Creating face lace

Creating free-hand face lace

8 February 2016 

Today's creative makeup look was inspired by Phyllis Cohen's Face Lace. Phyllis is a makeup artist who is famous for her intricate designs and bold fashion choices. Thanks to her illustration background and fine art degree, Phyllis has developed an eye for big ideas and the talent to turn them into fashion masterpieces. Her portfolio includes campaigns for Clinique, Revlon, Vichy and the Body Shop. She always pushes the boundaries and taking everything to new levels. It is thanks to this that she became a favourite makeup artist for the likes of Annie Lennox, Steve Strange and David Bowie. More recently, Phyllis designed tattoos for Jean-Paul Gaultier and House of Holland and her editorial work is constantly published in Vogue and Dazed and Confused magazines.

Picture 1

Picture 2

Holly's demo

Holly started by cleansing the skin with a toner to remove any access oils. She than started blocking the eyebrow, using a glue stick. She made sure to really work the glue into the hairs. She then brushed the hairs upwards to really flatten them. She kept putting on layers of glue until she was happy with the coverage. The next step was to conceal the eyebrows. She used MAC Full Coverage foundation in shade NC30. She powdered this layer and applied a warmer colour to hide the ashiness of the brows. For this she used the MAC Dark Concealer palette.

Picture by me

Picture by me

Once she was happy with the coverage, she used a very fine brush by MAC (210) and a MAC acrylic paint in black to draw on the lace. She started with the under-eye area and moved on to the upper eyelid area, followed by the eyebrows.
Once she was happy with her design, she applied some glitter on top of the black lace design.

And here is her final free-hand face lace design.

Photo by me

Practical

After I covered my model with a cape and put a headband on her to protect her hair, I cleansed her skin with a cleansing milk by Kiko and a Toner by Kaeso Beauty. After I made sure that her skin was free of any access oils, I continued by brushing the eyebrow hairs upwards. I than applied the first layer of glue stick. I wasn't happy at al with the quality of the glue stick, because it just left little pieces of glue all over my model's skin.I decided to take this layer off and borrowed Holly's glue stick. This worked so much better and it really made the hairs to stick down.

Photo by me

Photo by me

Once the glue was dry I applied a thin layer of D32 colour of my Dermacolor Concealer palette to counteract the darkness of the hair. I than powdered this layer and applied a mixture of NW25 and NW35 shades of Mac full coverage foundation. I powdered this layer, but I still wasn't happy with the coverage, and a little bit of greyness was still showing through. Once I added a second layer of the MAC Full Coverage foundation, I was relatively happy with the coverage. I did not want to add a third layer of foundation to avoid the layers of foundation and powder to cake up. 

I than moved onto my face lace design. I decided to use the Inglot Gel Liner in shade Black because of its pigmentation. To be honest I did not have a specific design, I just went with the flow. I really enjoy creating detailed make-up looks, and I have done a similar face lace makeup look before, so it wasn't completely new to me. I also took inspiration from the Hungarian Matyo Embrodiery  patterns:

Hungarian Matyo Embroidery

Photo by me

Photo by me

I finished the look by adding some Mac Reflect Transparent Pink glitter. And the finished result:

Photo by me

The finished look

Product List:

• Kiko Cleansing Milk
• Kaeso Beauty Toner
• Clear Glue Stick
• D32 Dermacolor
• MAC Full Coverage Foundation in shades NW25 and NW35 mixed together
• Ben Nye Translucent Powder in shade Fair
• Inglot Black Gel Eyeliner
• MAC Reflect Transparent Pink glitter

Reference:

Moreno, L. (No Date) Face Lace by Phyllis Cohen [Online] Available at: http://face-lace.com/about (Accessed: 8 February 2016)
Pic 1: (2012) Face Calligraphy Made Easy: Face Lace by Phyllis Cohen [Online] Available at: http://mind2beauty.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/face-calligraphy-made-easy-face-lace-by.html
(Accessed: 8 February 2016)
Pic 2: Enipra, M. (2015) Glamorous Makeup [Online] Available at: http://enipramakeup.blogspot.co.uk
(Accessed: 8 February 2016)
(No Date) Hungarian Matyo Embroidery [Online] Available at: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/bb/04/02/bb04020343b24a3be4b9d333c205e2fa.jpg (Accessed: 8 February 2016)