Femme Fetale

Femme Fetale

As part of my gothic horror topic, my brief is to design two characters which link to a horror TV series. I have chosen the American horror story series, the freak show which was season four. The two characters which I have chosen to recreate is Mrs Laderman a mysterious Middle Aged neighbour to Claudia , and Quentin Claudia's imaginary boyfriend. For my Mrs Laderman makeup I would like to include the femme Fetale element in my design

what is Femme Fetale?

a definition of the stereotype of women' femme Fetale' usually means an attractive women who is seductive towards men and usually causes some sort of trouble.

Anonymous. (unknown). Femme Fetale . Available: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/femme%20fatale. Last accessed 12/04/15.


After watching the Femme Fetale trailer 2002 starring Antonio Banderas, this gave me an insight of a typical femme fetale character, who uses their appearance on men to get what they want and cause trouble. After watching the trailer I feel the Femme Fetale stereotype would work well with the gothic horror American horror story freak show series. The gothic Motif which I feel best conveys Femme Fetale is sexual power, forcing people into stuff they don't want to do at an advantage.

Femme Fetale Makeup

After analysing some of the femme fetale images, the makeup tends to include strong dark eye makeup, piercing red lips and a strong contoured cheekbone.

I like the style of makeup in this image, the main element which draws me to the makeup is the eye application, although it isn't the typical gothic horror dark eye makeup, I feel the shade of greyish blue used works well and compliments the red lipstick. The makeup I feel looks quite subtle in terms of the contouring but works well. I also like how the lace accessory has been incorporated into the look, I feel it gives the a Femme Fetale finish. After Analysing the image I am taking into consideration adding a lace accessory into my final design.
Anonymous. (unknown). Femme Fetale . Available: https://www.pinterest.com/welovemakeup/femme-fatale-envo%C3%BBtante-et-myst%C3%A9rieuse/. Last accessed 12/04/15

Here is another example of Femme Fetale, in this image I feel the diamond earring completes the look and works and compliments the makeup. I also like how the eyebrows are bold and sharp, making a statement. The eye makeup is a smoky eye application and works well with the contouring and colour choice applied to the lips. After analysing this image I would like to include some sort of jewellery into my final design, however I need to take into consideration whether it will fit in with my chosen TV series.

Anonymous. (unknown). haute makeup looks. Available: http://www.femmefatalelashes.com/haute-makeup-looks-for-the-holidays/. Last accessed 12/04/15.

Here is another image of Femme Fetale, this time the makeup isn't so much the main focus I feel it is mainly the accessories ad perhaps the hair. I really like how the hair is styled in this image, I feel it works well with the accessories. I feel this overall look would work well for my Mrs Laderman character .

Anonymous. (unknown). attitude. Available: https://www.pinterest.com/QuirkyQuaint/attitude/. Last accessed 12/04/15.

Femme Fetale brainstorm

after looking into femme Fetale I have thought of some stereotypical femme Fetale elements which I could take into consideration incorporating into my Mrs Laderman design:

• Curled locks
• jewellery
• attitude
• seduction
• red lips
• sharp brows
• strong bone structure
• subtle contouring
• prominent accessory eg lace.
• smoky eyes

Femme fetale hair

Anonymous. (12/04/12). lady is a vamp. Available: http://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/lady-is-a-vamp-sarah-harding-unleashes-her-dark-side-6573711.html. Last accessed 12/04/15.

The new HTC advert starring Sarah Harding explores the use of Femme Fetale, in terms of hair makeup and attitude. After researching into femme fetale hair the hair is usually styled into a curly updo or prominent waves.

anonymous. (unknown ). femme fetale. Available: http://pixgood.com/femme-fatale-hair.html. Last accessed 12/04/15.

Here is another example of the Femme Fetale hairstyle, I am considering using this style in my final character design, due to it being simple, I want the main focus to be the makeup and props in terms of character styling. Although the hair is quite a simple design I feel this would work best in terms of
my character description .

I decided to attempt to create a femme Fetale hairstyle on my dolls head. In order to create this style I used to roller work style which we learnt in our Victorian hair lesson inspired by gothic horror.
Firstly I sectioned the hair into a prominent side parting. I then sectioned the larger front section of hair into three and used my curlers to curl he sections under, I then held the curls in place using several hair pins. Ones I created curls to about the tip of the ear, I then sectioned the hair into another three sections and curled the hair towards the face . I carried the same techniques out on the other side of the head which had the smaller section of hair. With the back section of hair I created one larger curl which I curled under and secured the hair in place using several hair pins I then carried out the bricklaying technique due to curling the hair on top of the crown and carried on to curl the hair until I reached the neck. Finally to complete my look I took out any hair pins ad styled the curls with a bit of back combing

I was generally quite happy with the outcome of the hair for my first attempt I felt I interpreted the Femme Fetale hairstyle well.

After some research on femme Fetale style of makeup I decided to attempt to create  femme Fetale style of makeup. Firstly I the lightest and darkest foundation on my kryolan pallet to contour my face. Then I blended the product in using my buffer brush. Next I used the summer tan colour from my glamour glow pallet to apply colour to my cheekbones and jawline. Next I used the highlighter from my Illamasqua sculpting powder to highlight the lighter areas of my face. I then applied a brown to my eyebrows to make them appear darker from my neutral illamaqua pallet. The I used the same product to apply colour to my eyelids, I also used the black from the pallet to highlight the eye sockets, I blended the product in using my rounded blending brush, I also used the white from my pallet to highlight under my brows. finally to complete my look I applied a red to my lips from my lip pallet.

 

I was happy with the outcome of my femme Fetale makeup, particularly the eye makeup. I also felt contouring using two different foundations gave my makeup a better finish.

Here is my attempt at creating a femme Fetale inspired makeup face chart. Firstly I used my glamour glow pallet to contour the face, and the Illamasqua sculpting power to contour the cheekbones, I also added a blush from the illmasqua blush pallet to the cheekbones. Next I used the brown and black from my Illmasqua neutral pallet to highlight the eye sockets. I also used the brown from the pallet to create brows. In order to complete the eye application I using an eyeliner pen to add lashes and an eyeliner flick. To complete my look I applied a red from my lip pallet to the lips.

 

I was generally quite happy with the outcome of my femme Fetale face chart, the only thing I would change is the amount of makeup applied to the face chart in the cheekbone area.

Here is my second attempt at creating  a femme Fetale face chart using the same techniques my previous face cart this time with less application to the cheekbones and a different colour gloss applied to the lips. I was much happier with the outcome of this face chart.

 

 

I created a mood board on Photoshop in order to convey my understanding of femme Fetale in terms of the character styling hair and makeup. After gathering some thorough research it I evident that red is and black is a popular colour used in Femme Fetale, a form of jewellery is also a noticeable element incorporated into femme Fetale fashion photography.