Lisa Lane [email protected]
Survival tips
This column may or may not be for you if you are looking for wilderness survival tips — the following are tips from the cosmetic hall in Brown Thomas, for the girl who is exhausted, worn out, or just plain trying to survive the day, they are more survival tips for the vain. If you play your cards right these are the days you can end up looking your best, because you have fine-tuned your ritual and are not focusing on enhancing every single feature on your face. In fact, you are going for the opposite effect. What you want to do is focus on the brows and the mouth, two spots rarely affected by lack of sleep (if they are, you are in deep deep trouble and you need to go back to bed right now ).
On days when you struggle to get out of bed and find yourself gripped to your mattress, the first thing you will need to do is lash on Clarins Beauty Flash balm, after your moisturiser and before your foundation. This gives the illusion of beautiful luminous skin, and this effect lasts all day long. It tightens and brightens. Enough said.
Difficult days demand concealer. Two that I like are Crème De la Mer’s radiant concealer, which is light reflecting and provides not just adequate but amazing coverage. It is admittedly pricey, but I have mine a year and a half, and can still have some dabbing left. It comes with a mini compact making life, and application, so much handier. The other concealer I like is Mac’s NW 20, and as Alana on counter explains, if you have blue undertones (as I do ) this completely counteracts the effects. She applies painstakingly with the precision of a Formula One tyre change, using the tip of the 224 brush, and to be honest, it is worth the extra few minutes to apply, this concealer is seamless when worked in sparingly with the brush, and lasts for hours.
Next, not so obvious, is to use your eyebrow pencil. On days when you are feeling extra tired, it makes sense to de-emphasise the eyes, as they show the first signs of fatigue. Brows frame the face and give a little ‘lift’ if needed. I like Chanel’s Blonde Clair, the lightest brow pencil you can find, it gently but firmly nonetheless defines the area without going all Brooke Shields on you. It also has a little spool at the end of it to keep brows tidy.
Finally, if you like your lips, tired days are good days to go for a vibrant lipstick — we are all mad about YSL’s new autumn winter collection, rich jewel tones, you could have nothing else on the face yet be good to go with a slick of this lipstick. Rouge Pur Couture 203 comes to mind, it is a pinky under toned red that would liven up any complexion.
