Estella: Initial Ideas For Make-up

When creating these face charts, I found that there was not as much 'wriggle room' as I would've wanted; this is because the look had to be realistic and suited to the era, which meant that Estella actually would not have worn much make-up, therefore all 3 designs may appear quite similar. 

I have decided to go for the second look. This is because I think it is potentially the best suited to the era (e.g. the third designs strays a bit from the Victorian look because of the quite dark eyeshadow), but yet will look effective (e.g. the first look is extremely minimalistic, and may not be too effective on camera). 

I think the second design suits Estella well, because I want her to be in her teenage years, and so too look quite innocent and pretty, but yet not to look too old. 

Estella: Initial Ideas For Hair

After creating these 3 designs, I am definitely more drawn to the 1st and 2nd design, because I think the Late Victorian styles were much prettier and more complicated - something which I think reflects Estella. Also, the Late Victorian era is obviously more modern than the Early Victorian era and I picture Estella to be fairly young, and thus more modern, therefore I will be moving forward with one of the first 2 designs.

Miss Havisham Continuity Notes/Images

The way I am going to try and recreate the look in exactly the same way is by having pictures of each stage of the make-up pinned in front of me, as well as closely following the std-by-step instructions. When I was creating the look, I took close-up images of exactly where the wrinkles/creases were placed, how the eye make-up looked, etc. I will then be able to use these as well as the final images to hopefully recreate the look in exactly the same way and show continuity. 

Wrinkles on left eye (my left)

Wrinkles on forehead

'Smile line' wrinkles 

Right eye wrinkles (my right) 

Highlight on forehead 

Eyeshadow on left eye (my left)

Eyeshadow on right eye (my right)

Contouring and blusher on left cheek 

Final make-up look

I then did the same with the hair, so I will, again, follow the pictures and step-by-step instructions to recreate the same style...

Centre/'T'-parting

Hair sectioned

The plaited bun

Bun from a slightly different angle

Curls on left side (my left) 

Curls on right side (my right)

Veil gripped onto head around bun

Headband in place - final hair from the left side

Final look from the right side

The completed look... (and I will use my final images, which are in better quality)

BBC Documentary - The Art Of Gothic

‘Art of Gothic’ starts with an overview of the style and the beginning of its assembly at the hand of the Georgian Gentleman. It then goes onto analyse and weave together the different strands of Gothic’s origins including Romanesque and Renaissance Art; the religious reconstruction of The Reformation and the influence of Marxism. Graham-Dixon guides us through these different movements examining works by, amongst others, Salvator Rosa, John Ruskin and of course Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker. 

Graham-Dixon is arguably one of the best arts commentators. His light hearted demeanour and cheeky assertions are designed to provoke thought in the viewer. He just wants you to think about what he is talking about, mull it over in your own way and actually learn something. 

Thus ‘The Art of Gothic’ is that rare thing in modern television; entertaining, intelligent and challenging. There is no assumption of prior knowledge but also no presumption that the viewer is stupid and doesn’t want to learn. I actually found the programme much more interesting and entertaining than I thought I would and it was quite educational. 

Website reference: http://channelhopping.onthebox.com/2014/10/27/the-art-of-gothic/

Estella: Hair Research

The typical early Victorian era hairstyle was parted down the middle and tied back, often with ringlets or braids at the sides. A woman’s hair was her “crowning glory” and cherished by poor and wealthy alike; only illness would usually force a haircut, but a tiny fraction would be trimmed or singed off monthly to encourage growth and keep the ends healthy. Washing hair was infrequent, due to the harshness of the soaps, so constant brushing cleaned the long tresses and distributed naturally occurring oil, along with the application of other oils and perfumes. Women also put puffs under their hair at the sides to give it more volume. This was to create an illusion that their waists were roughly the same size as their heads. Artists made a point of painting their subjects with these proportions. Women also had hair pieces crafted to be fastened to their heads. In the 1870s curled hair became very popular, because the curling iron was introduced (first patented in 1866) and more elaborate hair styles were expected. Previous to this curling papers or rags would be worn at night (by men too) achieving limited success. Women with straight hair who desired waves or curls could achieve excellent results with this new curling iron invention, but the heat was damaging to their tresses and sometimes burned their hair, so the reasonable alternative was a hairpiece with curls and plaiting, creating the illusion of spending hours on their coiffures.

Throughout the 1800’s women bleached their hair with various mixtures, the main ingredients diluted barium, potassium hypochlorite, and lemon juice. Blonde hair was very popular, because it gave young ladies an angelic aura, going nicely with the high moral standards. Brunettes who tried bleaching sometimes ended up with startling shades of red, and dry brittle hair. Dying was achieved to limited degrees using organic compounds like henna, but in 1856 the first synthetic dyes were produced from coal tar. This led to cheaper, stable, enduring, and far more varied colours for fabrics, and long lasting black and brownish options for hair through the 1860s and on. Silver nitrate was utilized to darken hair, and excessive use created a purple shade. It was generally ladies who wanted to hide grey hair who tried the dyes that were available. Bleaching continued with stronger and stronger chemical concoctions. Most of the solutions used for dying or bleaching were harmful to the scalp, and ingredients included; lead, magnesium, sulphur, iron, glycerine, oxalic acid, &c.

Website reference: http://www.katetattersall.com/?p=3735

Estella: Make-up Research

The Victorian era was about modesty and natural beauty. Women of higher class practiced restraint with their makeup. Although many still used powder to tone down shine and give the skin a lustrous glow - it was used sparingly. Even eye shadows and lipsticks were very pale in tone and carefully applied. Bold colours and heavy makeup application was initially considered taboo and was used only by prostitutes. The use of cosmetics actually became controversial with many religions banning them as immoral or labelling them as “the tools of the devil”. Eventually this stance backfired, making women once again want that which was considered “naughty”.

https://janeaustensworld.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/young-estella.jpg

As part of their “toilet” in the morning ladies of leisure would ensure well plucked eyebrows, perhaps trim their eyelashes, and daub castor oil onto their eyelids and lashes. To hide freckles, blotches, or redness, they could dust on rice powder, zinc oxide or, the most expensive option, pearl powder, which was a mixture of chloride of bismuth and French chalk (talc) and provided a silky white and lustrous cosmetic powder. On their lips they might apply a clear pomade (like beeswax) for a shine and to provide protection from the elements, and some contained dye to discreetly accentuate the lip colour, crushed flowers and carmine (made from the female cochineal insect) being favoured. Many recipes for lip salve included evergreen bugloss, also known as alkanet, a common weed with blue flowers that provides red dye, the root in particular (but does nothing for chapped lips).  For a healthy complexion, and to contrast the very pale skin of the privileged class, red beet juice or a carmine dye could be massaged into the cheeks. For bright eyes, a drop of lemon or orange juice in each eye would be used, and was considered a cleansing method. Poisonous belladonna was also dropped into the eyes causing the pupils to dilate, creating a luminous glow, but clouding vision. People with cataracts were prescribed belladonna; Queen Victoria used it in her declining years rather than have surgery. Eye paint (eyeshadow) was popular, red and black, used excessively by “fallen women” but very subtly by respectable ladies (more like eyeliner), who would deny wearing it and be insulted if anyone ever dared to ask. Eye paint was made of mixed lead tetroxide, mercuric sulphide, antimony, cinnabar, vermilion, and secret ingredients. Another choice was to put beeswax on their lashes, then apply any number of black powders, from soot to crushed precious stones.

How did ladies of the nobility and gentry hide their use of pastes, paints, and powders? By including the products in their toilet chests, designed for use on their dressing tables and for travel. Within these expensive little boxes were medicinal cosmetics, and all the application tools, but then the vilified embellishments as well. Some chests were crafted with secret compartments. An imported box of make-up could easily be emptied and discarded, the products re-bottled and placed amongst acceptable skin creams and treatments, many provided by doctors so totally respectable. In particular, prescriptions were an ideal excuse for older ladies to coat their faces with a paste, achieving a light-coloured even coverage, and the charming bloom of youth. Middle-class women often couldn’t afford their own toilet chest, but they could purchase a medicine chest for a reasonable price, and hide appearance enhancers in with the tonics and balms. The products were all readily available at any apothecary shop, and a discreet lady could send a servant to the next town for purchases that might prove embarrassing.

Website references:

http://www.thebeautybiz.com/87/article/history/beauty-through-ages-victorians

http://www.katetattersall.com/?p=3735

Analysis Of Estella

The name Estella means ‘star’ - she is beautiful, but very distant and out of reach.

http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/32800000/Estella-great-expectations-2012-32894208-372-454.jpg

Estella, like Pip, is an orphan and a victim. Both had surrogate mothers who thought they were doing the right things. Both are used by their surrogate parents — Estella by Miss Havisham and Pip by Magwitch — to extract revenge from society. Both share a somewhat passive approach to life that she alludes to when she says they are both unable to follow their own free path but must do the bidding of another. She is an honest character, not evil, and is what she was trained to be. She cannot love Pip or Miss Havisham because she was not taught love, and she says so quite honestly. The one time she responds to Pip and lets him kiss her is when he displays rare aggression and forcefulness in beating the Pale Young Gentleman. There is, deep within her, something that responds to emotional fury. That is the part that is changed and softened by the abuse Drummle hands her in their marriage.

http://www.seraphicpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/jean-simmons-estella.jpg

Pip was met by Estella at the gate of Satis House describing her as "the young lady, who was very pretty and seemed very proud."

‘Though she called me ‘boy’ so often, and with a carelessness that was far from complimentary, she was about of my own age.  She seemed much older than I, of course, being a girl, and beautiful and self-possessed; and she was as scornful of me as if she had been one-and-twenty, and a queen.’

‘Miss Havisham …. Took up a jewel from the table, and tried its effect upon her fair young bosom andagainst her pretty brown hair.’

When asked by Miss Havisham what he thought of Estella, he whispered in her ear: ‘I think she is very proud …. very pretty …. very insulting.’

"I am serious’, said Estella, not so much with a frown (for her brow was smooth)."

"Her handsome dress had trailed upon the ground.  She held it in one hand now."

After her marriage had ended, she was described slightly differently... 

"The freshness of her beauty was indeed gone, but its indescribable majesty and its indescribable charms remained. Those attractions in it I had seen before; what I had never seen before, was the saddened, softened light of the once proud eyes; what I had never felt before, was the friendly touch of the once insensible hand."

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/culture/arts/theatre/article841408.ece

Book reference: Dickens et al. 1992 - Great Expectations

Website reference: http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/g/great-expectations/character-analysis/estella