A FEW KILOS SLIMMER THROUGH HEALTHY MAKE-UP
Shape & Highlight
The days of hours of dining are coming. It's nice, but we still want to fit into our dress and not have a blown-up face. For tips on the dress, I refer you here, for that blown-up face, stay here.
Katerina Brans is a make-up artist and works under the guidance of Pat McGrath for the fashion shows in New York, Milan, and Paris. She also does editorial work, her latest ‘baby’ is the cover of Harper’s Bazaar. She is a wizard with make-up brushes and can also tell us how to look five kilos lighter by shaping the right way.
Katerina: “If you look closely at the face, you can see that one part is highlighted and the other part has more shadows. Logical. With highlighting and shaping, you get much more dimension in the face. You can play with this and work away puffy eyes, powder a smaller nose, and make the double chin slimmer. A kind of facelift without cutting, therefore.
“Before you start with make-up, it's important to take good care of your skin and hydrate it well. Work with good brushes, because that really is half the job. I apply foundations with my fingers, powdery products with brushes. A must is to work with thin layers, build up well, and blend. Only then do you achieve the most beautiful effect.”
1. Shaping with foundation
“With foundation, you can achieve a nice and deep effect. It's best to work with two shades. One that is two shades lighter than your skin tone and one that is two shades darker. I personally find RMK Cream Foundation works well. It's nice and creamy, well-covering, and easy to blend. The Touche Éclat from YSL works well for under the eyes, and if more coverage is needed, I always manage with the Radiant Creamy Concealer from Nars.
2. Matte Sculpting and Highlighting
“To get extra depth in your face, work with matte, dark products without glitter particles. Apply them along the hairline, in a triangular shape (from the corner of your mouth to the highest and lowest point of your ear) and under your chin. If you find it easier, just do the Duck Face, it helps. Then apply it also on the ’temples’ (the area between your eyebrows and temples), in the brow bone, and subtly on the sides of your nose.
Nice products to do all this with are the Multiple cream sticks from NARS. These work well for dry skin. If you have normal to oily skin, it's best to work with a powdery texture, for example, the Sculpting powders from MAC or Kevyn Aucoin via Net-a-Porter.”
3. Highlights
“If you use a product with some reflective particles, it's possible to get even more dimension. Choose a liquid shimmer or cream highlighter. Do pay attention to the right color, then you achieve the most beautiful effect. If you have a light skin tone, use products with a rosy glow; if you have a dark skin tone, use warm colors like gold and orange. I apply the shimmer with my fingers on the cheekbones and nose bridge. A nice product I find is Fluid Sheer from Giorgio Armani. Additionally, NARS has a shimmery cream highlighter in stick form.”
4. Back to summer
“Want to get that summer color back? With a bronzer, you can easily achieve that, and a big advantage is that it also gives a slimming effect. It's important to choose the right color of bronzer. Not too orange, not too pink. Apply it on the apples of your cheeks and on all the areas where the sun would hit your face. That means your nose and chin. CK has a nice and handy Cream and Powder Bronzer Duo, and Terracotta bronzer no. 3 from Guerlain has been in my kit for years.”
