Magic: The Gathering Chandra Nalaar Inspired Makeup!

For Hallowe'en (and even going past the season) I decided that an interesting series to do would be Magic: The Gathering inspired makeup! I've wanted to do this for awhile now since my husband is *really* into the game and we often go to tournaments and engage in the community. My husband has done a lot of border extensions and artwork so I figured a good way to express my artistic aptitude for the game would be using the only canvas I actually know how paint on: my face.

Here's what Chandra Nalaar looks like in Magic: The Gathering:

Credit: Magic: The Gathering, Artwork by Steve Argyle

I took a series of photos that breaks down how to achieve this look if you're interested!

Start with a bare face, apply primer to your skin and a foundation that matches your skin-tone. Conceal your eyebrows using concealer (you can also use glue and light powder but I didn't think this was necessary for this look).

Then I used a burgundy red eyeshadow to fill in my eyebrows to get a better match to Chandra's auburn fire-burned brows. She has a brown undertone in the artwork, so my natural color played well with this, if you're a blonde you may want to mix brown and red eyeshadow to create an auburn effect.

I used Urban Decay's single eyeshadow in Freelove (golden vibrant peach) in my crease and applied an orange eyeshadow from the Coastal Scents 88 Original Palette. I used this nifty trick of applying some tape extending out in a line from my lower lash line to achieve a precise edge - make sure to press the tape on the back of your hand a few times before applying it around your delicate eye area to make sure the adhesive is weak.

Near the lashline, roughly apply a matte black eyeshadow, I used the one from the LORAC PRO Palette. Then, on my lid, between the bold orange I applied in the previous step and above the Black shade, I used Garnet (or a deep, shimmery red) from the same palette.

I defined the line with my Physicians Formula liquid eyeliner in Black to get a very crisp and bold edge. Then I used the Coastal Scents palette and put the yellow-most shade all around the inner corner of my eye.

I used the liquid eyeliner to create a second "wing" going downwards in a sideways "V" shape from the original wing. The final look is achieved by further smoking out only the top of the liquid eyeliner with more Black eyeshadow. I also accented my inner corner and inside the sideways "V" with NYX Loose Pearl Eye Shadow in Yellow Gold. I also applied falsies, e.l.f. Essential Dramatic Eyelashes to be exact.

I smudged black eyeliner along the lower waterline of my eye and then smoked it out with the same Black eyeshadow. Then I used the NYX Cosmetics Loose Pearl Eyeshadow Pigment in Rust underneath to connect and transition between the yellow color accents. I wanted to add the extra yellow to represent "sparks"!

You can use any red lipstick or lip-stain as long as it isn't pink-leaning as a base for the lips. After applying that all over, I used NYX Cosmetics Loose Pearl Eyeshadow Pigment in Rust and right in the middle, I applied the pigment in Yellow Gold (the same ones I used on my eyes).

To finish off the entire face, I used the Yellow Gold pigment as a highlight on my cheekbones, down my nose, forehead, cupid's bow and chin. Then I transitioned to the Rust pigment and used that contour my cheeks and create the "hollows" that add definition and create a more overall "fiery" effect.

I hope you like the look I created!

If you create a look inspired by this series, I really hope you show it to me on Twitter or leave a comment below the post linking to it!

"Of course you should fight fire with fire. You should fight everything with fire"

- Jaya Ballard, task mage