How to Make a Portrait Using your Makeup

Have you been hoarding makeups in your closet or makeup kits and then discovered after checking it out, it can no longer be used because it is already expired?
Worry not, for in this tutorial you can actually still be able to make use out of it!

Image from pixabay.com

Makeups have only small shelf life unlike other stuff at home (well, except for the edible stuff at home). It would be unhealthy for your skin if you still opt to use it after its expiration period. Instead of making you look beautiful, it might have a harmful effect on your skin. On some instances, one of my friends did not know that an expired foundation was used on ther skin, she ended ip being infested with allergies as a chemical reaction.

Most of the lipsticks can only be used for 12month after being exposed to air. Meanwhile, some makeups can only last depending on the manufacturing to its expiration period.

Please, never take risks on using expired makeup and makeups with high led content
As much as possible, do not store it as kids may able to try it on their faces or worse, they might ingest it.

Now here is a sample process that I made awhile ago. You can also check the video from youtube I posted below. I picked it although there are tons of examples on youtube because I find the tutorial easy.

The first thing I did was to sketch the face. I made a round face first and then started to visualize the pose that our subject (the lady for this sample).

For beginners, you can make lines as your guide. You make a line from the subject's ear so that you can use it as a guide for the size of the eyes. You can also divide the face into half. In doing so, take note that the size on the eye which is nearer to audience of the artwork must be somewhat bigger than the other. Just do not make it too small.

Use a thin pencil as well so that you would not have a hard time in erasing the unnecessary marks.

And now I am through with my sketch. As you can also observe, my approach in sketching has now differ from the usual style that I use.

I took the eye shadow makeup palette that was already expired and started color her face. It felt like I had been doing a makeup painting on someone else's face.

In using makeup as a medium is like using watercolor or even color pencil. You tend to make dimensions using darker color just like how I approached it on the corner of our subject's face. And then near the corners of the face, the color of the eye shadow that has been used has become lighter. (1) The same thing goes with the eyeshadow of our subject. To create a depth, a darker shade of purple has been used. (2)

Although my eyeliner has not yet been expired, I used it to create our subject's eye lashes and eyebrows.

Water eyeliners tend to coagulate through time so what I did was to let it float on lukewarm water for few seconds. The moment I checked it out, the eyeliner has become more liquid than the usual.

I took time in coloring the eye lashes in definite directions. The upper eye lashes should always be thicker and longer than on the lower part.

And that is where my short tutorial in using makeup as our art mediun for today. You can also use your old makeup brushes in painting the face of the subject. You can make the surface a bit damp though so that the makeup would stick more.

Disclaimer: This video is taken from Miguel Sotto's youtube channel

Lipsticks can be used for the subject's blushing face. I do not advise lip tints though because the color is just so pigmented.

Nude color lipsticks can also be used for the nude effect on the skin.

Maskaras can be used to draw the subject's eyelashes or eve hair.

Foundations, BB creams, and CC creams are great for skin color.

If you want to have a wonderful effect on your artwork, you can try blending colors using light-colored foundation and eye shadow, or foundation and lip stick.

Thank you for reading. This is just a beginner's guide. If you happen to know other techniques, do not be hesitant to share it here.