Glossy-A-Go-Go!
There’s a rumor that the “no makeup” look is about to make a strong comeback. But, there are happy mediums for women who love to play in their makeup “sandbox!”
One of the most wearable easy trends back this Summer is an eye and face gloss look – which can be applied even with finger tips in a pinch – that gives a subtle sheen to the eyes, cheeks, and lips. It’s a great way to enhance your natural look or even soften a too harsh application of color.
Recently, my friend Alexa Ashley Hiken, of L’Apparenza, and I used that “glossy” approach while also experimenting with that resurgence of those 90’s frosted lips that have re-entered the scene.
To achieve the most flattering mix of these trends, we tried out a BB cream by Smashbox in medium with a tinted under eye brightener by Bare Minerals to even out the skin. We skipped the translucent powder opting for Laura Mercier’s Candleglow to let her shine a bit. To add quick color all over – a new makeup term called “draping” – we took Smashbox “Beverly Hills ” blush stick, dabbing it on the high points of cheeks, eye crease, and lips. I left the brows simple with a blonde brow gel for light grooming. Then we played up her eyes with Nars and YSL shadows in seafoam blue-green – another throwback trend that has been resurfacing every few summers with nods to glamour girls like 60’s Liz Taylor and modern-day Day J-Lo.
Alexa shows how the whole thing is pulled together; softened and modernized by a little face gloss, making it a great daytime-to-evening transitional look, that’s summertime beachy, too!
BEFORE – I recently met event planner and women’s business coach Candice Denise – beautiful even “makeup-free” – after she won a free makeup session with me at Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland’s “Hats & Horses: An Evening at the Races” fundraiser.
As a makeup artist who’s been around for a while, one of my chief concerns is keeping up with the new trends for my clients. Often that means adapting a new look to make it work for the person. I decided to go for the same glossy retro look I’d done for Alexa, even using many of the same products.
AFTER – When using the pink-colored face glow all over, think of it more as a highlighter for deeper tones than a blush. These new face glosses have been a great way to keep deeper skin looking vibrant and avoid the over-powdered look many struggle with. To make it work on lips as well and keep the frost from overwhelming, we added a plum lip pencil to pull the look together and smudged it in to avoid the harsh look of the past decade. To make Candice’s eyes pop, I used the same shadow technique I used on Alexa. But, first I put a base under it to maintain the vibrancy of seafoam. This balanced her deep-colored almond eyes, where I first dabbed black khol pencil before following up with that seafoam shadow. End result? GORG!
