THE LOVE WITCH (2016) review // Movies & Makeup #1

Hey!

For a while now I’ve wanted to start a series where I’d review movies and share makeup looks, and it’s finally happening! In today’s post I’m sharing my thoughts on The Love Witch, Anna Biller’s aesthetically pleasing movie which was created in the 1960s camp horror film style. The blue eyeshadow look I created was inspired by the protagonist Elaine, a charming young woman with a troubled mind and a fascinating world-view. Let me know what you think of this post; I’d love to hear your thoughts!

IMPORTANT! This review contains a rendition of the plot and lots of spoilers. There are mentions of murder, sex, drugs, and other similar themes, so read this post at your own risk.

The Love Witch

Comedy horror, Tragedy / 2 h / 2016

The Love Witch was written, edited, directed, produced, and scored by the feminist filmmaker Anna Biller. It stars Samantha Robinson as the charming Elaine, a young witch who is obsessed with the concept of love and uses magic to make men love her. The movie examines the femme fatale archetype and revolves around love, desire, and narcissism.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/

via New Trailer Buzz on YouTube

Plot description: SPOILERS AHEAD! 

A young witch, Elaine, moves to California to start a new life after the mysterious death of her husband. She desperately craves men’s attention and love, but her attempts at getting those things are questionable at best. However, she’s charming and beautiful, so it doesn’t take much time for her to find new lovers and feed them love potions. One of her victims dies soon after drinking her potion, while the other one, Richard, grows madly obsessed with her.

Soon enough, the police begin investigating the mysterious death of Elaine’s lover, and their investigation leads the lead detective Griff to Elaine herself. She seduces him and they decide to start dating.

Things take a turn for the worse after Richard succumbs to the potion-induced madness and commits suicide. His grief-stricken wife, Trish, meets up with Elaine at the local teahouse, and reveals to Elaine that she knew about her husband’s love affair, but she doesn’t know who is the other woman. Soon after, Trish visits Elaine’s home and discovers evidence that Elaine is the woman she was looking for.

As revenge, Trish tells Griff the details about her husband’s affair, and he can no longer overlook the fact that every man Elaine gets involved with dies a mysterious death. Griff brings up his concerns during his next meet-up with Elaine, but the local witch-haters overhear their conversation and try to harm her. Griff saves Elaine and they rush to safety.

Back at her place, she realizes that the stuff Griff said to her during the fight is true, and she kills him after he avoids drinking her love potion. The movie ends with Elaine entering a delirium where Griff has proposed and they are getting married; at last, she feels loved.

End of description.

Although The Love Witch has a distinct plot, it feels like you’re following someone’s life, not watching a movie.

Each character was different and well-written, so it was easy to imagine how they must feel and what they must think. The female characters were better written than their male counterparts and seemed to have more depth; the only exception was Griff, but he seemed to have more backbone than the other guys in Elaine’s life. 

The movie is sprinkled with witchy stuff like coven meetings and potion-making shots, as well as random bits of Elaine’s daily life. Some of the coven rituals creeped me out, but 

The Love Witch is heavily inspired by the 60s-70s movies, andthe choices they made for the cinematography and the filming angles were absolutely delicious. The hair, makeup, and outfits of the characters were gorgeous, too, though I feel like they could’ve used less blush.

One of the things I disliked was the main story; I thought it was too long-winded!

There were bits of dialogue they could’ve cut out or replaced with some monologue that’s shot over stunning visuals; that way the movie would’ve felt more like a drug-induced trip, which would fit the theme quite well! That being said, I have issues with short attention span so take my thoughts with a grain of salt.

Would I recommend watching The Love Witch?

I’d go so far as to say this is one of those movies you should watch at least once in your life. It’s definitely a must-watch for anyone who’s interested in feminism, paganism, vintage movies and gorgeous costumes!

That being said, I wouldn’t recommend watching this movie with your whole family as it is based around sex, and Elaine spends most of the movie wearing only lingerie or nothing at all. The nudity in this movie is done rather tastefully, but it’s still awkward to watch when you’re surroundered with family members!

