Geometry, makeup and education

Many years ago, the concept of using makeup was just an excuse to hide those red spots and to highlight those parts of our faces that we liked the most. However, as makeup became part not only of the women's life but also men too, the techniques have changed a lot. What I mean by change is that many people start to create art with makeup, in most of the pieces of art that people start to create in their faces had something in common which is the use of geometric figures. For instance, have a look at these two photos, which kind of geometric figures can you tell?

There are many of them, aren’t they? For example, triangles, trapezium and many lines are the ones that help to distinguish between one figure and the other. Here there is just one example of two models that tried to sell the colours of the new season for a business company. Nevertheless, there are many other examples of using geometry as a marketing campaign. I will show you some of them, any guesses?

First, watch this video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UVNT4wvIGY

What we see here is that the main theme of this music video goes around the movement of different geometric figures, it was difficult not to look at them, what do you think?

As can see, in this video makeup goes further because they did not only paint their faces but their body therefore here is an example in which either makeup and geometry have no limits for the imagination.

I consider that using geometry in make is quite a relevant theme teacher should take into account because it may be a great activity for their students. They could use different makeup material to recreate those geometric figures on their faces, it is a funny and innovative way of learning those figures.

As a matter of fact, there are many makeup techniques that have been created from the combination of geometric figures such as inverted triangles, open semicircles and diagonal lines. This famous technique is called Contouring, have a look at this video if you want to try this popular technique: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1CT0CwnVYg

click to see the tutorial

As you can tell, geometry can help you to highlight and blend different parts of your face at the same time!

In order to finish, I would like to share with you an educational activity that I consider could foster motivation and creativity in geometry lessons.

Here is an example of an activity:

Here in these photos, we can see many different kinds of eyeliners, so you can present students these photos in class and make them guess which kind of triangle in each one, for instance, Isosceles, Scalene, etc. Then you can ask them to recreate them or try new ones on themselves and take a picture of it so everyone can enjoy the work of the other.

These photos are examples you can use in your lessons.