year of the horse

Chinese New Year is upon us and as you can tell – I. Am. Inspired. I feel so fortunate to have grown up in the cultural wonderland that is NYC. So much of my upbringing was influenced by the diversity that surrounded me. It’s always interesting when people ask me “what are you?” because I almost feel like a hybrid of different cultures. For example, my neighborhood landscape included many family-owned businesses who were from all over the world.These experiences simply became a part of who I am and from it I fell in love with the artistic expressions of countries like India, Japan and China. After college, I got a job as an educator for the Bronx Museum (Latino, African American and Asian contemporary art) and I really got a chance to delve into the beauty and history of Asian culture, particularly Chinese culture and their theatrical productions. I was very familiar with their beautifully embellished images of Chinese women and men draped in intricate garments with breathtaking makeup to match. However, I didn’t know that it came from The Chinese Opera and was also used to celebrate Chinese New Year.

We are now entering the year of the horse and I wanted to have a bit of makeup fun with the colors red and gold, which symbolize luck and wealth. My first image is a classic red lip look but inspired by The Chinese Opera with a more dramatic eye. The nails are a take on the flowers typically used in Chinese New Year – Plum Blossom and Azaleas. In the second picture, I combined pink, red and gold to create a wearable everyday Spring look. My last picture is definitely not what I would consider an everyday look for me, but it was a lot of fun to recreate. If you’d like to shop these looks, I have all the details on Babble … or you can just use this as inspiration to create your own makeup looks inspired by Chinese New Year. It’s a lot fun to play around. My boyfriend and I stayed up late shooting pictures and trying out different ideas. Hence the more the conceptual take on makeup than I usually do.