✨ Elaine inspired makeup look ✨

Elaine’s makeup is one of the most memorable parts of the movie; it was inspired by the 60s-70s and you could clearly see she’s wearing makeup in the closeup shots, which was an interesting detail I rarely see in modern movies!

Products used:

• Revolution Ultra Cover & Conceal palette in Light-Medium + Essence Correct to Perfect CC concealer palette 10 nobody is perfect!
• L.A. Girl Pro Coverage HD liquid foundation in White
• Catrice Liquid Camouflage concealer 010 Porcellain
• homemade loose Frankenpowder to set the foundation
• Catrice Defining Blush in 070 Pinkerbell
• Revolution Skin Kiss highlighter in Ice Kiss
• H&M LE Tuscan Escape eye colour palette (matte beige, taupe, and chocolate shades)
• Revolution Redemption palette in Mermaids vs Unicorns (bright blue shade)
• Essence Hello New York eyeshadow palette 03 (white-blue iridescent)
• Wycon Ink Liner + random black pencil liner
• Rival Loves Me Volume Wonder mascara in Black
• random fuschsia lip liner + slightly tinted glitter lip gloss
• Golden Rose Longstay Liquid Matte Lipstick 01
• Revolution Iconic Matte Nude Revolution lipstick in Expose

♥ brows & eyeshadow stuff ♥

1. I filled in my eyebrows with the matte chocolate eyeshadow from the H&M palette. (Her brows are thinner than mine, but I wasn’t ready to shave off my naturally thick brows for just this look!)

2. Once my brows were done, I cleaned up the bottom part of them using some skin-toned concealer from the Revolution palette, and primed my lids with the same product. I applied the matte beige beneath the brows to make eyeshadow blending easier later down the line.

3. I don’t have a bright blue shimmer eyeshadow, so I used two different shadows to reach a similar look. I used a dense blending brush to blend the bright blue colour from the Revolution palette in my eyelid creases, and to pack it on my lids until I was satisfied with the colour intensity.

4. After that was done, I patted the white shade from the Essence palette everywhere I placed the blue colour; once applied, the white turns into a shiny blue and works well as an eyeshadow topper!

5. I applied some black pencil liner right along my bottom lash line, and blended it out using the matte taupe eyeshadow from the H&M palette. (Use swiping motions to apply the eyeshadow, and make sure you don’t drag the eyeliner down.)

6. Last, but not least, I applied thick black wings on the upper lids, and coated both top and bottom lashes with a generous amount of mascara. If you wish, you can also throw on falsies!

♥ the rest of the makeup ♥

1. I don’t have a foundation, so I create my own by mixing a drop or two of the white foundation with one of the deeper concealer shades from the Revolution palette. (I also like to add a bit of green concealer to ensure that the foundation mix will have the right undertones.) I usually blend in the foundation using my fingertips, or a dense contouring brush that has more hairs than a cat’s belly.

2. Once the foundation was on I blended the Catrice concealer beneath my eyes, and powdered my face with my homemade Frankenpowder to make sure I had a good base for the blush.

3. Elaine was always wearing loads of blusher, so I did the same. (However, I used a clean kabuki brush to blend out most of it; I simply couldn’t walk around looking like a clown!) I also applied a bit of highlighter on the tops of my cheekbones to bring some dimension to my face, though I don’t think she was wearing highlighter in the movie.

4. My lips are a disastrous concoction of four lip products; frankly speaking, I could’ve only used the liquid lipstick and some lip gloss. I lined and filled my lips with the fuchsia lip liner, applied the liquid lipstick on top of the liner, and the regular lipstick on top of the previous two products. I finished off the look by covering my lips with a layer of glittery lip gloss. (Honestly, darlings, use any neutral lipstick you have!)

#QOTD: Have you seen this movie? Do you have any recommendations for future movie reviews? Leave a comment, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Until later,

xoCaligo

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This is not a sponsored post; all opinions are my own. I am not being paid to promote anything. I do not own any rights to the video, all rights to it belong to the video’s legal owner/creator. If you are the legal copyright owner and want the video removed, contact me at xocaligo@gmail.com.