Cut it out
Let's be completely honest with one another, how many times have you read an article or watched a clip on YouTube and a make-up artist has given you tips and tricks on how to do the perfect feline flick or how to apply your foundation correctly? Probably thousands right? And how many times have you managed to achieve that look? Less than 10? Yeah, me too.
Sometimes I wonder if it might just be easier if someone told me what not to do. Which is why when I got to sit down with Caroline Barnes, Max Factor's UK Ambassador and celeb make-up artist, I ask her what her big make-up no-nos are.
This is what she had to say...
Don't wear too much powder
'If you wear too much powder on your skin it looks cakey and skin becomes more obvious. As you age skin gets drier, you get more fine lines and wrinkles - wearing a tonne of powder is only going to accentuate those things. Traditionally the powder brush is the biggest one in your kit, but actually you should downsize it to a blusher brush-size. Because, unless you have super oily skin, all you need to do is mattify your T-Zone - so between the brows, either side of your nose and under your chin. You want skin to look as natural as possible, which means you need a little bit of glow/shine to be seen in the right places.'
Don't be lazy with make-up
'What I mainly mean by this, is just doing eyeliner around the eyes to try and define the eyes. So many women take an eyeliner, mainly kohl, and think I won't bother with my brows or lashes and my skin looks ok today, so I'll just put some eyeliner around my eyes and smudge it in. It's mainly older women, not so much savvy twenty-year-olds, but it puts a lot of colour around the roots of your lashes and without any mascara it actually shrinks your eyes and makes them look a bit piggy. People think they're defining the eyes, which I understand because as we age we do lose definition in our features, so it's natural to want to define them. But without adding in mascara, it goes all wrong.'
Don't wear pink berry lipstick
This is so ageing I can't tell you. Pink berry lipstick is so mumsy. I'm talking about those pink lipsticks that are a classic fuschia shade, with a bit of brown tone to it. It's probably one of the bestselling lipsticks shades in the UK; it's a classic English Rose colour, but if you have light-skin, with red undertones (like many of us do) then that actually brings out the ruddiness in your skin. To look healthy, polished and modern, you actually want a creamier texture to your skin, as it's much more popular and flattering. If you look more contemporary, you therefore look younger.'
So there we have it. Avoiding these things will make you three times better at make-up.
