Illamasqua contest entry 2 - Midas' Daughter

My inspiration for this came from the idea that the characters at the Art of Darkness dinner were searching for the secret of the elixir of life and the colours of the collection reminded me of alchemy which was the ancient theory of how to turn base metals into gold. In turn this reminded me of the story of King Midas and my idea came from there. The inspiration for the actual makeup look came from a few sources, firstly i remembered a look from some horror film where they had large cartoony veins drawn in black (can't remember which film and i couldn't find pictured on google so i had no source to look at) which i wanted to do but in gold. I also wanted the look to be sort of regal and that reminded me of a makeup look i love, Dave Stewarts in the Eurythmics 'There must be an Angel' video, where he plays a sort of playing card/rococo king with exreme contouring and gold eyeshadow.

The story of King Midas goes as follows:
In Ancient Greece there was once a great king named Midas. He was a good king but obsessed with wealth and loved gold above everything, including his one daughter Marigold. One day Bacchus came and after Midas showed him fine hospitality Bacchus agreed to grant Midas one wish. Midas wished for everything he touched to turn to gold. At first Midas was delighted by his new golden touch bu he soon saw the downside. He tried to drink and the water turned to gold, he tried to eat and the food turned to gold as soon as it touched his tongue. Worst of all when little Marigold came to see him Midas kissed her. Instantly all life left her and she was nothing but a golden statue. Midas cried and begged Bacchus to remove his curse. Luckilly Bacchus kindly agreed and told Midas how to cure himself. Firstly Midas washed his hands in  a river that ran near his house. He then collected some of the water in a pitcher and took it home. When he sprinkled the water on Marigold she returned to life. Midas was so delighted to be free of the dreadful golden touch that he returned everything in the house to it's original state and never lusted for money or gold again.

However I wondered what would happen if that is not where the story ended.

Midas' daughter has been searching for the banquet for a long time, desperate for the knowledge and help the gatherers might be able to grant her. Her father's stupidity has left her cursed. While once she was flesh and blood she is now slowly but surely returning to the gold that Midas lusted for. Gold dust now runs through her veins. She needs to find a solution to restore her humanity, but is it already too late? Sadly her emotions too are becoming as hard and cold as the yellow metal her body is reverting to.

 

 

More under the cut :)

 

To create this look I did my foundation as usual and added a bright red cream (NYX) to the apples of my cheeks. I then put some Illamasqua Illuminator in FOndle (which is pink with a gold duochrome) over the top. Then I brushed gold glittery shadow (Sugarpills Golidlux) all over my face (you can't see it in the photos sadly, i was proper gold and glittery). I drew on gold 'veins' with Illamasqua Alchemy liquid eyeliner. I defined my eyebrows using Sugarpill Bulletproof shadow. My eyes were done using about 10 different gold eyeshadows (a Barry M dazzle dust, Aromaleigh Ego and Mutiny, Sugarpill Goldilux, Illamasqua Ore and more i can't remember!) and i blended a gold with a black to create a darker colour, extending it down the sides of my nose. I put some of the Alchemy liner on my waterline (don't do it kids, it hurt like hell!) and added Collection 2000 Glam Crystals glitter eyeliner in Dig It to my upper lashline. Finally i added gold mascara. My lips were drawn on with a lip brush and Nyx Snow White lipstick and had gold glitter brushed onto the centre.

And now just for fun: