua contest: Alphonse Mucha inspired look

As promised, this is my entry for Mizz Worthy's contest - hope you like it!

My inspiration for the look came from Alphonse Mucha's art and Art Nouveau movement. Alphonse Maria Mucha (1860-1939) was a a Czech painter and decorative artist, who is most famous for his lithographed posters. His works feature beautiful young women in flowing Neoclassical robes , often surrounded by lush flowers forming characteristic haloes. He used paler pastel colors than contemporary poster artists. The 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris diffused his style internationally and his art was often imitated. Towards the end of his life, Mucha rejected most of his commercial works and concentrated on the themes of his nationality as well as Czech art and Slavic peoples in general. He died of lung disease after being arrested by Nazis at the beginning of the World War II. 

Dawn

Dusk

I was mostly inspired by the colors and curved, fern-like lines of depicted women's hair and dresses. I've created something like a halo framing the left part of my face and then completed the look with pastel lids + distinct lashline and doll-like, full lips. If you browse through Mucha's posters, you can see how schematic his depiction of women is: porcelain skin, big pronounced eyes and sort of baby pout. This is my rendition:


And two collages:



The process of creation took a lot of time, effort and Q-tips soaked in make-up remover :) Just FYI, to achieve this look I curled my hair with a curling iron for the first time in my life and I put on fake lashes, also for the first time ever (is it embarassing to admit that?) . I took all the photos (170 of them, to be precise) myself, using self-timer function in my Canon PowerShot SD870 IS camera; just don't ask me how I made some of the photos look so full of light, I have no idea why some of them turned out like that.

List of products used
Face:
Sephora Zero-Shine Base
Inglot Cream Foundation in 21
Inglot Cream Concealer in 34
Coastal Scents Honey Fair 1.2 Flawless Finish Foundation
Coastal Scents Light Veil Flawless Finish
Wet n Wild MegaGlo Face Illuminator in 341 Blushing
baby pink blusher from my 78 palette

Eyes:
white, light cream, light beige and brown e/s from Coastal Scents 78 palette
shimmery navy blue e/s from CS palette
Max Factor Mechanical Eyeliner in Ice Blue 60
GOSH Eyeliner pen in Black
Covergirl Lash Blast mascara in Very Black
Ardell 110 lashes + Ardell lash glue

Lips:
Beautique Lipliner in Dusty Rose
Avon Lipstick in Christmas Spice
Inglot Blackberry Duo Lipgloss (baby pink)

4 comments:

  1. This is a fabulous entry, and I love the inspiration behind it and how well you explained it! Thank you so much for your entry xxx

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  2. Thank you so much, lovelies, I am thinking of another entry after Easter :)

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  3. This is just beautiful! I love Art Nouveau, I still remember being fascinated by it when I took art in high school. It's just gorgeous, and I love your representation of it, good luck : )

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