Aphrodite

Hi guys, so first of all I wanted to say that I'm extremely sorry that I haven't posted since September, things got a little hectic and I lost track of all things fun. The good news is that I managed to create my own class at school, recording my makeup looks, and keeping them all on here! That said, now may be a good time to start talking about the looks. So lately, I've been reading Rick Riordan's series' Percy Jackson and the Olympians, and The Lost Hero. They're all about the Greek gods and goddesses still existing today, and Greek mythology is a huge component. The point of all this? I'm obsessed with the Greek gods! So I decided it would be fun to create makeup looks based on the goddesses, titans, and spirits within Greek mythology. The first goddess, in alphabetical order, is Aphrodite.

Inspiration

Aphrodite is known as the goddess of beauty, love and lust. She is the subject of Boticelli's Birth of Venus (her Roman name) and is known for being so beautiful that if you looked upon her you would fall instantly in love. She is one of the oldest gods, having been born out of the sea foam before Gaea (mother earth) and Uranos (the sky) had any children. Aphrodite, being the goddess of lust, is married to Hephaestus (the god of blacksmiths and the forge), but her consort is Ares, the god of war. Legends say that Helen of Troy was the daughter of Aphrodite, and that it was because of her inheritance of her mother's lustful nature that the Trojan war occurred.  

Intent

Obviously (to me at least) those three things imply three totally different makeup looks; Beauty, Love and Lust. My intention was to translate my personal definition of each of these words into a makeup look in such a way that it would be obvious which look is which. So when I was thinking about beauty, it occurred to me that my definition was really just clean, bright skin, long eye lashes, and minimal actual makeup, so that's what I did.

Results

 I love this picture, even though there's an awkward shadow in my face...

Also I love this, the light and shadows on my face look really cool (at least, in my head...)

Tools & Techniques

 So, to make this (not quite) look, I used these four items. From left to right: NARS Velvet Matte lip pencil in Dolce Vita, Sephora Brand Top and Bottom eyelashes (but only on the top) YSL Touche Eclat, and YSL Teint Radiance. (Quick comment on false lashes? You have to blend them together with your real lashes using mascara. My current favorite is LashGasm by Too Faced, which has a small brush and works super well on your bottom lashes, also!)

This is a stippling brush, if you didn't already know. I got mine at Sephora, but you can pretty much get them anywhere. Use this to get that glowy, barely-there foundation. Used with my YSL Teint Radiance, it finishes my face perfectly, and blends out evenly.

Intent

Aphrodite is also, obviously, the goddess of Love. So what comes to mind when you think of love? For me, it's Valentine's Day, all the pinks and soft colors, and romantic candle light in restaurants. Building on that theme, I decided to go with pink eye shadow, a golden shimmer highlight on my brow bone, and a pale pink lip. Don't I just radiate love? 

Outcome

So, as you can see it's also a simple look. I'm sorry I couldn't get a good shot of my eyes. The pink is darker in the outer corners, and my lips are a few shades lighter, sort of a baby doll pink.

Close up of my lips...awkward, but the color is great, right?


Tools & Techniques

 So, to make matters easy, I built on my "beauty look" using a NARS Velvet Matte lip pencil in Roman Holiday.

 I also used this Urban Decay Limited Edition 15th Anniversary Palette, the shade "Tainted" (very top row, middle color) all over my lid, "Junkshow" (which is right underneath Tainted) and "Vanilla" as the highlight color on my brow bone (left row, middle color)

To blend it all together, I used this Sephora Brand blending brush. It's all nice and fluffy, and it makes the colors mesh together perfectly.

Intent

Also the goddess of lust, Aphrodite was the creator of simple attraction, which, to me, says "bright red lip!" rather loudly. A rule of makeup is that if you're going really strong on the lips, make the eyes simple. Vice versa, crazy colorful bright eyes definitely demand nude lips. In this case, bloodred merits black winged eyeliner.

Channeling my inner lusty goddess...right.

 Another awkward lip shot! 

 Eye close up! can you tell that my eyelashes are fake? I love them. Notice, the wing is not so pronounced, and the bottom only goes so far. It's a good, easy eyeliner trick to make your eyes look rounder.

 Note the eyelash glue. It's pretty easy to do, actually. However, I would be lost without my eyelash tweezers (this is not the technical term). they're a type of tool that can be used to hold the eyelashes, like pliers, but wide enough that you can hold the entire lash. I use it to hold the lashes while I apply the glue to the band, and then I move the whole thing to my lash line. It's an easy and clean way to apply your lashes.

 Side shot, and i think this looks kinda cool!

Tools of the trade. Just had to take off my shadow, and replace it with my black Sephora pencil (which I have totally worn down to a teeny tiny nub...) as well as my NARS Indian Red lip stain. I love lip stains! they go on like lip gloss, and then dry to a matte finish, and never budge. Fantastic.

So, Aphrodite is the goddess of all things beauty and love related, and I think these three looks based on her are pretty good primary representations of the three main points. I can always do more complex, interesting things later, building on these templates...thoughts? Questions, comments, concerns? Let me know!

xo, Goddess of Love