GUEST POST: Cleopatra Inspired Look

Hello everyone! I am happy to have another guest post on my blog, this time featuring a great friend of mine, Rachel. She will be writing about how she created a beautiful Cleopatra inspired makeup look – cat eye lovers, this one is for you! Even if you aren’t a fan of cat eye and/or can’t master the look, read on anyways because Rachel has some great advice AND preview on many makeup brands including Smashbox, Too Faced, L’Oreal, NYX, and Revlon! Thanks for doing a guest post with me, Rach. Hope everyone enjoys, let’s get started!
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Hi lovely readers of Carmen! I am so excited I get to guest post on here, Carmen’s blog is a must read for me. I trust her as a friend and beauty guru/foodie extraordinarie. I am by no means, a beauty guru/expert status and I also use a lot of drugstore products. So if you are one of those girls sitting at home watching Youtube and then proceeding to sit in (not on, in) the bathroom sink, to get just the right angle for that perfect cat eye–we are one.

So, I did in fact sit in my sink to do this look. Winged eyeliner is no easy feat, and doing so with liquid liner is even less so– doing winged eyeliner with liquid liner and being Rachel Carrier -post concussion…even harder. This look came about as I was exploring the beautiful world of Miss Cleopoatra herself. Since school stared again, I have come back in touch with my love of literature and enrolled in all a Shakespeare course (be still my heart). One of our assignments involves memorizing and reciting a soliloquy from the piece you are assigned that week. I got Cleopatra and I was beyond excited. Egyptian inspired make up is bold and intricate and so strikingly beautiful. Balancing rich, dark skin tones with piercing, vibrant eyes and lining everything with thick black creates a contrast and a story that represents the person themself. I started by googling images of Cleopatra. The classic thin and precise dark eye brows that match up with thick winged liner and blue eyeshadow and paired with blood red lips was a starting point. I decided to stick to a pretty classic looking Cleo, and I would just tailor it to the products I had and what colours suit me best…aka not blue.

What I used:
Too Faced- Matte Eye Pallete $50: This is my favourite pallete of all time and a great investment. The brown colour doubles as my eye contour shade AND brows, any double whammy product is good in my books. I tend to stay away from sparkle or shimmer because matte colours are easier to work with on a day to day basis and shimmery colours have a strange effect on my eye.
L’Oreal Colour Riche- New essentials eye quad in 525 $11: When I do use shimmery colours, this is my go to pallete for adding drama and glamour to any look. The pigments are rich and they go on true and do well layered. I suggest stroking your brush through gently and then tapping off the excess and blotting on the pigment before sweeping it on your eye lid for better coverage and less leakage.
L’Oreal Magic Perfecting Base $12.99: I bought this on a whim whilst in London Drugs and shortly after watching a slew of Youtube tutorials. I wanted to have the perfect matte skin that they have, but I was concerned at the price for such a small pot of product. But a little does go a long way, I use it for special occasions when I am wearing foundation. It creates a more even complexion and allows for even coverage.

Smashbox Full Exposure Mascara $18: This was a Sephora splurge. But, because of my lack of and short lashes, I need a mascara that will support and add body. I am not sure, if it is the one I will use forever, but it has done me proud.
Revlon Bold Laquer Mascara $9 for 2: To be honest, I bought this because it was on sale. I am not sure how I feel about this mascara yet, the brush feels spiny and the mascara itself has a strange texture that is very laquer-esque. I used it as a base before my Smashbox one because I find it does seperate and add length very well.
Revlon Colour Stay Liquid Liner Skinny $7.99: Revlon was having a buy 2 get 1 free sale. I really love this liner though. It has a super, skinny, precision tip and the formula is wearable but not too sticky and it is forgiving.
Maybelline Scandaleyes Waterproof Eyeliner Khol Kajal $2.99: I swear by this stuff. It is so smooth and creamy, it is wearable and I just love it. I use this on a daily basis to tightline my upper lash line and it creates a natural thick lash line.
Revlon Nearly Naked Foundation- 150 Nude $7.99: I like this foundation because it is light and easily blended with a light to medium coverage. It doesn’t crease or become too greasy on my skin either. I tend to stay away from foundation because my skin has a lot of irritations and foundation makes it worse or can look cakey, but this is nice and fluid which makes for a light finish.
Nyx Lipstick- 511 $3.99: This lipstick is a vibrant red with a nice rich formula. It isn’t super creamy nor is it too sticky. It goes on smooth and leaves a nice stain as well. I like to layer it with other colours.
Sephora Lipstick $16: The tube doesn’t say what shade it is, but I love it. This appears different in the tube than on your lips. You should test it first on your skin tone. It is a really dark plum, but it is defintely a rouge. I like the consistency of this lipstick and wear it often in the fall.
For the look itself, I swept the gold colour eye shadow over my lid to the crease and then dabbed the copper colour in the crease and shaded it in to create a dull smoky eye. I added gold to the inner corners of my eye and lined the inner half of the bottom lid with gold as well. I then used the dark shimmery purple to create a more smoky effect on the outer bottom line as well as in the crease. I enhanced the smoky shadow with the black and brown from my Too Faced Pallete, and I used the white as a highlight for my brow bone. Cleopatra has very defined eye make up look and I wanted to soften it slightly for modern day.

I kept my brows well defined and extended them past where I would usually have them. I used a mix of the brown and the black in my Too Faced Pallete. I then tightlined both the upper lash line and the waterline with my black eye liner, making sure to connect in the inner corner for that signature cat eye. Then I used the liquid liner to extend into my winged liner. In most pictures, Cleopatra’s winged liner meets with her brows. That is too extreme for me, so I left about 2 centimeters of space. I finished with more gold on top and two coats of mascara. My trick for stubborn lashes is to heat your eye lash curler under a hair dryer for a few seconds til just warm, then curl and mascara them.
The final touch was the lipstick. I first used a layer of my Babylips chapstick from Maybelline. Then I did a layer of the Sephora lipstick, I blotted, then a layer of the Nyx lipstick then blot and then I pressed some black eye shadow into it as well with my finger and just blended. Of course, a well angled selfie was due after all this work.

And there you have it folks. An easy and modern take on a classic queen. I may not be as striking as Cleopatra may have been, but I hope to have the confidence and wit that she possessed and was known for having. A beauty from within, so to speak. I had a lot of fun doing this, and I am honoured that Carmen asked me to blog it. Thanks for reading, lots of love to y’all.

-Rach