Halloween - Mexican Day of the Dead Makeup

In our practical lesson with Kat we learnt and researched about Mexican Day of the Dead makeup. It's an interesting holiday celebrated in central and southern Mexico at the beginning of November. It is a holiday that celebrates the ancient belief of honouring their deceased loved ones and family members. Supposedly the gates of heaven are opened at the twelfth hour of October the 31 and all deceased children are reunited with their families for a short amount of time (24 hours). 

The people who believed in this tradition would mold sugar figures of angels and sugar skulls, which represented a departed soul. It would often have the name of the deceased person written on the forehead, and was placed on the gravestone to honour the return of the spirit. The sugar skulls reflects arty styles, big happy smiles with colour icing and sparkly/glittery ornaments. The more colourful the better! I really love the vibrancy of the traditional sugar skulls you see from the celebrations in Mexico. I was really looking forward to creating my own in the lesson!

Left image: Day of the dead inspired makeup. Right images: Day of the dead sugar skulls

My interpretation: 

I was paired with my lovely model Tolly, and created my own freehand sugar skull design. I wanted to use dark colours but also wanted to make it fun and creative. I used Illamasqua skin base,  and then the SupraColour palettes. To mattify the paints I used basic powder eyeshadows and powdered over the black eyes and darker colours used. I really enjoyed doing this freehand look and making it up as I went along! It was also great because I managed to work really quickly and efficiently. I want to try and experiment a bit more with the sugar skull idea over the Halloween period. 

My freehand sugar skull

Products used:

• Illamasqua skin base
• Kryolan Supracolour pallete in black, dark purple, dark red
• Makeup Revolutions palette lilac, pale pink

Brushes used:

• Kryolan flat foundation brush
• Kryolan Kabuki brush
• Mac lip brush
• Unknown brand eyeshadow brush
• Mac fluffy blending brush

Bibliography (images):

http://www.mexicansugarskull.com/support/dodhistory.html

http://thumbs.dreamstime.com/z/mexican-retro-sugar-skull-dia-de-los-muertos-icons-set-vintage-colorful-decorated-skulls-mexico-isolated-white-40995466.jpg

http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5511fc7ce4b0a3782aa9418b/t/5535e452e4b050914fab7074/1429595219996/feria-de-alfenique-sugar-skulls.jpg

http://halloweenalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/4054399626_2729d2a2c2_b.jpg

http://padmes.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/dod-face-painting.jpg