Love Dita Von Teese's old-Hollywood inspired look? Well here is part one of my little tute on how you can achieve a bit of Dita's glamorous make up style for yourself- and you don't need to be a pro to do it! All you need is a great base, a winged eye and some awesome red lipstick.
Foundation:
First things first, you have to start off with a great foundation- Dita's look is based on a flawless complexion after all! This means applying a good moisturiser or primer (with SPF pretty please!) after you've cleansed your skin and before applying your foundation. I love L'Oreal UV Perfect SPF 30+ Daily Moisturising Lotion and Laura Mercier Oil Free Foundation Primer.
After you've let your moisturiser or primer sink in for ten minutes, then you can apply your foundation. A foundation brush is great, but using your fingers is fine too. Afterwards, use a concealer to cover up any under eye circles or blemishes.
TIP: It's always better to apply concealer after foundation as you may find that foundation alone is enough to cover any pesky spots or redness. This way you will have a nice, flawless base that doesn't look cake-y or obvious. Try YSL's Touche Eclat Radiant Touch concealer- it's famous for a reason! Then simply dust some translucent powder over your face to finish. Et Voila, the perfect base for your Dita inspired look!
Eyes:
Next it's on to the eyes. Dita's trademark is a neutral eye shadow paired with winged black eyeliner. So simply start off by applying a neutral eye shadow that is close to your natural skin colour. You could also use a soft muted grey if you wanted a bit more colour. Bobbi Brown has a huge range of beautiful matte, neutral eye shadow colours that suit everyone.
Now comes the tricky part- the black winged eyeliner! This can be particularly troublesome to achieve due to blinking and the naturally awkward angle of application. The only way around this is to practice, practice, practice! (It’s either that or enlisting the help of a girl friend or especially metrosexual boyfriend to do it for you.)
I love Bobbi Brown's Long-Wear Gel Eyeliner as it will never fade or leave you looking like a panda after a long day. I also love it because you use your own eye-liner brush to apply it, which gives you more control and is a lot easier to hold than other liquid eyeliners that come with their own built in brush. I use MAC's 266 small angle brush.
Using small strokes, apply the gel, liquid or pencil from the inside corner of your eye. Just before you reach the outside corner, start winging up the liner away from the lash line. Now you just have to go over the line to neaten it and build up to the desired thickness. Use a cotton bud dipped in make up remover to remove any obvious mistakes.
However, if you're not confident with applying winged liner and you're worried about it looking a bit wonky, just apply liner as per normal across the your top lashes without winging it at the end. You could also achieve a similar effect by smudging a shimmery dark grey eyeshadow along the lash line. This way you will still end up with a nicely defined eye, sans the stress!
To really complete the eye look, you absolutely must curl your lashes and apply your favourite mascara. You can’t get a better eyelash curler than the one made by Shu Uemura. It’s around $40 and it will last you a lifetime- one the best beauty investments a girl can buy! Curling your lashes really does make a huge difference, it really makes you look more refreshed and awake, which is especially handy after a late night! My favourite mascara of all time is Dior’s Dior Show mascara- it will change your life. Seriously. This mascara really does give you the longest, thickest lashes around. It's the ultimate false lash look without all the mess and annoyance of applying real falsies. Totally worth the $55!
Coming up in the next post: blush, the all important red lipstick and the perfect nail polish to complete the Dita inspired look.
