Natural Make-up

Natural Make-up

Photography: Minh,
Hair: Styled by the model,
Clothes: Designed by Alia Peer at Central Saint Martin's College, London. (http://www.CSM.LInst.ac.uk),
Model: Carolina.

Here are the instructions for how to create a natural look with make-up:-

Start with a freshly cleansed and moisturised face.

Select a foundation which is matched in colour to the skin on the face.  Apply it all over the face sparingly and evenly using either your fingers, a cosmetic sponge, or a foundation brush, and make sure it is blended well, so that you can't see where it ends at the sides of the face.

Select concealer matched in colour to the foundation for covering blemishes.  Apply it to blemishes to hide them using a thin tipped concealer brush to give you accuracy.  Then pat the concealer gently to blend using a finger, to make it not obvious that you are wearing it.

Select under-eye concealer one shade paler than the face for hiding dark under-eye circles.  Apply it using a large concealer brush, which covers the under-eye area well.  Remember to cover the area around the inner corners of the eyes as well as below the eyes.  Then pat the under-eye concealer gently to blend using a finger, to make it not obvious that you are wearing it.

Select loose powder the same colour as the foundation, and apply it all over the face evenly using a powder puff.  (Skip this step if the skin is very dry.  If the skin is very dry just powder under the eyes to fix the under-eye concealer in place, and possibly down the T-zone if the T-zone is shiny and not so dry).  Brush the excess powder off of the face using a powder brush using downwards strokes, but apply some more powder under the eyes before doing the eye make-up.

Sparingly apply white eyeshadow (on fair skin or olive skin) or ivory eyeshadow (on black skin) to the entire area from the upper lash lines right up to the eyebrows using a large eyeshadow brush.  Then make sure you soften the edges of where the eyeshadow ends at the sides using an eyeshadow blending brush.  Then using a small eyeshadow brush apply light brown (on fair skin or olive skin) or dark brown (on black skin) eyeshadow to contour the socket lines above the upper eyelids, applied parallel to but above the bulge created by the eyeballs through the upper eyelids.  Draw on a thick enough line (about three or four millimetres thick) of brown eyeshadow to the socket lines for it to be visible when the eyes are open.  Then using an eyeshadow blending brush blend the brown eyeshadow up into the white eyeshadow very slightly, so that the line of brown on the socket lines looks soft and doesn't have any hard edges.

Apply eyebrow pencil to the eyebrows in a colour closely matched to the colour of the eyebrows.  However if the eyebrows are very fair and you wish to make them a bit darker so that they are more visible, then don't use an eyebrow pencil any darker than a taupe, light grey or light brown colour.  Apply the eyebrow pencil using light feathery strokes for a natural appearance.  Then brush the eyebrows in an upwards and outwards direction using an eyebrow brush.  Then fix the eyebrows in place using a brow gel if necessary.  Otherwise you can fix the eyebrows in place by spraying a bit of hairspray on the eyebrow brush directly before using it.

Use an eyelash curler to curl the eyelashes if you like.  Then apply mascara.  Use black mascara if you're dark haired, or use brown/brown-black mascara if you're blonde or redheaded or mousy haired.  Apply the mascara to both the uppersides and the undersides of the eyelashes.  Make sure you start right from the roots of the eyelashes, particularly if your eyelashes are fair, so that the eyelashes look the same colour all the way down.  A couple of coats of mascara should be adequate for thickening, lengthening and darkening the eyelashes.  Then comb through the eyelashes using an eyelash comb to separate the eyelashes and remove any clumps of mascara.

After you've finished the eye make-up, take a good look at it in the mirror to make sure that both eyes and eyebrows look symmetrical to each other, and to make sure that the eyeshadow is well blended and accurately applied, and that there are no gaps in the eyeshadow, and to make sure that the mascara looks natural and is evenly applied.

Next brush the loose powder away from below the eyes using a large powder brush using gentle outwards strokes.  This will remove any eyeshadow fall out without it marking the skin below the eyes that may have fallen below the eyes when the eyeshadow was being applied.

Now lightly and subtly shade the undersides of the cheekbones to add definition using a blusher brush.  Use a baby pink on fair or porcelain skin, use bronze or light brown on olive skin, or use dark brown on black skin.  Then blend it slightly using the blusher brush so that there are no hard edges.  Make sure the two cheeks look symmetrical to each other.

Now apply light pink, light beige, light peach, or nude coloured lip gloss to the lips.  Be sure to get the lips symmetrical and get the lip gloss applied evenly.

Finally apply light pink, light beige, light peach, or nude coloured nail polish.

This make-up is neutral and works with many colours of clothes, but works best with clothes the same colour as the make-up.  Even though the make-up colours are muted they can still appear very pretty (as in the photo above)!