“See It On The Runway. See It On You.” Don’t we just wish for that most of the time? Whether be it clothes or makeup, we always wish that those haute couture looks on the runway could be wearable on streets. Blair Patterson, Estee Lauder’s Director of Global Makeup Artistry, just made our wish come true! Estee Lauder being a partner of different fashion houses in New York and Paris Fashion Week, he shared the current runway trends and demonstrated how we can wear them on a daily basis.
I’m so glad I made it to Estee Lauder’s event last weekend. I love going to makeup workshops even if I’ve studied makeup artistry professionally. There’s always something new to learn. Although there’s only one concept in makeup application, almost each makeup brand has their own techniques. Blair Patterson was extremely nice to share a lot of makeup tips and tricks!!! Of course, I, being your insider, MUST share them to you. I tell you, you definitely must read until the end of this post. He revealed a lot of makeup tricks that most of us in the audience were awed! 😀
Let’s get down to business. Blair said that fashion week makeup is getting more and more natural, which I think is a good thing. This means it’s also getting more and more wearable for us! To make this easier to read and remember, I thought of sharing his tips in bullet points. Again, you must read as he is truly amazing! 😀
Foundation Makeup Tips
- We need two shades of foundation- dark and light. Through out the year, there will be seasons when we’re lighter or we’re a bit darker. We can use a darker shade of foundation during summer or a lighter shade during winter or when we’re not tan. We can also use the darker shade of foundation for contouring for a natural effect, while the lighter shade can be used as a highlighter.
- Do NOT apply foundation all over the face! Use only on parts needed! The point of foundation is to even out skin tone and to get that appearance of perfect skin. It should look like real skin that others would envy. Make the foundation as light as possible.
- If you wish to put bronzer, apply it BEFORE foundation. Yes, even if you’re using a powder bronzer, apply it underneath the liquid foundation. This trick will make the bronzer look very natural.
- Set the liquid foundation with translucent powder and not powder foundation. He reiterated the importance of the natural look.
- If you don’t have loose powder, just take the shine off with tissue. Simply lay flat tissue on the face and roll a powder brush over. A new way to “set” a liquid foundation, huh?! 😉 But I think this would only work for quick events. You can’t expect your foundation to last the whole day without setting it with powder.
Eyebrow Makeup Tips
- For the brows, using powder is okay, but pencils last longer. Instead of using the pencil directly, use a brow spoolie to get pigment from the pencil. Simply rub the spoolie on the pencil’s tip, then brush on brows. For humid countries, it’s better to set the pencil with a lighter color of brow powder.
Eye Makeup Tips
- Blair can’t stop praising Estee Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair (ANR) as he considers it to be a makeup artist’s best friend. It can be used with almost anything. It can be mixed with foundation to add glow to the skin. It can also make foundation darker if it’s too light. In this step, he mixed it with eye shadow to make the color more intense.
- For the eyes, he incorporated two runway looks- the 2D Eyes and the Moody Eyes. The 2D Eyes was done during NY Fashion Week at Derek Lam’s show. The eyes showcase a silver metallic stripe, where a metallic shimmer eye shadow was applied to the center of the lid from the lash to the brow. The Moody Eyes, on the other hand, was done at Anthony Vacarello’s show during Paris Fashion Week. It is a softly shaded look that has a mix of berry and taupe. Now to make these an everyday makeup look, he just patted the metallic eye shadow on the center of the lid and added a contour color. He used the burgandy shade eye shadow on the lower lash line.
- He didn’t use mascara anymore as rarely do they use mascaras during fashion shows.
- He just added a bit of dimension to the face by applying a contouring powder.
Lipstick Application Tips
- For perfect lipstick application, Blair used finger to apply the lipstick. Yes, no lip brush!
- If you want to make your lipstick matte, there’s no need to buy a matte lipstick. Just apply loose powder on top of the lipstick. Gently press with tissue afterwards. Then, reapply the lipstick.
- To clean up lipstick application mistakes, do not rub as it will just smudge the lipstick. Use a concealer and a concealer brush. Lightly brush downward from edge of the nose to the edge of the upper lip. Do the same on the lower lip by brushing from the chin going upwards to the edge of lip. Every lip has a natural edge so the brush will naturally stop at its highest point.
- As a finishing touch, Blair mixed a bit of ANR and loose powder on his hand and rubbed them together. He then patted his palms around the model’s face for a natural glowing effect.
If the first look is perfect for day, the second look is a bit more dramatic. Blair Patterson gave more emphasis to the lips. He said (which I think is true), a red lipstick is just an ordinary lipstick when not applied properly. Therefore, forget about applying your red lipstick inside the car or at the end of your makeup routine. There are a little bit more steps to remember than just gliding your lipstick tube onto your lips.
Lipstick Application Steps
- Exfoliate to minimize lip lines. Use lip moisturizer first and let it settle for a while. Then, use a mini toothbrush to take off dead skin.
- Apply a little bit of lip gloss to plump the lips.
- Conceal the entire lips to fill in spaces and gaps. This can make your lip liner and lipstick last long. This can also help avoid bleeding or feathering of lipstick. Using his finger, he applied Estee Lauder’s Double Wear concealer on the entire lips.
- Then, set everything by powdering it down.
Lips should look this nude after the steps above.
- To open up the mouth, Blair went for an Ombre lips. He first applied lip liner on the entire lips. He used a lip brush to get the product from the pencil for sanitation purposes. He prefers starting at the center. The bow is the sexiest part so it must be perfect.
- Next, line lips with burgandy lipstick. Then, use coral red to fill in the center.
- Lastly, clean up any mistakes using concealer, as seen in the Lipstick Application Tips section above.
Eye Makeup Application Steps
- For the eyes, he used Estee Lauder Double Wear eyeliner as a base. He started lining close to the lashline and blended up for a gradient effect.
- He then patted a light color of eye shadow on the outer area of the eyes and a medium color on the inner part of the eyes. Just press the shadow on top of the eyeliner. There’s no need to blend. Blair Patterson personally believes that eye shadow shouldn’t be blended. It has to be patted only as blending can just create another color of eye shadow.
- Add highlighter on the brow bone area.
- He added a little bit of concealer under the eye and finished off the look with a mascara.
- Again, as his last step, he patted ANR on the model’s face for a glowing effect.
Wow! Those are just amazing tips and tricks from Mr. Blair Patterson! I hope you enjoyed as much as I did. I can’t wait to try his tips and these runway looks. They definitely look very natural and take note, they’re not hard to do! They’re quick and easy makeup looks for day and night. 😀
I’d like to thank Estee Lauder Philippines and of course, Blair Patterson, for such an informative makeup session. I surely had loads of fun! 😀
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