Going Natural

I’ve never been much of a makeup junkie. I love creams and lotions that make my skin feel and look great but I have always felt makeup has threatened that skin-feel-good-feeling. I also never learnt how to apply it properly. What foundation suits my skin tone? How do I and why would I use a lip liner? How do I get the eyeliner to go on straight?! As you can probably tell, I am a little hopeless. As I’ve aged though, I’ve experimented with a few things and makeup artists at shoots have kindly offered advice and answered my questions.

However, I can’t help but feel the natural look works best. I’m not saying not to wear makeup, just that less is often more. To achieve it is easy and the low maintenance of the look makes it desirable to anyone with a busy life!

First off, find a good foundation that you love and stick to it. Go around all the makeup stands in Boots or Selfridges talking to sales teams, trying the makeup and seeing what feels best to you. My only sweeping foundation statement is: it needs to be light-weight. Anything that sits too heavily on the skin will not only look like a mask of makeup but it will clog up your pours and stop your skin from breathing. Foundation needs to be yellowy in tone to help conceal imperfections and even out your skin tone. You’ll know you’ve found the right one when it seems to just disappear into your skin upon application.

Secondly, apply eye makeup that is earthy in tone. Browns, beige, gold or plum for shadows and brown or charcoal gray for liner. I also prefer a brown mascara because it makes your lashes look your own, not false. Of course, you could always skip right to applying mascara if you want to keep the makeup really light. However, I think at least a bit of liner helps your eyes to pop.

Thirdly, put a small amount of blush on the highest part of your cheekbone. To choose a blush colour that is natural, find one that is the colour of your skin after you exercise!

It is up to you if you want to bother with lipstick or gloss but to achieve the look below, I just applied a nude lip with a bit of Vaseline over the top.

Simples! All in all it should take no more than 5 minutes of your time and you’ll look fresh, alert and natural.