Ancient Egypt - Cleopatra

The Egyptians research
Many cosmetic materials still popular today including kohl and henna were first used in ancient Egypt. (The evolution of makeup)

Makeup artists have been around since the days of the Egyptians and their influence on fashion, media and consumers can be seen in the way they are now recognized as their faces were painted. The Egyptians were sophisticated chemists and they loved makeup, blending ingredients to prepare cosmetics. Ranging from moisturiser rizer, kohl, lip and cheek rouge to nail colour. (The story of makeup). They would make various powders from natural materials including nuts and minerals. They would then mix them with animal fat and or vegetable oil to make the texture of the mixture so that it would be able to be applied to the face with ease. Mixing equipment such as palettes, grinders and applicators have been found among the earliest burial sites. (The story of makeup).                          (Photo from the BBC)

This suggests they were not only essential in daily life but also in the afterlife. The Egyptians are mainly known for their eye makeup. However, they also are known for their use of bright red lipsticks that were homemade from red ochre.

Egyption women would wear a lot of makeup compared with woman of later centuries. (The story of makeup). Women of the Egyptian time period had a fair amount of autonomy. An early document called 'The Wilbour papyrus' shows us that ten to eleven percent of landowners were female. (The woman of smallholders and the military). A reason for this could be to do with the fact they had a female leader on the throne called Nefertiti. As one of the most powerful women in ancient Egypt, Nefertiti was queen alongside Pharaoh Akhenaten from 1353 to 1336 B.C. and ruled Egypt after her husband’s death. Nefertiti is best known for her painted sandstone bust, which was rediscovered in 1913 and became a global icon of feminine beauty and power. (History Channel)

Ancient Egypt was so accepting of makeup and had a lot of experimental work because it was one of the first societies to wear makeup. However, as time goes on civilizations would not prove to be so open-minded.

Men used to style their lashes just as often as women. They used kohl and ointments to darken the lashes, which also served as protection for their eyes from the sun's harmful rays. (Marie C

laire)

Hieroglyphics were called, by the Egyptians, “the words of God” and were used mainly by the priests. This art included images of things that were happening at the time and images of people. This gives us today a good insight into what the makeup actually looked like in the ancient Egyptian time as they are drawings from that time period and it is a very good primary source for getting a real look into the Egyptian fashion. (Discover Egypt)

The ancient palette

Rouge is the longest-lasting makeup item in existence, it is a multipurpose item and it is a primary
colour that can quite easily be made. 'The earliest rouge would have been sticks of red ochre pigment
made by iron oxides with animal fat or vegetable oil' (They story of makeup). Cochineal and kermes

types of insects were dried and used to produce carmine pigment, a bloody-red lead. This was used
over many different cultures and time periods including ancient Egypt, China, Japan, Rome and Greece.
This photo here is a ancient palette from in Egypt from a tomb.

(Photo from ‘The Metropolitan Museum of Art’)

Cleopatra

Cleopatra has been described as one of the most beautiful style icons that has ever been. From hieroglyphics drawn from the Egyptian times to busts fond from thousands of years ago, we can see that her style change the Egyptian times for the better. As shown in her bust found in her tomb in
Aston who was the owner of the bust from the museum has said: "it is not surprising then that some earlier-style features found their way into the Roman-Egyptian repertoire of Cleopatra's time, which also explains why scholars have struggled to place the ROM's piece.". This shows that the bust had been created in a way to show all the beauty of Cleopatra and make her look as perfect as they could because they have modified the bust. Cleopatra VII ruled ancient Egypt as co-regent (first with her two younger brothers and then with her son) for almost three decades. She became the last in a dynasty of Macedonian rulers founded by Ptolemy, who served as general under Alexander the Great during his conquest of Egypt in 332 B.C. 

