MAKEUP LESSONS: FINDING YOUR UNDERTONE

Having trouble finding the perfect shade of foundation for your skin?

To be honest it's difficult to find a single foundation, that will match your skin perfectly. In most cases, every foundation needs mixing with another shade or colour correcting slightly to match the skin and neck.. but unless you're not overly fussed, that's only something Makeup Artists need to worry about.

When buying a single foundation, it's crucial to learn about undertones in the skin if you want a good match.

Undertones break up into 3-4 types: WARM, COOL, OLIVE (olive is a tricky one but I associate it with the warm type) and NEUTRAL.

To find your undertone, stand in a place where there is natural light and hold a mirror in front of your face. Study the colours of the face, does your skin have a golden, yellow, pink, greenish/olive or peachy tone to it? Your undertones will help you pick the right foundation. For example:

If you have yellow/golden tones in your face, you have a WARM complexion and you want to choose a foundation that will match the warmth of your skin so perhaps a yellow-based foundation.

If you have pink/peach tones, your skin is COOL and you want to choose a foundation with peachy undertones because it will adhere to your cool tones. (This often applies to fairer skin although not always!). There can also be cool undertones of blue-red in darker skin, which is why there are hints of red in cool foundations.

MAC label their foundations as NC (neutral cool) and NW (neutral warm). Go to a counter, find the right shade and ask for samples of NC and NW in that shade and test them on your face to see which one looks better. If you're NEUTRAL then your skin is a blend of WARM and COOL tones so you may have to mix both for the perfect match.

PLEASE NOTE that MAC loves to confuse people and they do things opposite to what colour theory tells us.

NC has undertones of: yellow/gold. (colours that are usually warm, are cool at mac)
NW has undertones of: pink/peach and red. (colours that are usually cool, are warm at mac)

 

You can clearly see the yellow tones in this foundation NC shade 25. (left)

Compared to this foundation there are obvious tones of red and pink NW shade 25. (left)

Same shades, different undertones!

Remember skin TONE refers to undertones in the skin and skin SHADE refers to the colour of the skin, the lightness or darkness of the skin. For example, My skin is a fair-light shade but my undertones are a warm/olive. Everyone is different! 

It can be difficult detecting your undertone and it's not always obvious but try different tests. A great one is to hold gold and silver jewellery against your skin, which suits you better? If gold looks naturally good, then you're likely to be WARM and vice versa.

Once you've nailed your undertone this can influence your overall makeup when it comes to choosing the right shade of lipstick, eyeshadows and blushes.

Use this image as a guide to help you study your skin tone.

Thanks for reading,

Charlotte Louise

xx

Mastering Smokey Eyes

The secret to smokey eyes is, there is no secret. You just have to be creative and experiment with textures and colours. When a client asks me to do a smokey eye, I always say "be more specific" because there are so many variations of the smokey eye. Whether you want a smouldering black or soft shades of brown or grungy or feathered eyeshadow winged out, there's no right or wrong.

Grab a shadow brush, a couple of blending brushes, a bullet brush, maybe a few kohl pencils, mascara and just blend and blend!

This is my version of an electric blue smokey eye with a caramel base shadow which is feathered out around the edges to the end of the brow.

Because I have blonde hair, the vivid cool blue shade works for me. If everyone were to stick strictly to the rules of colour theory, I wouldn't choose a blue eyeshadow with blue eyes. However the caramel eyeshadow blended underneath and gold in the inner corners, balances out the look making the colour of my eyes pop.

Smokey eyes are a heavy look to pull off so keep everything else really simple. light contouring and highlighting and a nude lip; I'm wearing blankety by MAC. I chose to leave out the blush but if it's desired, use a natural pink that'll bring life back into your cheeks.

The products I used for this look are as follows:

• Illamasqua, cream pigment in hollow (contouring)
• Illamasqua, gleam in aurora (highlight)
• Mehron, concealer wheel
• Mehron, Celebre HD Pro cream foundation in LT/2 & ME/1
• MAC, prep & prime, finishing powder
• Urban Decay, primer potion
• Smashbox, face primer
• Illamasqua, eye shadow in Vernau
• Illamasqua, brow cake in Motto
• Urban Decay, Brow Box in Honey Pot
• MAC, lipstick in Blankety
• Avon, true colour, glitz and glamour palette
• and mascara is just mascara

TIPS FOR YOU: Good tip for those of you with brown hair, use green, it'll really highlight your hair and brow colour and mix different hues (as shown) to find your balance. MAC do some amazing loose pigments in green metallics.  Those of you with dark skin tones, you want to choose a warm colour palette, earth/black, berry/plum shades and shimmers will work fabulously. Remember, just experiment and have fun.

Thank you for reading,

Charlotte Louise

xx

FACE OFF: SFX MAKEUP The real role models!

Ok so I’ve been watching Face Off which is a competition reality show in which Special Effects Makeup Artists compete to win a big cash prize and a year’s supply of makeup. They battle it out each week to do a makeup according to the theme set upon them. The makeup varies from zombie to age makeup to cartoon to body art. Versatility is key. They create a look and showcase their makeups to the judges. There’s a best makeup awarded each week and a worst.. a Makeup Artist is eliminated each week until there is one winner. In sight of all this, this show gives the competing MUA’s a platform to get recognised in the industry which is more important than winning. Coincidentally the winner of the first series Conor McCullagh worked with Ve Neill on the makeup for the Hunger Games films.

Face Off is a US based reality show and me living in the UK, I’d never heard of it until recently. Since I’ve been watching it, I’ve been totally addicted. The talent of these Makeup Artists is phenomenal and they ALL deserve credit for their specialist skills. For the amount of time they have to create a concept and design for a character; sculpt and make the prosthetics; apply and paint; make the props by hand and fashion a costume for their character, is all of three days! THREE DAYS! That’s a lot of work for one artist and I mean a lot.

I have to say, this programme has given me so much inspiration, motivation and insight into working in Special Effects makeup. It’s such a competitive industry to break into and not to mention stressful and long hours. This work ethic is clearly represented in the show and the judges marking so harshly. This show doesn’t lie, it’s so raw and tells it how it is which I love. The technical and creative skill has to be exceptional too.

I chose these three images of some of the best makeups and their artists because to me, this was my personal favourite episode and theme which was to create a character that belonged in a Tim Burton movie. If you haven’t seen it, check it out: Series 2 ‘Burtonesque’. The artists featured in order top - bottom (RJ Haddy, Rayce Bird, Matt Valentine)

It makes me sad that there are so many talented artists out there whether it be in makeup, acting, costume/set designing, writing etc. who work their butts off all through their lives, mostly on poor earnings but they do it because they love it and it’s their passion. I have so much respect those people who don’t give up and make sacrifices to pursue their goals and ambitions. So when you ask me; who are your role models? IT’S THESE GUYS!

Other commercial reality shows for the mass audiences like X-Factor particularly make me angry, because the contestants are a bunch of fame seeking wannabe singers prancing about on stage in skimpy outfits. These people do not represent the talent or passion on any level compared to these Artists.
Thank you for reading,


Charlotte Louise