GTL: Elizabeth Swann - 'Glow from Within'

Today’s ‘Get the look’ comes from one of my favorite movies of all time, Pirates of the Caribbean and one of my favorite female characters of all time, Elizabeth Swann.  When I first decided to do a ‘get the look’ on this character, I considered doing one for her at the beginning of the first movie, when she’s kind of a little girlier, but I then decided to take a closer look at the character (by having a POTC marathon with my boyfriend).  What I realized?  Elizabeth is a very dynamic character.  Throughout the trilogy we see her go from a bratty but sweet girl to a self sufficient and confident woman.   (The only constant being her short temperedness).  Taking that into consideration, I decided to do a ‘get the look’ on the confident and self sufficient Elizabeth Swann.  I think that her lack of makeup shows off her confidence and natural beauty really well, and I think that it’s a look that could potentially do a good job of showing off your natural beauty too, because, although this is a makeup review blog, I definitely think that self confidence is very important, and part of that is learning to accept your natural beauty and being able to glow from within. So basically, today we're only going to be focusing on enhancing natural beauty, learning to 'glow from within' inspired by Elizabeth Swann. Note that this look can be used for a Halloween costume as well.  Let's get started!

 Face:

Elizabeth’s skin is pretty much flawless, so, the first step is to wash your face and exfoliate using whichever products you would normally use. 

Now, we're going to apply a tinted moisturizer.  This will add moisture to your skin, as well as give light and natural coverage.  They key to this look is for the makeup to look as natural as possible which is why we're using tinted moisturizer as opposed to foundation.   

Apply concealer to any red spots or imperfections, as well as underneath your eyes.  I recommend the Christian Dior Diorskin Nude Skin Perfecting Hydrating Concealer.  This is a medium-full coverage concealer which hides imperfections, but works very well for under eyes.  This covers dark circles, as well as moisturizes the area and it doesn’t crease.  

Apply powder to set everything.

Elizabeth is too busy dealing with Jack and fighting Kracken's to bathe so her face is dirty and its sun kissed from being out on the ship all day.  To achieve a look along these lines with makeup we’re going to use bronzer or more specifically, NARS Laguna bronzer (Which is my personal favorite and looks good on every skin tone).  This is going to give the illusion of a sun kissed face. 
 Just remember that we want the bronzer to look natural!  So it should be applied to the facial areas that the sun would hit.  Using a large powder brush, swirl it around the bronzer and tap off excess.  Start by sweeping it across the lower part of your cheekbones and blending up toward your temples and all the way against your hairline so everything is nice and blended.  Repeat on the other side.  Then dust a very, very small amount of bronzer across the tip of your nose, right to the sides.  And sweep some over your chin.  As well, apply the lightest amount to your neck and chest so everything looks even and blend, blend, blend!    

Blush wise, just dust a light layer of NARS Gina over the apples of your cheeks.  This will give your cheeks a beautiful natural peachy flush.  Another good option for the more natural cheek is benefit's 'benetint'. 

Elizabeth’s face is very dewy and glowy and just all around youthful and healthy looking.  Next to bronzer, highlighting is the most crucial part of this look.  For this look we’re going to be using NARS Nico blush, which is actually more of a highlighter than a blush.  We want to keep the face looking as natural and glitter free as we can; however, most high lighters have glitter in them.  Nico simply adds a beautiful and healthy luminescence to the face sans all the glitter.

Using a tapered brush, sweep Nico along the cheekbones,   forehead, nose bridge, and chin and using your pinkie finger, apply a small bit to your cupids bow.  Remember not to go crazy with the highlighting though.  Apply it sparingly, and blend it out so that your face looks dewy.  You don't want to look like a grease ball.

(If you're looking to use this as a Halloween tutorial, go a little over the top with the bronzer, or using your fingers, add a couple of darker streaks of bronzer on your forehead or cheek to resemble dirt). 
 

Eyes:

Line your tight line with any dark brown eye liner pencil you choose.

Next, apply one to two coats of brown mascara.  Brown mascara looks more natural then black mascara does, and as previously stated, we want the makeup to look as natural as possible.    

Brows:

Fill them in with Anastasia brow powder in your shade. (For Halloween, go a shade darker for more dramatic brows like Elizabeth). 

Lips:

We want to keep the lips natural, but sexy looking.  To achieve this, apply a layer of Benefit Benetint lip balm. 

Hair:

Elizabeth has almost beach like waves throughout the films, so I’m going to tell you how to achieve that look as well.  You want to begin with a heat tamer spray, like Tresemmee heat taming spray, which is cheap, effective, and smells amazing!  Spray your heat protection spray all through your hair and brush through your hair so that the spray settles in.  Once it’s dry, use any 1 inch curling iron and curl your hair the way you normally would.  Next, apply a very light layer of hairspray, we want the curls to remain soft.   Then using a paddle brush lightly brush through the curls to loosen them a little bit and spray with hairspray so your hair keeps the curls.  

Okay, that’s it!  I hope you enjoyed this ‘Get the Look’ post, because I’ve been looking forward to doing this particular character for awhile.  I think that I’ll eventually do a more girly Elizabeth Swann look, so watch out for that.  Leave a comment below telling me what you think and have a great day! 

 *Note that this is not the makeup used on Kiera Knightly as Elizabeth Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean.  This is just my interpretation of it.  I use mainly NARS products to achieve this look, but any bronzer/peachy blush/non-glittery highlighter will do.  This is not sponsored*