Character profile

Name  Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator

Age    39

Place of birth      Alexandria, Egypt

Current location      Alexandria, Egypt

Class         High 
Quotes?    'All strange and terrible events are welcome, but comforts we despise'. Cleopatra

Moodboard

Makeup plan

1. First of all, I will apply the foundation making sure to make it a slightly darker shade than normal as it is for editorial. 
2. Use a lighter concealer shade and apply under the eyes. blend with a clean new sponge. 
3. Set the foundation with RCMA powder making sure to apply a thick layer under the eyes to catch the eyeshadow fall out. 
4. Then apply eyebrows using Cleopatras bust as a reference. Do this using dark (almost black) powder.
5. Next use bright blue eyeshadow to the lids blending them around the eyes to make the eyes look bright and bold. 
6. Add a black wing eyeliner to both eyes making the flick quick long and wide in order to be seen. 
7. Add contour and highlight. The highlight is gold flakes to be applied using pros-aid. On the check and collarbone. 
8. Add gold liquid lipstick on lips and apply gold flakes on top. 
9. Next, apply hieroglyphics using facepaint to the arms including the inner arms using reference photos of actual hieroglyphics.
10. Using facepaint apply eye pattern to left hand to connect to the face. Also, add snake on the right hand to line up with forehead when laces correctly. 

Review
I think this Cleopatra makeup turned out really well as the brief was to create period makeup for an advert. I think this piece works well for this as it has a lot of aspects to show off the makeup (in this case I went for eyeliner). Such as the hieroglyphics on the arms and hands really show what could be possible with the eyeliner and could inspire customers to purchase this eyeliner to have a go themselves. It also uses aspects of Egyptian period makeup, making it accurate to the time period. I used my research of the Egyptians to create this look. 

I started off by applying foundation to the full face. I used a darker shade of foundation as Cleopatra would have had darker skin with living in Egypt. As my model was very pale I decided to darken her skin with the foundation. Next time doing this makeup I would make the foundation slightly darker than I did as the colour washed out when the flash on the camera was on. I then powdered all of the face using the RCMA translusant powder. I made sure to apply quite abit under the eyes to catch the eyeshadow fall out as it is easier to take it off the face this way.

I then applied the eye shadow using Morphe 35B palette. I applied a bold layer to the lid and then blended the colour up into the crease. If I did this makeup again I would of like to add more depth and colour to the lids to make it stand out more than it does. I wanted the eyeliner to stand out because that's what was being advertised. However, I think this makes the eyes fade away and not stand out. I then applied a tilt eyeliner to the eyelid with a small cat eye at the end using I thin eyeliner brush.

I applied contour to the face using the Tilt contour palette. If I did this makeup again make the contour darker. I also added highlighter to give the model a more glowing look. I thought this was a clever was to create a sweat appearance as Egypt is very hot without adding glycerine to the face as this wouldn't photograph well for this picture in particular.

Next I moved onto the eyebrows, I used my reference pictures a lot here to make sure they were accurate to the time period. I used black eye shadow for this as this would of been similar to the texture to what their makeup was like then. I am really proud of this makeup as I think they turned out really well. They don't draw your eyes to them however, they show the time period well and balance the face out.

I then used pros-aid and fake sheet glitter to

the cheek to create highlight and to the lips applying it with a Kylie gold liquid lipstick. I applied it with this as the model had dry lips so I thought the glue may rip the skin off on the lips when removal. Next time I did this makeup I would try and apply a think layer to the lips just to make them stick better as some bits kept falling off.

I then created a eye hieroglyphic on the hand to connect with the eye as I thought this would make the eyeliner stand out in the advert and also it makes the time period more prominent. I also added a snake onto the top of the other hand to create a headdress look again with a model twist for the advert. I used Merhon gold paint for this and snazaroo face paint for the body. overall I think this was a very good idea as it brings a lot more to the look. However, I feel like next time I did this makeup I would add more detail to the snake as it didn't show up that well on camera.

Lastly, I used face paint to the arms to create hieroglyphics using a primary reference photo to draw them. I love this idea as it shows the 'eyeliner' off more and may inspire customer to buy it as it may inspire them and make them want to recreate this look.

I edited this photo underneath to make it look like a Chanel advert magazine advert.