Estella: Makeup and Face Charts

Pip describes Estella as 'beautiful' and 'elegant', and in the victorian era, the beauty ideal was very natural and minimalistic. In the Victorian Era the heavy and obvious use of cosmetics was seen to be immoral and it was thought that only actresses and prostitutes would wear it. It was described my some as 'the tools of the evil'. It was a period of a very strict moral code and modesty. The upper class women would still wear make-up though, they would just try and make it look as natural as possible, only using neutral tones. The Victorian women wanted a achieve a fragile, feminine and elegant look, this was thought to be the ideal beauty.

A pale complexion symbolised nobility, as it had done for many years prior to this. This is because if a woman had a pale complexion it showed that she was wealthy enough to not have to work outside with all the poorer people, as this work would normally be outside in the sun which would result in a tan. Women would use powder to eliminate shine from the face. In the Elizabethan era very toxic ingredients were used in the cosmetics which gave them that very pale skin and, although these mixtures were still around, it was becoming more popular to use the safer option of Zinc Oxide, a white mineral powder, to achieve the same pale complexion. Women would also try and avoid the sun light to stay as naturally pale as possible, so they would always be under parasols when outside. Some women would even drink vinegar to help them achieve the desired look. As well as having a pale complexion, it was also popular to have a translucent complexion, so some women would draw on very faint blue lines on there skin to make it look like their veins were showing through. Some women would even emphasise their dark circles to give them an almost sickly look.

Queen Victoria is the perfect example of a victorian beauty ideal.
http://archive.avenuecalgary.com/files/imagecache/art
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Even though the use of makeup was frowned upon in the upper and middle classes, the women did still wear it, but just very sparingly. They would wear neutral and light shades of eyeshadows, made from lead and antimony sulphide. The women would wear a soft rosy pink on their cheeks, sometimes made from beet juice or by simply pinching their cheeks, and a light pink colour on their lips, made from mercuric sulphide. All of these products would have been applied very lightly and carefully to make them as natural looking as possible. As the Victorian women were a fan of the natural look, the women kept their eyebrows looking untamed and bushy, however the women who did wear the more obvious makeup would pluck their eyebrows or draw them on.

Keeping all of the above in mind, I have come up with three face charts to show my ideas for my Estella makeup. I wanted to keep the makeup look very natural and accurate to the era, therefore there isn't much variation between the looks. 

Design 1
I wanted to keep the skin very fair and with a rosy pink blush on her cheeks. I didn't want to use any product on the eyes, as I wanted it to be very young and fresh. I wanted her lips to be a soft red, as if she had pinched them and they had gone a natural red colour. I really like how simple this look is, however I think that, because my model has blonde hair, her eyes may not have enough definition around them. 

Design 2
This design keeps very accurate to the victorian era, with regards to the pale skin, rosy pink cheeks and rosy pink lips; however I wanted to give it a very subtle modern twist by adding the same rosy pink colour to the eyes. I wanted to add some definition to the eyes and thought it would look pretty, girly and feminine to continue the pink theme onto her eyes. However, I don't think that this would work for a film version, as I would want the makeup to look more accurate to the victorian era. 

Design 3 (Chosen Design)
For this look, I kept the skin very fair and added a rosy pink blush, focused just on the apples of the cheeks. I wanted to lips to be a similar colour to the cheeks, so I chose a rosy pink lip colour. I then wanted to add some subtle definition to the eyes to make them stand out a bit more; I therefore added a touch of light brown eye shadow on the lid and into the crease. I didn't want to add any product to the eyes, as I wanted them to look as natural as possible. I think that this look is the most historically accurate and I will therefore use this design in my final Estella look. 

Resources:
http://www.thebeautybiz.com/87/article/history/beauty-through-ages-victorians
http://www.dailymakeover.com/trends/makeup/eyebrows-history/