Author: Mariana
Makeup, as we know, is the most common part of a regular routine in many people’s lives.
There are many reasons why makeup is applied daily. It allows you to emphasize the features you already have and define your creativity. China has a long history of cosmetics and there natural ancient beauty standards, especially through noblewoman. Most of the cosmetics were naturally and organically produced from plants, food and sometimes even animal fat! Originally the beauty standards in cosmetics and the admiration for the ritual began in the Southern Dynasty but, it was rather more widely popular in the Tang Dynasty, highlighting the importance of inner beauty and characteristics!
There are officially 7 steps to follow, Chinese woman took this ritual very seriously, all in which define different meanings for the woman and their facial features, but we decided to add an extra step,8!
Ready to begin this chic, plum blossom look?
Steps:
Let us begin with the very first and simple step because it’s about to get more intense, have a clean and clear face from any makeup. Prepare your makeup tools and have an idea of what you’d like your style to be according to the tables provided below.
1. The very first step is to find your most pale powder or foundation, most of the woman today in the western world love to have a tanned glowing skin tone, but the Chinese woman loved there fair and soft skin complexion. This allows you to have a fresh complexion! Fun Fact: The powders were usually made from grinding rice!
2. Have a pinky, soft red rouge blush to apply all over your checks choose how you’d like to define this look, whether it’ll be a more rounded blush application or more of a contouring blush look. It really depends on the outcome, I picked to contour a rather defined cheekbones triangular shape. Tip: you can even use lipstick, it’ll work just fine!
3. This step is my favorite! Applying the eyebrows, we all love to shape and define them, this makes it’s even more fulfilling to do. You get to make them bold, stylish and completely redefined. It’s so fun to do since it empowers you to develop your own style without any judgments! Darken and shape them according to what you’ve picked from the eyebrow chart. I picked the late Tang Dynasty (828-907) since I have arched eyebrows. Remember, long, fine eyebrows make you younger known as ‘Emei’ and bold, short eyebrows are known as ‘Guangmei’ are powerful and distinctive since they believed it’s linked to there faces, it resembles elegance in many forms. Tip: Focus on the shape you already have, if you want to explore a different option, use concealer on your eyebrows!
4. The yellow crescent on the forehead can be a choice of option, if you have a nice pale/light looking golden yellow create a circular shape on the middle of your forehead, here’s a little secret, I used my highlighter to do this, very faintly I made a smaller circle around my forehead not bold enough to make it obvious just for a little glow! Otherwise, proceed with drawing your “花钿 Huawei Dian”. You can search online for some unique styles, have fun with this step! Fun Fact: The ornament designed was attributed to the princess named Shouyang, of the Southern Dynasty. A blossom had fallen on her forehead, as she slept under a tree and wore it for a few days!
5. The check ornament, two dots in red, few finger spaces from the corners of your lips.
Tip: I placed mine as if they where my cheek dimples!
6. Paint the red slant, the easiest step!
7. Almost finished, time to apply the lips! Use your lipstick to define the shape you want them to look. I used a lipstick that had a gloss to make it look shiny! I did the cute heart lips, very beautiful and delicate! Tip: You can create an outline of an M!
8. Finish the makeup look by adding your own touches, it’s supposed to be fun and theatrical, allow yourself to feel empowered by how the Chinese loved there smooth, expressive and stylish look! Think about your hair, the eyelashes, add some medium and light brown/red tones to contour the shape of your eyelids! Emphasis the beauty culture, let your imagination fly high!
8 simple steps and an hour of the procedure later, you should almost be done! One more fun fact, normally this makeup look took the Chinese woman hours to perfect, it was so important that the entire look had a flow, they had to spend many hours practicing and even applying took them hours!
Finally, many thanks to our Luka, who beautifully demonstrated step by step how to create the Tang Dynasty makeup, we all had a blast attempting this look and learning about the way ancient makeup influenced the daily lives of many women long before our beauty standards now.
Remember to share your images with us and what your makeup look turned out to be by tagging us #edupalchina on Instagram! Stay tuned for further posts on our cultural events, they are super intriguing and exciting to participate in!
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