Julia Speaks: June 2016

June 29, 2016 12 commentaires

June 19, 2016 31 commentaires

Well, this is quite a change for me! I've never done one of those 'transformation' makeups before, but here I am! I've wanted to try to recreate Lagertha's look from the show Vikings for a while now, so I thought why not share it with you guys.

If you're not familiar with Lagertha, she is one of the female leads of the series Vikings, from the History Channel. I love this show, it is just a feast for the eyes - beautiful scenery, beautiful costumes and makeup, beautiful people (yeah, that counts too) and you just get sucked in the story. Obviously the looks of the Vikings are massively made up and invented from scratch because we have so little imagery of this people, but I think what they've created is beautiful and I've had a lot of fun studying and doing this look.

So here are the pictures of Lagertha I took inspiration from:

Well, I'm not as badass and gorgeous as she is so I'm not claiming I completely transformed into her, I only tried to create a similar makeup and hair, and something that was reminiscent of Lagertha. Honestly, she is a total babe (and I never use that horrible phrase so it really is a big deal!). I'm going to talk you through all the steps for the makeup and hair, let's start straight away!

The Makeup

I decided to start with a sheer base, and I used a sample of the Diorskin Forever foundation and added just a tiny bit of Full Cover concealer by Makeup Forever under my eyes. The foundation is actually amazing, it really feels like you're wearing nothing at all - and by that I mean really nothing. Because Lagertha is a Viking, I didn't want to risk a heavier coverage that would instantly look fake and too put together. My motto for this look was 'messy and natural' (well, apart from the obvious emo eye makeup haha).

For the eyes, I wanted something very dark and smokey. That's the look that Lagertha wears for battles generally, but other female characters from the show wear very dark eye makeup (even the shipbuilder Floki does so, although his makeup is even more extravagant). I started by applying the shade Creep from the Naked Palette 1 on the lid, but I didn't go all over and stayed on the inside of the lid, blending out the edges. In the photos Lagertha is wearing a very thick line, I wanted to add a subtle touch of smokey effect to the look.

Then I used a black kohl pencil from Maybelline to draw a thick line on my upper and lower lashline. You don't have to worry about being precise, the thicker the better! It's easier to start with a thin line and build it up slowly all around the eye. No need to blend it out, the roughness of it makes the whole look!

Finally, I added a touch of glitter in the inner corners with Half Baked, also from the Naked Palette. It just adds a bit of light to the eye makeup, and if you look at the second photo of Lagertha in full size (it's a huge photo, very handy because you can see every little detail) it seems like the inner corners of her eyes are highlighted. Just a bit of mascara with the YSL Effet Faux Cils (false lash effect), no need to go all out with lashes because you can't even see them with all that black haha.

For the rest of my face, I decided to skip blusher because it looks too put together and not natural at all. To have that messy look that Lagertha often ends up with, I added touches of black eyeshadow in some areas of my face, as you can see from the photos above - on the top of my cheek, on the sides of my forehead, and on my chin. Just dot a few black marks and blend them out, to imitate the look of dirt - when you're a Viking in battle, you can't look completely neat and fresh can you? ;)

Last but not least, I put on a baby pink lipgloss, the Instant Light Perfector by Clarins. In most photos I've seen, Lagertha seems to have that light glossy look to her lips which is super easy to recreate, and again looks quite natural.

And this is what the complete makeup looks like!

The Hair

For the hair, I did something very simple and easy to recreate. Thanks to the awesome makeup and effects team of the show, the Vikings have amazing hairstyles, especially the women - intricate, braided hairstyles that I dream of being able to create. But as I'm not good with hairstyling, and my hair is still slightly too short for complex styles, I went for braided side-swept hair. As shown above, I've braided my hair on one side, up to the front of the hair. Side-parting makes it easier for that because you've got more hair to work with. I tied all the braids at the back, crisscrossing them on the side to give it more depth. I added two or three braids on the length of the hair, at the side.

I wish I had more hair and skills to do something that looks more like Lagertha's hair, but I thought the inspiration still came through with this style.

I really, really hope you liked this post. This is very different from my usual content, but I'd love to do more makeup transformations or specific looks in the future, from films or from different eras, so I'd love your feedback. And let me know if you think Lagertha is the epitome of awesomeness as well!

Do you watch Vikings? What do you think of Lagertha's look?

Lots of love,
Julia x