How to Fake Perfect Skin - Part 3

In our final instalment on faking perfect skin, we look at achieving greater coverage or a holiday glow. Have you ever tried mineral powder? It's light, gives a pretty glow and has ingredients like jojoba seed oil that are good for your skin.

Jourdan Dunn at Anna Sui

MAC's Mineralize Skinfinish Natural (£18.50) is described as a 'luxurious domed face powder with minerals, slowly baked to provide a dimensional yet natural matte finish and give perfect low coverage.' Colours in the range include 'dark’ and ‘deep dark’ which can be used on a variety of brown skin tones.

MAC mineral powder lasts a long time and feels as natural as your own skin. Wear with lipstick (£13.50) the same colour as your lip for a nude look. We particularly like their colours ‘mocha’ and ‘kinda sexy’ for a natural looking matte pink with peachy and brown tones.

To create contour and shape to your face, use a blush one shade darker than your skin tone. Remember you want a natural look so avoid pink shades as tempting as it may be! In keeping with our healthy skin mission, try NARS Cream Blush (£20.50) which contains vitamin E. Apply with finger tips or a foundation brush under the cheekbones to give the illusion of a slimmer face.

If you use a powder blush, be sure to use a brush with natural bristles. Shu Uemura do a good one which is designed for contouring and highlighting the cheek area. For an extra healthy Caribbean holiday glow, use Bobbi Brown Bronzer (£24) in ‘Barbados Tan’ (they have a versatile range of warm natural colours) for a summer glow in the winter and amazing skin in the summer!

Define brows with Benefit Brows-a-go-go (£26.50) shaping kit. Eyeshadow for your brows is the most natural way to define brows. Makeup artists and celebrities hardly use brow pencil these days! Curl lashes with the award winning Shu Uemura lash curler (£20) and finish with a small amount of mascara to define the eyes. Benefit BADgal lash (£16.50) in black is amazing!

Now you’re a natural beauty!

We hope you found this useful. If you have any questions regarding beauty products, skin care advice or makeup methods, please contact Kemi – our professionally trained make up artist.

How to Fake Perfect Skin - Part 2

The next step in faking perfect skin is to ensure you moisturise generously at night. Use Vitamin E cream as it is gentle and great for all skin types. You can use this as a day or night cream, just make sure you use more at night! Massage the face and neck gently and let the cream settle into the skin.



Joan Smalls at Alexander Wang

 Two weeks in, you have been looking after your skin and it's beginning to feel fabulous.


For a low key, daytime look, try a tinted moisturiser. Use Mac Oil Control Lotion (£20) or The Body Shop Mattifying Cream (£9) - matte means absolutely no shiny skin - essential if you have oily/combination skin. For normal to dry skin, we like Bobbi Brown's luxuriously light Hydrating Face Cream (£34).

Did you know you can make your own tinted moisturiser? We use Mac Cover Up concealer (£13.50) with a small amount of mattifying cream (50p coin size).When buying concealer, remember that Mac's NW colours are for black skins with yellow/orange undertones.

Apply your homemade moisturiser with a foundation applicator brush for a natural glow. Shu Uemura have a wide range of luxurious, excellent quality brushes in funky and plain colours that can last for up to a decade! Find them in Space NK.

How to Fake Perfect Skin

We all want it, but few of us are born with it. That natural, glowing, fresh-as-a-daisy, pefect skin. The models in the Alexander Wang, Anna Sui and Burberry Prorsum shows seemed to have it. How can we?

Jeneil Williams at Burberry Prorsum

Over the next 3 weeks, we’ll give you a step by step guide to achieving this look at home. It’s so easy you could probably do it in your sleep. And you’ll look fabulous with very little effort.


Week 1: Keep a consistent skin regime

We know what some of you are thinking. Too much hard work? Well beauty takes time! Spend an extra 10-15 minutes pampering your skin at night & your skin will thank you throughout the day.

For those of us not blessed with perfect, youthful skin, having a consistent skin regime is imperative. It doesn’t have to be too involved, particularly if you are doing more than the 9 to 5 and you have crying babies (this includes boyfriends/husbands).

Three easy steps: cleanse, tone, exfoliate.

First use a cleanser all over your face and neck to remove impurities and excess oil. This can also be used to remove makeup (follow cleanser step twice if you have heavy makeup). Aveda's Green Science Cleanser (£20.50) is good for most skin types.

Soak a flannel in warm water, ring out any excess water and cover the face for 1-2 minutes wiping away any remaining cleanser. Use toner for a deep clean that seeps right into the pores. Dermalogica and The Body Shop do nice ones.

If you do nothing else make sure you exfoliate. The good news is, if you do this efficiently you only have to do it once a week. This can be done using a handheld small facial brush from The Body Shop (£3.99).

Team this scrub action with a facial wash that contains microbeads for deep exfoliation giving you baby soft skin. Clinique (£17) do a lovely, gentle wash that gives excellent results if you have oily or combination skin as it eliminates black heads and annoying little spots on your T-Zone (forehead, nose and chin).

Rotate in a circular motion softly on the t-zone. If you have normal/dry skin gently concentrate all over the face to remove dead skin cells and dry flaky skin. Rinse with warm water. Your skin should feel wonderful now!