Applying makeup is no easy feat. There's all that accenting and accentuating, not to mention the contouring involved. Learning to properly administer cosmetics is an art form in itself that can result in captivating visages. But after gazing upon artist Elly Heise's work, we can't help but fall in love with the dilettante look.
For a series entitled "#Daughterdoesmymakeup," the photographer enlisted a group of young girls to do their mothers' makeup any which way they pleased. Instead of hiding blemishes and minimizing dark circles, the amateur artistes turned their mom's faces into avant-garde works of art, reminiscent of Matisse's "Woman with a Hat."
"This project was inspired through my attempts to see beauty the way I used to as a child," Heise explained to The Huffington Post Arts. "I wanted to gain a better understanding through photography; by trying to photograph what each girl saw when she saw her mother. I also wanted to pay homage to the amazing and inspiring role that these hardworking women play in their daughter’s lives."
The photographs are simultaneously playful and strangely bewitching, as pink eyeshadow and blue liner transform into unexpectedly jarring artistic materials. The photographs juxtapose the imaginative and eccentric notions of beauty expressed by young girls with the rigid adult standards we know all too well. "I want this to inspire people to question their own definition of beauty in the same way it did for me, and to reconsider what we are really raising our younger generations to believe in," the artist explained to Bored Panda.
In the images below Heise captures beauty through the eyes of children, ones who sees an unusual explosion of pastel colors as more appealing than a well-defined cheekbone. There is an undeniable allure to the women's looks below, even if you'd never find them on the pages of a fashion magazine.
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