When I was diagnosed with Celiac Sprue in 2001 I was shocked right out of my punk rock identity as the doctors told me I had to take all my glitter nail polish off and would never be able to wear gluten containing make up again, PLUS it had to be hypoallergenic- which meant with all my chem allergies & lack of info from cosmetic companies I began the unthinkable for a southern girl... I went completely make up free for the last 8 years. Even if I had a zit. The artist in me loves color still though... so I like to try things out, just in case I want to look like David Bowie or have seductive lips.
The following pictures are of beets and berries sliced and squished that are raw and have not been put through a blender. I do think that for the fullest opaque and longest lasting dye on your skin blending it very smooth and mixing with a little olive oil would work well.THIS IS BEFORE ( & is my best supa' model face):
THIS IS AFTER (with beet slices rubbed on lips and layered with olive oil- oh so natural looking): 
I put black raspberries on my eyelids and it made them look so huge it borders the hyperthyroidism of most Disney character's eyes. But I like it.
This stuff would be a really safe way to do halloween & theatre make up, especially on children who are susceptible to toxic dyes in cheap face paints. You can get varying opaque qualities by layering, making sure your skin is dry before applying, and also by blending very concentrated amounts. I simply mushed the berry in my fingers and rubbed it's juice on my eyelids so it's a more translucent and lighter shade. Another bonus is once you get to the sink, it washes off easy. It won't stay on your skin forever!
This last pic is my mug shot. After a few hours covered in berries plus summer sweating and not having used a thick layer (or the oil) - it began to morph into something part zombie, something part domestic violence. I look like I got in a fight ova' a pack of cigs & a thunderbird at a 7-11!!! Yeah bra - somebody come bail me out so I can take anotha' spin in ya' camero.
XoXo
LOL! that part zombie pic is great! they are all great.
ReplyDeleteI've also used finely sifted spirulina or chlorella powder as eye shadow but it does not adhere too well. didja know you can actually buy beet powder at some health food stores? who knows what normal folks use it for!
blueberry juice stains lips nicely too.
none of it is very permanent but I one day hope to try putting it right in lip blam that I make - maybe when mixed with the beeswax and oil, it would stay better and be able to be used as lip/cheek/eye colour!?
I hope you'll share any other make up experiments you try :)
oops! great typo - I meant lip BALM not bLam LOL!
ReplyDeleteOoooh Liberty!
ReplyDeleteSpirulina! I should have thought of that- what a great green that stuff would make...how could i forget the time I watched my hippy neighbor eat TONS of spirlina smashed up with banana, and her whole mouth - lips, tongue, and teeth had turned completely dark green. And she kept on talking to me, and I kept on smiling.
I think soft beeswax and oil are good ideas for making it more permanent - maybe i can find some local beeswax in the area to try out. I wonder how spirilina does as a watercolor paint? The beet seems to turn brown on paper (not on lips) if you dont put it in the blender - the blender certainly makes the color far better.
PS- when you market that stuff, you should call it Lip BLAM.
What a great image of your green-mouthed friend!
ReplyDeleteI haven't tried spirulina as a watercolour. beet juice does okay but, as you said, turns brown.
dye made with red cabbage turns a lovely blue - I have yet to try painting with it. I'd love to find some way to dry the dye and powder it to add to lip 'blam' or eye shadow.
(very neat thing to a nerd like me is the fact that you can make your own litmus paper with red cabbage! I've done it and it worked).
Love the name Lip BLAM! It makes me think right away of some cheesy slogan like "BLing for your Lips" or something LOL!
girl - you must share a link or method of how you made litmus paper with a cabbage!
ReplyDeleteI am thinking about growing indigo plants for a good blue paint. I use the poke berries for magenta and tumeric for a good yellow - i cooked them though with salt first which made the color last (this is only for paint, not make up). None of the colors last if it stays moist for too long- like too much moisture in the paper after it's rolled up and stored away.
(but the declaration of independence was written with poke berries!)
growing indigo plants! somehow that just sounds really exotic and cool!
ReplyDeletewhen I made cabbage litmus paper, I used paper that is bleahced without chlorine (they use 'oxygen' bleach which is just strong hydrogen peroxide). I don't know if chlorine-bleached paper would cause any issues with the litmus paper working right.
This link here uses paper towel instead of paper (which you can also get bleached w/out chlorine - canya tell I react to chlorine??)
http://tinyurl.com/ntu4qq
here's another one... it also says to use paper towel! perhaps it would have worked even better if I had done so :-)
http://tinyurl.com/mj5evf
I think it would be neat to soak whole pieces of paper in the cabbage solution, let it dry, and then paint on it with different acids and bases to make funky coloured sort of 'relief' paintings. kind of like invisible marker stuff - do you remember those?
... DOH! someone already did this! I still wanna try :-)
http://www.science.demon.co.uk/handbook/7.htm
as an aside, I've used beet juice to stain paper and then used it as coloured writing paper. you can also crumple it all up before putting it into the beet juice and then it stains unevenly in cool ways :)
black tea also works awesome for this.
All this talk about food on faces, but nobody's talked about flavor? I don't particularly enjoy the taste of recycled restaurant grease traps from the common lipstick on ladies' lips, but non-synthesized fruit and vegetable flavors might be nice. Especially if I'm hungry (not a fan of beets though). I do love blueberries, but I'd have to be in the mood for goth look. You've got me thinking now... kissing is one thing, but I'd never lick the whole face of a woman wearing traditional makeup, even if she wanted me to (it's gotta be uncommon). Well, I'd consider it now, especially if she grew or gathered all the produce herself. It's like when you feed someone else with your own crops and discoveries - all that time and love and energy ending up sustaining another. Except even more intimately. Yipes.
ReplyDeleteGratuitous-
ReplyDeleteHoly lick a' lot! lol
Are you talking about making babies at the end there ( "sustaining another")? Very Poetic.
About the flavors - the berries taste really good and the beets don't taste like cooked beets but like beet sugar (maybe the juice is like the beet's sugary sap?)
I wouldnt want to lick traditional make up either, it's crazy toxic and contains heavy metals most of the time - i can't imagine the amount of lipstick I accidently ate off my lips before converting to a cosmetic free face.
(According to a compilation of statistics on google, the average woman swallows 4-6 POUNDS of chem laden lipstick in their lifetime. F-en gross. I suppose the men eat half of that themselves.)
Hey Liberty!
ReplyDeleteThose litmus paper links are totally awesome! Thank you thank you, i just got through some of them on my shitty dial up internet, and i have to try that out. What did you use yours for> Art?
oops! I forgot you were on dial up! hope it didn't freeze up your computer too much.
ReplyDeleteI think I was wanting to test the pH of soil... or maybe saliva? Or maybe I just read about it and thought, "Geez that's cool - I must try it!"
I do plan now to make a whole page though and paint on it with acids and bases! sounds fun and kind of magical :)