Last night we rented Maleficent. It was just as good as it was in theaters. The storytelling is beautiful, every frame lush and artistic, the costume designs gorgeous – and the makeup. I am always in awe of the look they gave Maleficent; an appearance both monstrous and beautiful. As the credits rolled, I remembered that I had received five or six requests for a Maleficent makeup tutorial when the movie first came out. I had forgotten, and unfortunately, this being the month of nonstop novelling, I knew I didn’t have five hours to spend filming, editing, and uploading. So I took a shortcut – I did the makeup, and I will tell you about the process so you can replicate it. Naturally you don’t need to follow my steps exactly – feel free to play around and have fun!

THE PROCESS

/apply foundation/use dark eye shadow or the e.l.f. eyebrow kit to shape your eyebrows with sharp angles and color them in/ apply primer from your eyelid all the way up to your eyebrow/ apply a light gray/purple to the entire area/ apply black to the inner and outer corners of your crease, and blend mightily/ use a dark gray or deep purple and brush from the inner and outer corners / use a black eyeliner pencil around your lashline and smudge (carefully! you don’t want to look too goth.) / curl your eyelashes, then apply generous coating of mascara to the upper and lower lashes / take e.l.f. shimmer n’ shine (DO NOT USE BLUSH! I repeat, DO NOT USE BLUSH! it will ruin the pale, fey look) and rub it across the tops of your cheekbones / take a bronzer and sweep it underneath your cheekbones, then blend lightly, stroking the brush downward/ apply lots of red lipstick! My perfect red is Burt’s Bee’s lip crayon in Napa Vineyard. Voila! You’re all through. You can do something fun with your hair or, like me, do nothing with it and if anyone asks, tell them faeries don’t do their hair.