Post-mortem make-up

If you have a signature look that you don't want to die with you - at least not immediately - you may wish to make pre-need arrangements with U.K. funeral directors Leverton & Sons Ltd. Leverton, which offers themed funerals in the London area in addition to traditional services, has teamed up with cult cosmetic brand Illamasqua to offer what is being billed as "The Final Act of Self-Expression" (1st image):

"Offering professional funeral make-up transformations applied by a specially trained Illamasqua make-up artist, the Final Act of Self-Expression encourages people for whom making-up is an intimate part of their identity to plan their final transformation - one that pays tribute to who they were in life and how they want to enter the afterlife....Illamasqua encourages people to self-express and embrace their alter ego in every way. Why should this be any different when you pass away? It is a celebration of life, and one that should be indulged for your last glamorous look."

As a member of Illamasqua's art team, premier fashion artist Alex Box has turned many heads with her designs (above) and won much praise. Although she is also capable of applying highly-regarded straight makeup, Box's "face paintings" have been called visionary (see her at work here preparing for the Spring 2011 launch of Illamasqua's Toxic Nature product line). As characterized in the description of her self-titled book:

"She is nothing less than a master of colour, detail and form; never viewing her model's face as a limitation but rather as a canvas with no boundary. In Alex Box, she weaves the most surreal and outlandish of creative concepts into and around the features of her muses, morphing them into divine otherworldly creatures. Alex Box's touch is alternately garish and lurid, then deliberate and considered; a splurge of rainbow colour, then soberly monochrome; sweeping and brazen, then calculated and graphic."

Box (interview here and more designs here) trained as a fine artist at Chelsea College of Art & Design, and has on occasion made her application of make-up into performance art, accompanied by music and scented with fragrance. She tells Woman's Wear Daily:

“I really wanted to bring it back to makeup being a performance and an experience. A friend of mine said ‘You never get to see a painter paint,’ and I think that is one of the magical moments...the fact that you get to see [the looks] evolve.”

There's no guarantee that your post-mortem makeover would be done by Box, but Leverton is providing training to the Illamasqua cosmeticians for their work on the less lively.