My love of Halloween and all that comes with it was not disappointed this weekend when my friend decided to hold a last minute fancy dress party, giving me the opportunity to try out some crazy make-up and to become the Black Widow. At such short notice, I was forced to make do with items I already had and to get a little creative – luckily I already boast a rather ample store of fancy dress items thanks to my university days. I just can’t bring myself to throw any of them away despite rarely needing them – but you never know when you’ll need to dress up!
The finished look – The Black Widow
The skirt I had bought only the other day and was looking for an opportunity to wear it out. I love the fitted jersey midi underneath and the grey mesh layer on top had the effect of looking a bit web-like which was the effect I was after. The fitted layer underneath was really helpful, it was a pretty windy night! The skirt was from Boohoo and cost only £12 – find it here. The top is a favourite of mine, from Missguided (as is the necklace), it is a velvet bralet with cut outs on the sides – these are great for showing off my rib tattoo! It cost £17.99 and is available here. The heels are my old reliable wedges from New Look and my rings are also from there. I actually loved my outfit, it was so comfy but really glamorous at the same time and I will definitely be cracking it out again, minus the cape, for a night out.
My Black Widow make-up
I decided that since I was mainly using accessories to create my outfit, that I would go all out for my make-up and wanted to try to create a strong look by really vamping it up. I looked online for ideas and tutorials and spotted one that I posted on here before the party that I thought I might try, but when it came to it I actually found another tutorial that looked a little simpler and quicker to do. See the picture below for what I was using as a guide and click on the picture to go to the YouTube tutorial.
Black Widow make-up by GoldieStarling
Now, although I am fairly good at doing basic make-up such as applying foundation, contouring, smoky eyes etc, I am not much of an artist and don’t really have the vision necessary to create such incredible looks. I based the entire idea around a pair of Paperself Lashes I was given at the EA Blogger Party and wanted to create the webbed effect around these. I know that my make-up is nothing in comparison to the beautiful job that Goldie Starling has done in her tutorial, but here’s how I created my look and changed it to suit my look.
First of all I applied my foundation (Maybelline Dream Matte Mousse in Sun Bronze) and concealer (Dream Lumi Touch by Maybelline in Sand) base, contoured using bronzer (Match Perfection by Rimmel in Medium), but left the blush out to make my lipstick stand out more. Then I created the strong smoky eye by using a frosty white and a silver eyeshadow from the Smoky Eyes Palette by Bourjois with a combination of Gunmetal and Creep from my Naked Palette by Urban Decay. This was set off with Extreme 24-house Felt Tip Eyeliner (Collection 2000), Exaggerate Waterproof Eye Definer from Rimmel and plenty of Benefit’s They’re Real mascara after I had curled my eyelashes. I then painstakingly applied the first false eyelashes I have used in years. The gorgeous Paperself lashes were cobwebs with spiders and looked amazing but were a bit to big and wide for my eyes so to make them easier to apply I cut them into sections and then just applied the biggest and longest ones to my outer lash line.
My smoky eye and false lashes
I then began to draw on the web shapes by starting with my white Barry M Khol Pencil and making the inner circle of web by drawing a scalloped circle around my right eye. From each point, I then drew a straight line outwards and tapered these off at the outer edges of the circle. I joined these by drawing more of the scalloped circles to join the lines together and create the web. Once I had done this, I shaded finely along the scalloped edges to create the web and smudged this using a bit of white eyeshadow to set the liner. The tutorial I watched suggested doing the white section first to create the negative shape before adding the black and I found it a lot easier having tried to apply the black shapes first in another attempt.
The web effect on the right side of my face
The next stage was to use the black felt tip eyeliner to draw on the black lines of the web which was fairly straightforward, but be sure to steady your hand and use long sweeping motions rather than short, sharp movements. I used a bit of the Gunmetal and Creep shadows to smudge the liners and create the web effect. I then added some gems that I found in my drawer, I bought them for a few pence at Primark ages ago and forgot I had them. I attached them using false eyelash glue and placed them around the outside corner of my eye with another on the outside corner of my left eye.
The left side of my face and some extra webbing
The tutorial was to create a symmetrical look with the web around each eye, but I didn’t have enough faith in my make-up abilities to get these close enough so I decided to add some webbing on my jawline on the left side of my face which I think worked rather well. I followed the same process to do this except in more triangular shape which was actually far simpler. I finished the look with my amazing new Collection 2000 Gothic Glam lipstick in Scorned (a dark purple shade that I had been looking everywhere for).
I was really pleased with how my make-up turned out and wanted to wear my hair in a massive quiff to add drama to the look and keep my hair off the make-up, but had to go for a wild back to the hair. I set the whole thing with plenty of hairspray to keep my hair and make-up in place all night. I was so pleased with how it turned out – for someone who is not incredible at make-up, I think I did a great job, especially using what I already had! What do you guys think?
AbsolutelyLucy 