Persephone

Inspiration

Persephone, because she isn't one of the 5 major goddesses (Aphrodite, Artemis, Athena, Hera, Demeter) is often overlooked. She's actually the daughter of Demeter, and the goddess of springtime. Her myth is that Hades took a liking to Persephone and kidnapped her, taking her away to the underworld. Persephone didn't know that if you ate food from the underworld, you were forced to stay there, and she ate a few seeds from a pomegranate. Demeter, discovering that her precious daughter had been taken, was furious at Hades, and demanded that Persephone be returned to her. Hades refused, and Demeter suggested a compromise. Persephone would remain in the underworld for six months of the year, and on Olympus for the other six months. Thereafter, Persephone became goddess of spring, her return to the surface of the earth giving her mother joy and ending the 6 months of cold weather.

Intentions

What do you think of, when you think of spring? I think of flowers blooming, the smell of rain, and the earth waking up. The bright colors of Daffodils and Lilacs and the green that spreads over the earth like a blanket. That was my inspiration for the makeup look based on Persephone: the bright colors of flowers. I wanted to make this look very colorful, after all, she is the goddess that ends the dreary gray winter months. I used pale and almost fragile colors, like the tenuous first weeks of spring in which the weather is unpredictable, and unsure. I wanted to keep the blending to a minimum, however, because I feel that flowers are always a pop of color, never fading into the greenery around them.

Outcome

The overall look...you can see the colors, almost pastel. The four colors are green, pink, purple and periwinkle. I love it, and the glossy lip is very sweet and springy.

 The eye close ups are my favorite, with all the colors...they're so awesome. The green is like the stems of flowers, and the other colors are like the petals. I didn't go to the trouble of blending all the colors, because like I said, different colors of flowers don't blend together, they stand out against each other. I think that despite the lack of blending, the makeup looks great. The pink actually didn't photograph very well, it's much more of a vibrant hot pink...

Awkward lip close up. I love gloss...it seriously makes your lips look much fuller. This one actually has sparkles in it, but I love it anyway (my glitter prejudice does not extend to this) it's totally spring-themed and good.

Tools & Techniques

 This is the first layer of my BH Cosmetics 120 Color Palette, 2nd Edition, the source of all four of the colors for this look. The first one is the pale green (the second row from the top, third from the left) the second is the pink (the bottom row, second from the right) next is periwinkle (third row from the top, fifth row from the right) and the purple (second row from the top, fourth from the right). I chose these colors because they're all very different from one another. I wanted to use the different colors to create the effect of a field of flowers, almost. The varied colors are extremely important in doing that. I chose to apply the green to the inner corners of my eyes, as a sort of stem, and after that I simply picked colors. The one thing to make sure of is that all of the colors stand out equally. Don't blend, and don't put very similar colors next to each other. Use a normal flat shadow brush to make sure that your colors go on brightly, and that the outer lines are straight.

The other three products I used were, from top to bottom: Sephora Brand Lipgloss Stick #3, which is the sparkle on top of the pink, Tarte LipSurgence Matte Lip Pencil in Lucky (supposed to moisturize your lips 6000% or something crazy like that, and is also the perfect shade of pale pink!) and Maybelline Illegal Length Mascara. The reason I chose to use a matte lip pencil (which just means that it's not shiny, shimmery, or glittery, but completely flat color), and then immediately slick gloss over it is simple; matte pencils tend to have a more opaque color. The pink of this pencil really does cover your lips to a completely matte and opaque finish. When things are opaque it's easier to hide imperfections, such as chapping, or this one freckle I have on my lips. What I mean is, matte lip pencils provide a clean and completely blank canvas to work with. Use it well. You can use any matte color, all will create a perfect blank canvas. The Sephora lipgloss pencil, when used on its own, is too glittery, and not pink enough to look normal. It gives your lips a sort of eerie, pale glow, instead of being pink and glittery. So, to remedy that but still keep the sparkle, layer it over a different shade of opaque pink. Last, but not least, Maybelline's Illegal Length mascara. This is a current favorite of mine, lots of length and definition, no clumps or extra volume.

Persephone is responsible for bringing about spring, and I honored both her and spring time with this colorful and fresh makeup.