Makeup and skincare guru Matt Huxley shares his tips on how to keep your makeup polished through winter using his favourite Ere Perez products
Does anyone remember the under-eye baking trend from a few years ago? What about the ‘00s frosted eyeshadow and lipstick? Or the ‘60s Twiggy lashes? Makeup fads change all the time, but a classic, polished, and perfect canvas will never go out of style.
Going into winter, it’s time to ditch the heavy powders and cakey foundation. A lighter, dewier finish is the way to go. As our skin dries out during winter, trans-epidermal water loss increases, leaving our skin looking dull and parched. Glowy products artificially rectify this, making our skin look healthy and supple. Ditching or minimising the powder also prevents build up in any fine lines. By reflecting light, glowy products make lines appear shallower.
Now I’m clearly not imploring you to smother your face in highlight, but by following this foolproof regime, you’ll be well on the way to a more refined and healthier looking you. Ere Perez focus on this mantra, and with their easy-to-use products, they’re the perfect brand to utilise for this routine.
Start with a good base.
I’m always of the opinion that having an emollient base will make later blending easier. The idea is that you want the products to blend with the skin – you want seamlessness.
Use a pea sized amount of your moisturiser. The Ere Perez Moringa All Beauty Crème is a great option here. It has sunflower, apricot, prickly pear and moringa oils for a bit of greasiness, and glycerin for hydration. Please don’t be put off by the presence of oils here, I promise you that your skin will drink them in. If you find that at the end of the day, you’re getting patchiness and gathering in your foundation, it’s a sign that your skin needs more hydration, as it has sucked the water out of your makeup. Sometimes a hydrating serum is all you need, but if that doesn’t work then it’s time for a thicker moisturiser.
Follow with your SPF of choice – it’s a non-negotiable. Now I would encourage waiting a few minutes for those to sink in. Your SPF needs to form a film over the skin, and you want the moisturiser to settle slightly. This should also help to avoid any pilling later. The time it takes you to brush your teeth or select an outfit should be all you need.
Now you absolutely can use a primer after this step, and particularly if you’re of a drier complexion or have been lucky enough to reach a more mature age, this is a good idea. If the idea of three layers before makeup is enough to send your head spinning, forgo it.
Work up to your Ideal Coverage.
Sometimes it can be better to abandon your foundation. I know that’s going to shock, but stay with me. A small amount of strategically applied Ere Perez Arnica Concealer can cover up any areas of concern, whilst still showing your beautiful skin. I’m a huge believer in makeup being used to enhance our natural features (editorial work obviously being excluded here). A tap of concealer under the eyes, along the cheekbones, down the nose and across the bottom part of the forehead should be enough.
Blend up and out to smooth it into your skin. The good thing about this concealer is that with the amount of waxes (candelilla and carnauba), and butters (cocoa), it blends remarkably well. You won’t look patchy and it will merge with your skin – particularly if you’ve applied moisturiser and SPF.
Tap onto areas of concern and blend out, smoothing over the rest of the face. If you need more coverage over a blemish then reapply a bit more concealer, tapping over the area to build up the coverage and smoothing the edges with a brush. If you can’t face ditching the the foundation, then Ere Perez have their Oat Milk Foundation, which can be built up to full coverage. Whichever option you choose, just make sure you blend really well at the jawline.
Blush Up.
Blush can rejuvenate and bring your face to life. Gone are the ‘80s slashes of hot pink, in 2021 it’s all about an easily-blended cream formula. The Ere Perez Carrot Pots are bestsellers for a reason. There’s a shade here for every complexion, as well. Don’t dismiss the brighter colours. A bright colour, blended well, can flatter even the ghostliest of complexions. The trick is to build up pigment slowly.
Tap once into the pot and tap the apple of the cheek. Blend it along the cheek bone to give yourself a subtle lift. If you feel like you’ve gone too far, then the base of castor, jojoba and avocado oils will ensure that you can easily blend it away. A clean finger, dragged along the bottom edge of the cheekbone will sharpen the edges without creating a line.
If you’ve really gone a bit clown-like then take a brush with a smidge of concealer and mute the blusher down. Nothing to panic about, just keep a cool head and blend it away. These pots can also be used on the lip to add a flush of colour. Perfect!
