Tag: natural make-up

Tuesday 29 January 2013     Leave A Comment

Enter Aerin: make-up for the no-make up girl…

 

Autumn and Spring compacts by Aerin

 

Aerin is a new make-up collection I think you might like.  Especially if you’re the kind of woman who doesn’t particularly like or wear make-up.   Designed by its namesake, who is also Estée Lauder’s granddaughter (it runs in the blood), Aerin pivots around themes of simplicity and efficiency with a healthy dose of low-key luxury thrown in.   This translates to specially designed seasonal make-up palettes containing subtle eye and cheek colours.  All you need extra is mascara and tinted lip balm or lipstick.  Nothing new in this idea save that there is nothing gimmicky about these palettes.  Their colours are so wearable and flattering you will want to wear them.

In this photo (colours not true, I played a little with photoshop) there is an autumn palette and lipstick, which have seen my face through the odd weekend away (plus Mac Pro lengthening mascara, available in the Mac stores not on usual website).  The other palette, which looks more like a rather nice wallet is from her spring collection.  It’s inspired by the muted shades of evening, hence its name A Garden At Dusk (£45, Garden Colour collection launches Feb, try John Lewis, Harrods or Selfridges).   A lovely present for as I’ve said, the woman who likes subtle make-up.  Aerin points in my opinion to a new way in beauty – in line with a simpler sartorial code that’s tickling its way into our collective taste as a reaction to both bling and this austerity.  It’s gentle, elegant and quiet.  And I think many of us are ready for it.

5 more great pared down make-up best buys:

1. Nails: Bobbi Brown Roza Nail Polish (heather nude, available March, but limited edition so quick!)

2. Lashes: Clinique Lash Power Mascara Dark Chocolate (my mother loves this because it’s so subtle, far cry from OTT volume mascara)

3. Lips: Chanel Rouge Coco Shine in Boy (one of the ones all the make-up artists love)

4. Skin: L’Oréal Paris Nude Magique BB Cream (great reports on this, especially for over 50s)

5. Cheeks: Liz Earle Healthy Glow Cream Blush in Nude (a little flush on cheeks adds ‘life’ to a pared down make-up)

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Tuesday 23 August 2011     Leave A Comment

How to: Soft, easy daytime make-up

I wanted to share with you a make-up look I did this morning.  Think soft, slightly bronzed, neutral make-up, which would work well for the weekend or a meeting-free day at work.   The look is along the lines of above, but a little more sun kissed.

First, skin.   I applied one of the new foundations due to arrive this autumn – it’s by Liz Earle (Sheer Skin Tint, £21) and is her first foray into make-up.  If you don’t like foundation, think of it as tinted moisturiser because it gives a really natural ‘skin like’ finish.   I love its balm like feel, which I know my skin will thank me for as the colder weather hits.

Next, bronzer – brushed over cheeks, bridge of nose, forehead, chin, a little over my eye lids, and down onto the neck.  I might have frisked my skin with a little loose powder first, but for the glide-on effect of  Guerlain‘s Terracotta Bronzing Powder (colour 01, pale, golden bronze).  Its colour pigments are coated in moisturising ingredients so it goes on more easily, without the need for powder.  To stop the bronzing powder from looking too yellow, I applied pink blusher with the same brush, to the plump bit of my cheeks. It makes you look like you’ve been in the sun, and not just applied bronzer.

Moving up to eyes.  Really simple.   I applied one of the new eye shadows from Bobbi Brown, which are designed to be applied with a finger.  I swooshed the tip of my ring finger around the palette, then dabbed and blended it over the lid, applying more to the outer half.  If trying this out, smooth it in until it looks soft and natural.  The colour?  Rich Kashmir, a grey-bronze-brown – it softens and enriches a stark brown eye (like mine) and brightens a paler eye.  If you have a fine brush, cotton bud, time…smudge a little along your lower lash line, too.

Oh and a coat of black mascara – Mac Zoom Lash in this case.

Finally, lips.   Bobbi Brown Rich Lip Color in Desert Rose.  I tried this pretty, pinkish nude colour expecting it to look different – a down side of plenty of ‘nude’ lipsticks .   This looked the exact colour it was in the tube.  And without the heavy, chalky finish of so many of the nudes.

The rest of my kit:

Mac Blush Brush; the blusher I used was a limited edition, so no longer available – it was a pale, matte pink – Revlon and Mac both do matte blushers – matte gives a more natural, polished, grown-up finish; Shu Uemura Lip Brush

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Monday 20 September 2010     Leave A Comment

A date with James Kaliardos, uber-make-up artist

Mulling over my 11 o’clock, Claridges cappuccino with James Kaliardos.  He is one of the world’s most highly regarded, make-up artists.  He is also L’Oréal’s make-up ambassador, which means he does the make-up for the ads, throws in his take on L’Oréal’s make-up and the sort of thing they should be bringing to you and me, and represents them at the shows, where he designs (yep, that’s what they call it) the make-up look for a handful of designers.

He was a little weary for which I could hardly blame him – a back-to-back schedule starting NYC, finishing up London – sipping on a rather stewed, berry tea (he should have had the cappo), but there we sat talking make-up.  What he really likes is a natural, look – what I call stealth make-up and he calls ‘movie make-up’.   By that I mean the kind of make-up that makes you look fresh faced, bright eyed, full lipped and with cheekbones to die for – without looking like you have anything on.   Here are a few of his secrets:

Skin primer (L’Oréal Resurfacing Primer, naturally) – ‘it means that foundation goes on super-smooth, even over spots.’   Apply to a clean face and follow with foundation where needed.

Touche Magique (L’Oréal’s version of Touche Eclat) – ‘use it down the centre of your face, to add light.’  To be more specific: smooth a smidgen at the inner corner of the eye, the area that looks dark; a little more just below the eye, inner half only; a little around the nose and anywhere you feel you need a lift.  Again, less is more.

A ‘multi-tasking contour colour’ – think, matte, sandy, beige blusher (try MAC, Bobbi Brown, Illamasqua), which you apply to the eye socket and along the hollow beneath the cheekbone.  ’It’s about bringing dimension to the face’ he says.  Let’s just call it killer cheekbones.

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