Two Different Miss Havisham Looks

For this lesson we were told to pick between Miss Havisham and Estella, and then create a look from a two different points in their life on their face. I chose Miss Havisham and decided that I wanted to show her on her wedding day, and then later in the book to show the contrast and the effects of self neglect and depression. To re create Miss Havisham's wedding make up I had to do some research into the Georgian period as Estella is a teenager in the early Victorian years, so it would of been the late Georgian era when Miss Havisham was supposed to be married. Georgian make up is far more in your face than Victorian, with a very pale base, and rosy shades used on the eyes, cheeks and lips. I don't feel like the make up is showing up very well on camera, but I used a pink shade all over the eyelid with a darker rose shade in the crease. Georgian women often also added a beauty spot, made of velvet or occasionally mouse skin for the lower class. I didn't have these materials on hand, so I used eyeliner to create my spot. I read that these marks often had meanings associated with them, dependant on the location they were placed on the face. Placement on the left cheek is associated with being engaged to a lover, which is perfect for Miss Havisham on her wedding day. 

My Georgian inspiration image...
Smashinbeauty, P. B. (2011) ‘Marie Antoinette – Georgian makeup / šminkanje’. SmashinBeauty. Available at: http://smashinbeauty.com/marie-antoinette-georgian-makeup-sminkanje/ (Accessed: 22 February 2015).

For the next side of the look I wanted to show Miss Havisham when Pip first meets her. Looking frail and aged and like 'The Witch of the place'. I wanted to steer clear of theatrical ageing techniques for this look and experiment with just using grey toned shadows to hollow out the face to give a thin, dark, sunken look. I feel like I could of gone darker with these shadows to make sure they pick up on camera. I didn't add wrinkles as such, but I added shading to the places that over time would become more sunken such as the hollows of the eyes and cheeks, sides of the nose and I lightly shaded the area going from the nose down to the lips as I feel this gets more prominent in old age.

I also quickly experimented with the hair at the end. I didn't have time to create a Georgian or Early Victorian hairstyle, so I simply put it up with a bun and on the older side, experimented with curling small pieces of hair and pulling strands out. I also backcombed to give a messier effect.