Mermaid Photoshoot: Behind the scenes

For my fourth photoshoot I chose the location of a beach in the New Forest to photograph the mermaid look on. 

When choosing the hair and make-up design, I wanted to have 'classic' mermaid elements such as long natural wavy hair and glittering skin but without it looking too cartoon like and obvious. 

For the make-up, I started by mixing Illamasqua hydra veil with Bobbi Brown foundation in 'Porcelain'  and an Illamasqua gold cream eyeshadow and buffed well into the skin to give a light coverage with a dewy look. I then applied a Bobbi Brown highlighter all over the cheekbones and down the centre of the nose.

For the eyes I primed them with an Urban Decay 24/7 primer and then applied Urban Decay eyeshadow in 'Half-Baked' all over the lid and under the eye, and blended 'Naked' eyeshadow in the outer corners of the eye. On the inner corners of the eye I applied a glitter fixer and then dabbed some silver holographic glitter onto to highlight the eyes. Next I applied a small amount of mascara to the upper and lower lashes and then applied long individual lashes on the upper eye. For the eyebrows I sprayed hairspray on a spoole and back brushed them to give them a slightly 'wild' and natural look.  

For the lips I mixed Sugarpill gold loose pigment in 'Goldilux' with a mixing medium to transform it into a liquid and painted it onto the lips. Finally, I randomly placed pieces of gold leaf and diamantes to the skin of an organic look, and also applied the diamantes in various sizes all over the neck chest and arms to almost look like water droplets. 

For the hair, I purposely chose a model with naturally curly hair that was bright red to stand out in the images. I simply sprayed a small amount of dry shampoo in the roots to give the hair volume and texture and then parted the hair to the side.