Wondering how you can update your make-up for spring? Think dewy-skinned with a 70s vibe for eyes and lips. But here’s the catch: that barely-there look may be easy for girls in their teens and 20s, but for the rest of us looking dewy and natural yet professional and groomed needs careful fakery. So here’s how to feign that naturally luminous skin, rose-kissed cheeks, opalescent eyelids and gleaming lips.
- Chuck out any powders with a matt finish – they tend to look flat and floury, if not downright desiccated, on older skin. The perfect foundation is creamy and glowing, and shouldn’t need powder at all. Worth trying: Guerlain new Meteorites Baby Glow sheer foundation, £50, for that lit-from-the-inside radiance (1).
- Swap powder blusher for cream or gel blush for a dewier, more natural, more youthful look. Try Illamasqua’s new Gel Colour In Fluster pink, £23 (2), on the apples of the cheeks for a plump, just-run-round-the-park rosiness. “It’s designed to give the most convincing, fresh flush to the cheek. It mimics nature in that you can see your skin through the colour and, unlike cream or matte blushers,its transparency is what makes it feel fresh and real,” says Creative Director Alex Box. If you then add cream highlighter on top of the cheekbones and browbones, it adds light to the centre of your face and helps give your features a lift.
- Choose shimmery eyeshadows in opalescent nudes, golden-bronzes and mauve-ish lavender-to-grape shades, which look beautiful for spring, including when they’re worn together. Use mid-to-deeper toned shadows in the crease or, if you wet them first, as eyeliner. Pretty examples include L’Oreal Paris Color Riche Eyeshadow Palette in Beloved Nude, £99 (3) or Bare Minerals Glimmer Eyecolors in Queen Phyllis or Waterlily, £14 each (4).
- Add a little lift to the eyes by applying mascara to the upper lashes only, with maximum emphasis on the outer corners. You’ll also add to the softer, sneakily natural effect if it is dark brown, navy or even plum-coloured instead of black.
- Tint lips with glossy nude hues. If pale shades seem to distort on you, smooth concealer underneath – it works like primer, especially over naturally dark lips. Bobbi Brown is definitely queen of nude and natural looks, so check out her new Illuminating Nudes Lip Gloss line in Almost Pink, Almost Peach and Almost Nude, £50 each from Debenhams (5).
- international MUA Attracta Courtney says: “Your natural lipline tends to blur with age, so pencil liner is especially important with pale lipcolours. The best liplines should look soft, so try using the flat side of the pencil rather than the actual point. That way it shouldn’t look hard.”
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