Progress on Billie's design

I wanted to practise Billie's design one last time before the makeup assessment, so that I could perfect the technique and iron out any kinks that we may come across. I feel so much better after doing this practise for her makeup, and it has definitely calmed me down a lot as I was very panicky beforehand. We did practise this like the actual assessment, so that the products were set up properly and we tried to do the entire look in 1 hour 10 minutes.

I wanted to photograph the set up so I could reinforce to myself
exactly what products I need.

 Billie wanted to change her design slightly so that I pale out her brows slightly so that they aren't as dark and then filled them in with a light brown eyeshadow. However after just doing the technique of lightening the eyebrows I thought that they looked light enough and didn't need filling in any more. Billie did agree with my thoughts and she will adapt her design to fit this. I felt a lot more confident with this in comparison to her original design, where we completely blocked out her eyebrows, which to me did also take a lot away from the face. 

The tears close up

I was so happy with how the tears came out in this practise, as when I had previously done them they did have the resemblance of sunbeams and looked rather fake. In order to get a more 'authentic' look to the tears, I built up a small amount of the black aqua colour underneath the eye in the place where I wanted the tear to fall, then I dropped water onto the area so that it would naturally run. I think this looked so much better in comparison to the previous practise as the running tears did take off some of the base - much like a normal tear would do. I then repeated the same step with the gold aqua colour, although it isn't as bold as the black, it added a subtle shimmer to the face and gives the black more depth as if the tears have been freshly cried. Billie also wanted me to add the gold aqua colour onto the water line in the places where the tears fell, just to brighten up the waterline slightly, and also give the shimmering effect to the eyes to again  make it look like she had just been crying. I think this was a really good idea of hers and it does add that extra depth to the eye to make it look more realistic rather than 'sunbeams' coming from the eyes. 

The final look

All in all it took about an hour to do the full makeup look as well as cleansing,toning and moisturising. Using a timer made me feel so much more at ease so that I know I am keeping to the correct timings and I have enough time to do the whole look properly. I did realise after we practised that I never covered Billie's hands, as she wants them to be included in the final portrait, so I will need to remember to do so in the final assessment so that her hands are the same shade as her face.

I feel so much more at ease now, I think this definitely helped me mentally prepare for the final assessment, so that I don't panic and work myself up beforehand as I have been known to do so in the past. I know that I will probably be very nervous anyway but having done the this extra practise, it just gives me extra reinforcement that I can do the task and complete Billie's design in the time and to her liking.