Kabuki Fun!

Inspiration

My inspiration for this look was, obviously, the Japanese art of Kabuki. The thing about it is that these characters have to have their entire faces painted. They start off white, then shadows and colors are added, and different colors mean different things. Some of the parts require so much makeup that the inside of the actor's mouth must be painted a color as well. There are also rules about certain kinds of eyebrows, and the size of women's lips. Funnily enough, Kabuki was invented by a woman. I would love to meet her.

Intent

I wanted to capture the spirit of Kabuki, without full-on creating a character. I love colors and I thought that the idea of creating a blank face, a stark white canvas, was a really good idea. It's harder than it seems, though, to do successful Kabuki makeup. This was my first time experimenting. Let me know how it goes.

Tools & Techniques

 From left to right: Sephora Brand shadow brush, Smashbox straight-edged brush, Sephora Brand Stippling brush (usually one uses this to get an even application of foundation...I thought it appropriate for trying to get an even layer of white face paint on.), BH Cosmetics 88 Color Matte Palette, Make Up For Ever 12 Color Flash Case (which I used to paint my face white, and to draw on new black eyebrows. It didn't work as well as you'd think. The formula is simply too oily to make for good coverage and staying power.), Urban Decay 24/7 Lip Liner in "Naked" and L'Oreal Paris Infallible LipColor in #300 Cerise. Below are the three colors I used from my BH Cosmetics palette; red, pink and lilac purple. I chose to use these three colors because I don't very often get to wear red eye makeup, and in addition, red is a very often used color in Kabuki. The fade out from red to purple looks really interesting, I think.

Outcome

 Painting my face white. Oy. I hate how you can still see my eyebrows. More proof that this MUFE stuff is terrible!

 I am obscenely annoyed at the lack of symmetry between my two new eyebrows. Oh, well. It was interesting to do. I've never had to draw on eyebrows before.

 For some reason, this picture reminds me of my little sister. I can't explain why. And I certainly don't mean that as an insult. How cool is this finished product? So cool. I love the gradient from red to lilac. Also, look at my silly teeny lips! I'm so amused by that. 

 You can still see my skin tone through the white! You should not be able to! Ugh. How annoying.

 I love this close up. I think it allows you to see the colors better, however you can also still see my eyebrows...something is so wrong with that.

 Tiny lip close up! They're so funny to me. When I would really smile, my teeny tiny little lips would move too, only slightly. Just enough to look really weird. Anyway, that's my take on Kabuki. I don't think it's my thing. It was so hard to wash all of that off of my face. So much effort for about 20 minutes of actual picture taking...worth it.