As you know, the contest this time had two entry routes, and hence two ways to win – ie via my blog, or via the MUSE You Tube Channel! So that means there are two winners, each of whom win the entire Art of Darkness collection, as well as a place on MUSE’s Catwalk Trends Makeup Bootcamp.


So without further ado, the winner via blog/photographic entry is…

Natalie Grimes from NOTD Blog with her entry “Flora and Fauna”…

Natalie described the inspiration behind this look;

“My character is called Flora and Fauna. As well as the other 13 characters I took inspiration from the environment where the banquet is to take place. I started to think about what sort of creatures could be roaming around an enchanted forest and what sort of life would grow there. I’ve always loved the idea of an enchanted wood and loved any books that referenced this kind of place when I was a kid so it wasn’t hard to let my imagination run wild. Being mythical I could choose anything so didn’t strictly stick with just the idea of a forest, I brought in a bit of jungle as well. I was originally going to do two separate makeup looks, one for each character as I had decided to do twins. But then I started to think about different personalities existing in the same body and decided to do half a face to represent each. I liked the idea of them battling inside one body and the darkness and mystery of never knowing quite which one you were talking to…
The twins embody all life in the enchanted forest. Two personalities co-exist in one body. Flora is gentle and sharing, radiating light and calm. But Fauna is wild and unpredictable. She is exotic and alluring, yet dark and possessive. Make sure you know which one you are dealing with or you might just end up being dinner!”

Natalie put so much work and preparation into her look, and created the 3d pieces around the eyes herself using fimo and various other items - Everyone loved the level of preparation and imagination evident in the look – and the appearance of a foot comimng from the right brow also wowed us! Natalie also created an amazing face chart;

Natalie used lots of different techniques including stencilling to create the final look..

So, the all important question is… Why did Alex Box choose this one as a winner?

Alex said “Total innovation of 3D material. So many amazing entries that were evocative of the existing characters, and there was some technically superb entries but I felt that the research and drawings showed her passion for the subject and love for the craft of make-up.”

On a personal level, I love it when entries like this storm these contests – I started these contests with Illamasqua because I wanted to encourage people of all backgrounds to try and be creative, and I’ve always tried to get that across when I get the contests going – Natalie’s look more than fulfils that – it is creative quirky and original, and most of all, unexpected – Natalie, we had over 150 entries to this contest. It was our biggest ever and it was the hardest to judge – so a MASSIVE MASSSIVE WELL DONE to you – You really deserve it!

All I need from you now is your full name and address – send it to my email address in the side bar and we can get your prize to you and get your place organised! Well done!!!

See Natalie’s original blog post and entry HERE.

The other winner, via You Tube was…

“Oriental Demon” by Krysanthe;
http://www.youtube.com/v/ACrjtQvfJko?fs=1&hl=en_GB
This is a stunning entry, and also a stunning video which really gets across Krysanthe’s aims well.

Alex chose this look as a winner because she thought that “The new twist on the geisha format – planes of the face replaced with techno colour – brought a new unisex character to life. I liked that I could see that the character was believable and sensual by adding flesh and mystery to it in the form of narrative through the video.”

You can check out Krysanthe’s Channel HERE.

Finally I’d just like to say a massive thank you to EVERYONE who took the time to work on their entries for this contest – as I say there were some truly stunning looks entered, and everyone was really inspired. Judging this was extremely difficult, and none of us envied Alex Box for having to actually make the decision over the winners!