Minimalist Makeup - Blush & Beyond

Minimalist makeup has been all over the spring 2014 runways, with supernaturally fresh skin and nude barely there colors.

I did this look for Flare magazine’s March issue, where they wanted the makeup to be minimal but on trend to keep in line with the white clothes in the bright , busy art world of Art Basel.

To start I prepped the skin by misting anorganic rosewater toner from Boots. To tone the skin and remove all traces of makeup.

For this supernatural skin look it’s essential to moisturize even if you think you don’t need it. This will help your skin to have that glowing look. If your skin is oily , just apply the moisturizer to the places you want your skin to glow, tops of cheekbones, brow bone, cupid’s bow of the mouth. For this I used Skin Food from Weleda. The smell is divine and it is very rich and moisturizing.

Using a small amount of Makeup Forever HD Foundation , starting at the center of the face I blended out towards the sides of her face using a brush. You want to have the thinnest layer possible but still evening out the skin. You can use your fingers or a dampened beauty blender sponge to makeup sure it blends seamlessly with your skin. If you need to use a concealer to spot conceal anything you don’t want to see and blend well.

For increased glow and to add dimension to the face I used Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate using the darker shade under the cheekbones and the highlighter on the tops of cheekbones , down the center of the nose and the cupid’s bow . This is a great highlighter as it doesn’t have any sparkle in it , it just adds a gorgeous sheen to the skin.

For the eyes I just used a wash of browns that suited her skin tone. I wanted it to appear as a neutral, for her I used a combination of Ambush and Rewind from Urban Decay.

There is no eyeliner , just curl the lashes and coat generously with mascara, L’Oreal Voluminous in this case.

I really defined her brows to give them more architectural shape. Using several brown shades I blended to find the color of her brows and then filled them in with short brush strokes and then brushed through. (for a bold brow tutorial click here).

For the lips I used a combination of foundation and chapstick to tone down the natural color of her lips and it actually is a great way to give your self that perfect nude lip. It’s best to moisturize your lips first and if they are very dry try exfoliating with a lip scrub. ( DIY lip scrub here)

A very wearable look for spring pairing perfectly with white or bold prints this season.