Just kidding, I’m not really calling myself a work of art (though sometimes I really do look like this when I wake up). It’s just that I’ve watched that video on museum-inspired makeup I posted a couple days ago probably once every day during the past week, and I had to do my own follow-up on it. I’m always looking for an excuse to try something new and maybe an excuse to find a new product (because you’ve really gotta twist my arm for that). Luckily, the only product I purchased as a result of Emily Weiss’s video was MAC’s powder blush in ‘Buff’.

Here, I’ve recreated the look shown in the video on myself, inspired by the luminous skin seen in paintings from the Neoclassicist and Romantic periods of art.

There is no filter used on this photo! I didn’t Instagram it, nothin’. I just sat in front of an open window facing the light. See how my skin glows? I followed Violette’s instructions exactly from the video. The MAC blush made a huge difference, especially when being careful to start at the ear and brush down into the hollows of the cheek. I always like to have my models pucker and make a fish-face when I apply bronzer or a contouring blush on them, and it worked well for this. Violette’s instructions on how to apply the highlighter (a pearly cream shadow) were right on; all the little spots on your face that catch the light. I barely put anything on my lips, just some balm. And while I tend to put on three or four coats of mascara regularly, I tried to use a little less than usual for this look.

I used the following key products of my own:

MakeupForever HD Foundation in #115

NARS cream blush in Lokoum

NARS cream shadow in Thebes

MakeupForever HD Finish powder

MAC eye kohl in Smolder