Putting on make-up correctly is an art. It requires, skill, creativity, vision and experience, as well as the right tools and products. Just like Monet, Van Gogh and Da Vinci, the make-up artist also takes a blank canvas and attempts to realise their vision, whatever that vision might be, sometimes beautiful, sometimes indeed frightful, depending on the mood of the artist and the task at hand. I had the pleasure recently of being the canvas, on which my friend and make-up artist extra-ordinaire Emma, was to try out her vision of a beautiful, fresh bridal look.
Day-to-day I usually wear a little bit of make-up: a dab of foundation, pencil on the brows and a slick of lippy, but that’s usually about as far as I go. Over the years Emma has taught me little tricks, like applying coconut oil to your lashes to make them long and luscious, or when doing the eyeliner ‘flick’, to hold a piece of card up to your eye at an angle and draw the ‘flick’ along it, but when it comes to more advanced techniques like contouring I’m totally lost.
It never ceases to amaze me how effortlessly glam Emma ALWAYS looks so I was excited at the prospect of getting equally glammed-up and experiencing how it’s done first-hand.
So on Tuesday evening last, I hopped in the car after dinner and headed down to her little studio in her lovely home in Ramelton, Donegal.
She cleansed me first with a refreshing cucumber cleanser and as I tend to have dry skin, she also moisturised and primed my face with a hydrating primer.
She mixed two foundations together to get the perfect shade for me and when she started painting it on, I have to say it felt like a lottt!!
With so many products in different textures and finishes, creams, gels, powders, liquids as well as colours to choose from, I was curious about how and where to start and how to know what will look good, so I asked Emma.
‘Everybody’s different’ she said. ‘As soon as I meet someone I’m looking at what they’re wearing, their hair, their accessories, getting a flavor of their personality and I’m immediately putting a look together in my head’.
After applying the foundation, she then set it with a powder. She worked with an artist’s style palette, which was also a mirror, dabbing her paint brushes in her chosen product before painting them on to my face. It was cool to see her at work: focused, skillful, inspired.
Next was the eyes. Apart from pencilling in my brows, I don’t do anything else with my eyes as I have always believed that eye make-up doesn’t suit me. But the way Emma did it, it looked amazing. She went smoky with the eyeshadow, used a gel liner in my upper eye-lids before adding lashes. She finished them with a cream highlighter in my inner eye, a simple technique that really made them pop. The eyes were the most dramatic for me and proved that it’s not that eye make-up doesn’t suit me, I was just never doing it right.
After that it was contouring and blusher and the look really started coming together. We finished with a shocking pink lipstick by Rimmel, a beautiful shade, which really gave the look the wow factor. But for something a bit less daring, Emma recommends a pink or nude lip.
Overall it took a little under an hour. And I couldn’t believe it when I looked in the mirror. I felt so glam. I wish I’d also been wearing a glam dress to finish the look, but there will be plenty more chances with dinner dates, drinks with friends and summer garden parties to come xoxo ❤ .
If you’d like further information, a list of products used or to make a booking with Emma, contact her here at Emma Gordon Make-Up Artistry .
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