Comparing My Final Design with the Makeup in Elizabeth: The Golden Age

The film, Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), was visually beautiful. 34 people made up the make-up department and 58 people made up the costume department and you can see why! Cate Blanchett, who played Elizabeth I, had many outfit changes, but the makeup always stayed roughly the same, just more or less dramatic. Here I will compare my final makeup design with the makeup looks from the film.

My Modern Elizabethan Makeup Design.

Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth: The Golden Age.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/06/08/article-233
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These makeup designs look very different, but you can see that I have taken inspiration from the Elizabethan makeup and given it a modern twist. The rosy lip colour is very similar in both makeup looks, but hers is slightly darker, more defined and glossier. I kept the skin around the eyes very white and smooth, just like Cate Blanchett's makeup in the film, but I gave the rest of the face more texture to show what I think the makeup would have actually looked like in person. In both makeup looks the eyebrows have not been blocked out, but just lightened in colour. She may have had her eyebrows bleached or they could have been naturally fair, but my eyebrows are very dark naturally, so I coated mine in white super colour. We both have very bare eyes, with no definition of colour added. Her eyelashes don't look as white as mine because they may have been her natural eyelashes or bleached; but I had to coat mine in white super colour because they were so dark, giving a much more dramatic look. Cate looks like she has got a strong contour in this image but that is just down to the lighting, not the makeup. She has a soft rosy coloured blush on the apples of her cheeks. I have used roughly the same colour, but have just positioned it differently. It was very popular to have a big forehead in the Elizabethan era, however I decided to contour my forehead because in today's society a lot of women contour their foreheads to make them look smaller. My look is a lot more dramatic and abstract than the makeup used in the film, but, as you can see, I have taken much of my inspiration from the Elizabethan era.