Reflector Time.
Highlighter has come and gone over the years, but a well-placed glow is absolutely timeless. The Ere Perez Vanilla Highlight will give you a nice glow, without glitter. A cream formula is also much more forgiving around the fine lines of the eye. Even still, build up slowly and don’t apply a huge amount of product as you approach that outer edge of the eye – I guarantee that any product here will crease.
The trend is to highlight the top of the cheekbone, the cupids bow and down the nose. But I think that we can place it a bit better than that. I like a little glow starting on the apples of the cheeks. As we age, the fat pads and collagen tend to disappear from this area, so a bit of light reflection will serve to make this area appear fuller and more youthful.
Take the remainder across the top of the cheekbones and blend the excess up around the temples. This gives an all over appearance of glow as opposed to a shiny line. Take a bit more highlight and emphasise just under the brow and the cupids bow. A full lip can be faked without a needle. Instead of going down the nose, tap a small amount of product just between the brows, this will again help to blur and distract from the 11’s lines.
A Bit of Brow.
If your brows were around in the 90s and still haven’t recovered from the plucking, a subtle approach is always best. You may be tempted into massive overdrawing but usually that will lead to a “sharpie” look, and we don’t want that.
Comb through your brows and lashes with a spoolie to remove any stray product. If you need a bit of extra brow then take the Ere Perez Almond Brow Pencil in a complimentary shade and with short, shallow strokes, draw lines through the underside of the brow. Take the brush and blend this through. This will give a bit of colour to the skin underneath and make your brows appear fuller.
If you’re blessed with a thick brow, then perhaps some Ere Perez Aloe Gel Lash and Brow Mascara is all you need to keep them in shape. Always brush up to get that lifted, feathery look.
An Easy Eye.
Reach for the Ere Perez Jojoba Eye Pencil which is most contrasting (and therefore complementary) to your natural eye colour. For example, if you have blue eyes grab a coppery colour, green eyes look incredible emphasised with purple, hazel with green and brown with blue. A colour wheel will provide you with options, simply look at the colours opposite your eye colour on the chart. Alternatively, you can pick a colour similar to your outfit. The options are endless. This pencil has a coconut oil base, so it’s wonderful for smudging and blurring.
Line your upper waterline if you wish, then draw a thin line roughly along the upper eyelid close to the lashes. It doesn’t need to be neat; we are just getting the colour on there at this stage. Take a clean smudging brush and blend the colour out towards the end of the lash, winging it out if you desire. This will give a subtle emphasis to your lid. Take what’s left on the brush and sweep it through the socket to complete the look. This is a simple way to make it seem like you’ve put in a lot more effort than you really have.
If your concern is shadows or veins on the mobile lid, take a bit of the Arnica Concealer and tap a tiny amount over the lid prior to using the pencil. A curl of the lashes and a slick of Ere Perez Avocado Waterproof Mascara and we can move on to lips.
Gloss All the Way.
Gone are the days of thick, sticky lip gloss. The Ere Perez Mango Lip Honey has mango kernel oil and jojoba oil to ensure a luscious gloss, without the stick. They have a range of colours to suit your mood, or you can take the clear and layer it over a carrot pot or an Ere Perez Cacao Lip Colour.
Don’t be afraid to love the natural colour of your lips either, sometimes a bit of clear gloss just by itself can be the perfect complement to this unfussy look. Now of course a gloss will wear off quicker. But it’s also easier to reapply after that morning double espresso and will never leave you with an unsightly ring of colour on the outside of your lips at the end of the day. Gloss is also more forgiving on the lips in the cold winter breezes – and anything that helps with chapping is a positive in my books.
Now that you’ve completed the look, take a minute to have a look at yourself, re-blend the eye or the cheek if you need, add an extra layer of mascara if you wish. Go forth and conquer.
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Loved our winter makeup trends? We've got plenty more women's health and beauty advice on our Health & Wellness Edit, guaranteed to give your body a well-deserved boost. Is your skin prone to blemishes? Here are 11 skincare mistakes that could be seriously damaging your skin. Suffer with UTIs? Here are some helpful tips on how to prevent them.
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