Entry #1 for Illamasqua's "Myths and Legends" Contest - Ningyo

This is my first entry for Mizz Worthy's "Myths and Legends" makeup contest, which is sponsored by the amazing makeup brand Illamasqua! This brand specializes in bold gorgeous colors, and their tagline is "Makeup for your alter ego"; I hope this brand would make it big so it would come all the way from the UK to Hong Kong!

The creature I am basing this look on is Ningyo, the Japanese mermaid. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia about these creatures:

Ningyo (人魚, "human fish"?), often translated as "mermaid," is a fish-like creature from Japanese folklore. Anciently, it was described with a mouth like a monkey's, small teeth like a fish's, shining golden scales, and a quiet voice like a skylark or a flute. Its flesh is pleasant-tasting, and anyone who eats it will attain remarkable longevity. However, catching a ningyo was believed to bring storms and misfortune, so fishermen who caught these creatures were said to throw them back into the sea. A ningyo washed onto the beach was an omen of war or calamity.

Here are a couple of pics that I took inspirations from:

I used the following products for this look:

- Revlon Colorstay Foundation in 02
- Chacott loose powder in 754
- Pritt glue stick for flattening my eyebrows
- Concealer pencil for sketching the designs on my face
- No-brand eyeshadows in cyan, turquoise and yellow-gold
- Majolica Majorca eyeshadows in shimmery light blue and light green (as accents over the cyan and turquoise shadows)
- Black eyeliner pencil
- Black liquid eyeliner
- Ardell false eyelashes in 43
- Clear lip gloss mixed with the yellow-gold eyeshadow as lip color
- Craft half-pearls and crystals
- Koji Eye Talk eyelid glue for sticking the gems and false eyelashes to my face

Creating this look has been a lot of fun! I did not want to do a traditional "pretty princess under the sea" mermaid (*snore*) , so I mixed in a bit of fish and water dragon characteristics in the design.

See? I have GILLS! (although they kind of look like gashes....XD)

I also wore my EOS Adult Green contacts for this look, and boy am I glad I got those instead of the blue ones. The color is really growing on me!

A party-quality cyan wig is sacrificed for this look, as I teased it so heavily it couldn't be combed back out. Oh well, it's only about $12. :p

I am wearing an cyan and aqua tank top (so NOT NAKED!) , which you can see a bit at the bottom of this pic.

By the way, if you look closely my nails are covered in cyan glitter, and there is a half-pearl on my thumb too!

Here are some non-Photoshopped-to-the-depths-of-the-Pacific photos to show you how the makeup look in normal lighting. Contrary to what it might seems, I didn't take the above pics underwater! The rippling light effects is all done with layers and filters.


And just for shits and giggles, here's the face chart!

I will be posting my second entry as soon as I am done Photoshopping them. Gotta remove the shower curtain background you know! XD

EDIT: This is my 50th entry, can't believe I have written so much already!