The Makeup Mole

Here’s a post that I wrote for Vogue.com.au recently, on how to get Brigitte Bardot’s timeless sex appeal.

Love this new Burberry Body ad with the divinely radiant English supermodel, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Shot by Mario Testino, with makeup by Charlotte Tilbury and music by The Feeling, it’s as beautiful as we have come to expect from this legendary British brand.

www.burberry.com

I never blog about my brushes, (not because I don’t love them, because I do – the same way I love macaroons, vintage Brooke Shields and moon bears, which is to say A LOT) but because blogging about them is like blogging about my own arms – they are so much a part of me that it almost seems silly to talk about them.

However when I come across something new that I haven’t seen before, I feel honour bound to tell you all. This is my new dude in my extensive brush collection – it’s Benefit’s Powder Shadow brush from their new range of brushes. This brush is noteworthy as it’s great for laying down shadow. Sounds boring, I hear you ask? Well a good lay down brush is surprisingly hard to find these days, as you want one that is dense and soft, where the bristles aren’t too long (as then it blends instead of laying down product). MAC do a few, Laura Mercier does a good one and I have a bunch left over from makeup college, but of late I have been very short of a good lay down brush. The Benefit brush is very soft as they’re made of real hair, yet the bristles are just the right length to do the job, and as a double extra added bonus, it’s slanted, so if you wish to buff in a liner it’s perfect for that. It’s also quite genius as a crease brush too, so it can do double-duty in your makeup bag.

The new line of Benefit brushes is reasonably priced (which is nice as brushes can be very expensive), and I’m quite keen to try some more of them on for size. Because, as with vintage Brooke Shields, so it is with makeup brushes – you can never have enough.

Here’s Brooke in Louis Malle’s 1978 classic, Pretty Baby so you can see what I mean – the Benefit Powder Eyeshadow brush you’ll have to get on your own.

www.benefitcosmetics.com

Makeup by Kay Montano using Illusions D’Ombres De Chanel Autumn Collection

Kay recently shot the beautiful actress Freida Pinto for the cover of Instyle magazine, and Kay told me this about what she used to enhance her already naturally gorgeous good looks:

“Freida has truly perfect skin, a perfect pout & Bambi eyes – she’s a make-up artist’s dream! I wanted to make the most of her natural beauty by emphasising, not recreating any of her features.

I used the most sparing amount of foundation, leaving most of her face transparent & clear with a minimal amount of translucent powder on her ‘T’ zone only.

I kept her skin dewy looking with L’Oreal Hydrafresh moisturiser and L’Oreal True Match Liquid foundation in C2 Rose Vanilla so that when I added the Chanel Rose Ecrin blush her skin had a genuine looking glow.

I lined Frieda’s upper eyes with Chanel’s eye pencil in Brown & smudged in with my fingertips. Then, using a round, short haired brush, I applied the new Chanel Illusion D’Ombre in Ebloui over the lash line & blended until smoky. This product has the most extraordinary texture, unlike anything I’ve ever seen before but the real beauty of it is how easy it is to use, smoky eyes are made easy at last!

New Chanel eyelash curlers arrived at the studio so I got those out straight away followed by lashings of Chanel Inimitable Obscure Mascara in Black.
Freida’s pout needs no definition so I kept the emphasis on the eyes by using a subtle slick of Chanel’s Glossimer For Lips in Braise.”

Check out the Behind the Scenes video of the Instyle shoot:

Since my legs when left to their own devices look like Satan’s tracksuit pants, I am in regular need of liberal applications of body moisturiser. I have recently tried some new good ones that have displaced my usual rota of Nivea, Nivea and more Nivea, so I thought in the interests of full disclosure it was time to divulge.

My new summer time body goodie is by my favourite Aussie brand, Aesop – it’s their Petigrain Hydrating Body Gel, and it’s perfect for hot weather as it’s lighter than a regular moisturiser and absorbs quickly. When it’s hot as a sauna outside, the last thing you want to have is feeling like you’ve had a brisk bath in butter. It also comes in a plastic bottle with a handy pump, so it’s lighter and not as fragile as Aesop’s glass packaging.

Enhanced with Witch Hazel, Grapefruit and Lemon Peel oils it smells delicious (which you expect with Aesop products), and I’m thrilled to have a proper body moisturiser I can throw into my kit for summer shoots, as most of the moisturisers I’ve been using (Palmers Body Gloss, I’m talking to you!) are just too slick and greasy.

Whilst it’s hard to imagine needing some serious body hydration when your limbs are bronzed and it’s hot outside, that time is coming for my Northern hemisphere friends, and oh baby have I found your solution! By now you should all know of my love for Liz Earle’s genius Superskin moisturiser, and she has now released – Superskin Body Cream. I know, right? So all those poor dry, dessicated souls with skin (like mine) that is so parched that it feels like lizard skin, this is for you. It’s amazing, full of Shea Butter and organic Rosehip Oil, Neroli Oil and Cranberry Seed Oil, so it slides on like you’ve been touched by an angel. It smells gorgeous and, quite frankly, sticks everything back where you want it to be (you dry skinned ladies know what I’m talking about).

www.aesop.com
www.lizearle.com

I found this lovely video of Alexa Chung, with makeup done by celebrity makeup artist, Florrie White (who I used to assist in London). Find out why everyone loves Alexa…

I have been naughty everyone, and slack – in fact, a bad beauty blogger. Whilst I was off swanning around Fiji, relaxing by the pool and reading trashy true crime novels, I’ve let you all down massively. I haven’t told you about a little gem that I found recently which immediately found it’s way in to my kit, and that is only available for less than two more weeks!

I saw that on my Twitter feed that the new BECCA collection is out very, very soon and I felt chastened – here’s me all relaxed and happy whilst my poor readers are missing out on finding out about one of the nicest brown shadow eyeshadow palettes I have seen in ages. I was planning to do a post on Best Brown Eyeshadows, and I started… but I couldn’t choose. There were just SO MANY of them. Earthy taupes and decadent chocolates, rich plum browns and coppery biscuit tans, minky, milky browns that make your eyes pop, and shimmery taupe-y browns that make you sigh. Where does one start on a post like that? So I didn’t, embalmed in my post-holiday glow. And so Lost Weekend would have stayed the Lost Weekend.

Inspired by the earthy colours of the Australian bush, you can see how gorgeous it looks here in the campaign images. The brown is the stand-out colour for me as it’s a rich caramel but more on the grey side, not too yellow so it’s beautiful blended through the crease or as a soft liner. There is also a lovely pink-y flesh tone that is gorgeous as a base colour, and a similar pink that has a hint of shimmer through it that pulls the two other colours together in perfect harmony. They are the best neutrals I’ve seen in ages, so for a natural look for every day, this is my go-to palette.

Get the Lost Weekend…before it’s gone for good.

www.beccacosmetics.com