I have recently finished my MAC Matchmaster foundation and I had been struggling with Revlon Colourstay in Cappuccino (too dark) and Mahogany (too red). Mixing the colours was working but there was no pump and it still wasn’t quite right. When I saw that NARS were doing make up lessons in Liberty’s (£25 redeemable against products) I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to try a new look and pick up some complexion products.
At the counter, I was met by Holly, who I had booked the session with and French makeup artist David. The worked as a tag team, Holly focussing on complexion products and David on the colour. I arrived at the session without makeup but Holly (who has the softest hands ever) prepped my skin with Cleansing water, followed balancing moisture lotion and the SPF primer. Then it was time to colour match. I have a darker forehead and chin so we colour matched New Orleans to the centre of my face.
I was given a great tip by David: rather than buy a second shade of foundation, I can use a darker concealer / foundation and mix it with my foundation, and then use a powder over the top. I have a Make Up Forever foundation that is darker than my skintone so I will be using that.
My colour is New Orleans in Sheer Glow which is a medium coverage product and it completely buildable. Holly advised that sheer glow should be applied with the fingers and the product is warmed up by placing it in the palm of the hand. It produced a flawless finish. Holly then handed over to David who would do the colour work on me. I am a makeup junkie so I gave him permission to do whatever he liked. He said that mainly people ask him to do a neutral / natural look so he was excited to get to work! David straight away said that he wanted to do a green colour under my eye l on the lid with Mekong (expresso shimmer) on the lids. It is a look that I have never done so I was happy to try it, and it looked amazing.
The final look was amazing, it brought out the brown of my eyes and although it is a bit fashion forward for my office, I will definitely be recreating it at the weekends. He also talked about the need to black people to use sun protection, advised that a super highlighted under brow was a bit naff and confirmed that my eyes rather than my mouth are the feature that I should play up the most. After David worked his magic, Holly finished off my look with powder. NARS don’t do a translucent powder – their philosophy is that a powder product should have colour and I was colour matched for Benares.
I already own few NARS products – Orgasm blush, which I like to use as an eyeshadow and highlighter, Coconut Grove eyeshadow, which I use both as a shadow colour, for contouring and for my brows and I have a concealer in Cafe.
At the end of the lesson, I was given a breakdown of the products that had been used on me. I think that make up lessons are a really useful way to learn the best application methods for products and to update your look. Before I booked the lesson, I already knew that I would be interested in purchasing complexion products so I bought the sheer glow and the powder foundation. Unfortunately I was not reminded to get a pump so I’ll be back to the counter to pick one up the week.