Feature - Make up Inspiration

Text by Paul Seaman / Images by Barry Lategan / Jamie Harrison // Published Friday 17 February 2012

Next week’s video from Paul Seaman is a departure for MyHairDressers.com, as we present our first make-up tutorial. Having an understanding of make-up is an essential skill for session hairdressers and those planning their own collections. Hair stylists and make-up artists work closely together, along with clothes stylists and photographers to ensure the overall look is achieved for the camera or the catwalk.  

Paul explains how the final look is achieved from the perspective of cultural reference points and influences, through to the decisions made for the realization of the final look. 

Having worked as a make-up artist closely linked to the hairdressing industry for 30 years, I would like to take you through the creative process involved in this photo shoot. I was very excited about the shoot as it was a collaboration of world-renowned beauty photographer Barry Lategan - the man who first photographed Twiggy, the hair cutting genius and inspirational Tim Hartley, the very creative colourist Tracy Hayes and myself to create a make-up look.  

Before the shoot, I had spoken to Tim and Tracy to discuss our ideas for the hair and make-up. It’s important that everyone involved understands the direction for the finished look. The make-up colour palette has to work with the hair colour and model’s skin tone, while the shape of the hair cut dictates the make-up’s emphasis on facial features and bone structure.    

Tim had decided to do modern take on the original Twiggy haircut on his very pretty model India, and so the stage was set for a Twiggy inspired day! The next step was the colour Tracy was going to use - violet, blonde and grey, which added another dimension to the finished look and influenced the make-up look and the tones that I would be using.  

My inspiration for the make-up came from an obvious nod towards the iconic Twiggy 1960's image, but I had decided to use a pastel color palette as a contrast to the strong colours in the hair and to keep a soft doll like innocent look. A Barry Lategan Christmas Vogue cover of Twiggy from the early 70s came to mind as a basis for the look using a sloping triangle shape on the eye but I also wanted to add a doll like innocence by using very obvious false eyelash pieces on the top and bottom lashes - an inspiration from a Comme des Garçons show I had seen in Paris in the late 1980s. There is also a touch of 70s Biba make-up in this look, one of my favourite make-up eras, due to the high shine quality of the products applied.  

The colors and textures I have used in this look are very shiny and translucent pastel greens, blue, grey-blue and silver using the entire eye area in quite bold strokes of colour. The only definition comes from a stronger brow shape, an essential look for a very strong haircut and colour, and the blackness of the lashes. The cheek color also has a doll-like quality as it is a glossy baby pink.  

The almost-nothing lip colour was a decision to maintain innocence to the final look and to throw all the emphasis on the eye area. The end result is a modern take on the iconic Twiggy look.  

On our second model Sam, I kept the make-up to a similar theme of soft pastels in contrast to the orange and red fringe colours, but emphasized the brows by painting on a very defined sharp dark brown which I felt worked very well with the strong fringe shape Tim had cut. On the upper lashes I again added just a simple piece of false lashes but to the root of the lash I added a black painted dot in eyeliner to keep to the doll-like feel and to add depth to the overall look.  

Paul’s first video will preview on Tuesday 21 February, and the full video can be seen on Friday 25 February.  

Paul can be contacted via agence55 >>

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