There are times when golden opportunities come about and you would be a complete and total fool not to take advantage of them. A few nights ago, my friend Sheila and I attended a "Master class" held at the Shu Uemura boutique in Soho. The highlight of the evening would be a lecture and demonstration orchestrated by Gina Brooke. Ms. Brooke is a titan in the world of beauty. Her list of clients include Madonna, Katie Holmes, Reese Witherspoon and Eva Longoria. She's also doing a stint as the Artistic Director of Shu Uemura, where she revamped the eyelash curler and is developing a slew of new products.
Sheila and I arrived at the pristine boutique nice and early, making sure we had the kind of seats that would allow us to see every brush stroke and highlighter application.
Amy Winehouse was blaring throughout the colorful palettes of shadows and false fantasy lashes, champagne was flowing, fashionistas were air-kissing one another and an array of Shu workers were scurrying about, making sure each brush and palette was in place for Gina. Then she arrived. Wearing a simple, flowing brown halter dress with new Gucci espadrilles she took the stage. The first thing I noted about Gina was her flawless, radiant olive skin. You could hear women in the audience whisper to one another, "Wow, she's really pretty!"
Parallel to Shu Uemura's philosophy, Gina began her seminar stressing the importance of good skin care habits. "You can have the best makeup on the market, but if your skin isn't taken care of properly, you're makeup isn't going to look good," Gina emphasized. The first step was cleansing the model's skin with the company's cult favorite
Cleansing Oil. Gina then sprayed the skin down with the
Depsea Water Facial Mist and applied a light facial moisturizer, "The skin is most susceptible to moisture when it is wet."
After prepping the skin, the makeup application began. Gina did not use foundation on the model. In fact, if Gina uses foundation at all on her clients she'll always mix two or three shades to perfectly match the skin. The company's
Pro Concealer was applied with a foundation brush only to the areas where the skin is prone to redness (think the areas around the nose, forehead and chin). Brooke mixed the concealer and highlighter with moisturizer before applying to the face. Mixing and blending these will allow the makeup to go on smoother and will look so much more natural. Mixing concealer with eye cream is crucial to avoid the makeup from filling in fine lines and wrinkles.
If you have oily skin, invest in some blotting paper. Gina's model had an oilier complexion and she kept blotting the t-zone rather than adding powder on the oily areas. Blotting the skin as opposed to powdering is genius because you're actually getting rid of the oils that can cause breakouts, rather than clogging your pores with heavy powders. Feel free to lightly powder your face to "set" your makeup after you've finished applying makeup, but never use a lot of powder.
Using highlighter properly can be the difference between a mediocre makeup job and an outstanding one. At the event, I purchased
Shu Uemura's Base Control Complexion Enhancer in Gold. Remember, mix a little bit of highlighter with moisturizer on your hand with a brush before applying. While Gina was applying the complexion enhancer, she said that "highlighter must highlight high points." Think brow bones, bridge of the nose, cheekbones, shoulders and collarbones. Don't underestimate the power of a good highlighter!
Perhaps the biggest difference-maker in Gina's demonstration was the false eyelashes she used on the model. Instead of using an unnatural, dated strip of lashes, Brooke chose individual ones to apply. She used about four of them on each eye. A few on the end, some in the middle and voila! The moment the lashes were applied, you could hear the "ooh's and whoah's" in the audience. Before the seminar, I loved wearing false eyelashes to achieve a dramatic evening look, but Gina demonstrated to us that they can look so natural. Once the individual lashes were applied to the model, it just looked like she was born with incredible lashes! If you have access to a Shu Uemura, make an appointment at their Tokyo Lash Bar. A professional will help you choose a pair of lashes, whether it be a full strip or individual ones, and instruct you on how to apply them. Gina kept telling us to never apply mascara on them; they'll last longer and be a lot more sanitary if they're the last thing you apply on your eyes.
After Gina's hour-long lecture, Sheila and I spent a few hours with a Shu Uemura makeup artist named Tamaria. While the Shu Uemura artists were making over women, Gina went around to each person, critiquing the makeup application performed by the artists and advised each woman on the looks that would be best for them. When Gina came over to Sheila and I, it was pretty surreal. I mean, this is the same woman that works on Madonna's iconic face! She praised our pale skin, which was great being that we're both fanatical about taking proper care of our complexions (during our twenty-minute walk to the Shu store, we kept crossing over to the shaded sidewalks, avoiding the sunny streets at all costs). Brooke reminded me that I have a cool complexion and would benefit most from products with blue undertones. Blue-red lipsticks, pink blush and any color eyeshadow were things she advised me to wear. She even lined my lips with the
Drawing Lip Pencil in Red 192 and applied the prettiest, brightest shade of red,
Rouge Unlimited RD 134.
After Gina and Tamaria finished my look, some serious shopping was involved and Sheila and I left the store with two colossal shiny, black Shu Uemura bags. We were back on the grimy, cobblestone sidewalks of Soho. She had to go back to Queens to walk her Fox Terrier, Dax, and I had some laundry to attend to. The glamor of the evening was gone and real life had caved in. I hailed a cab and perused through all my new goodies, seeing future images of myself at that party wearing this purple eyeshadow...at that theatre show donning those false eyelashes.
Although most women wouldn't be caught dead wearing glasses that channel Steve Erkel, I find there to be something very provocative about the juxtaposition between an attractive woman and an object that is traditionally reared to be unattractive, quite simply "nerdy." I wear contact lenses every single day and have one pair of functional glasses that I use around my apartment. However, I came across two images that have made me reconsider my current aesthetic of saving the glasses for home. One is this photo of Marilyn Monroe (perhaps my favorite one of the icon), the ultimate symbol of classic glamor and femininity. She is pictured donning a fitted sweater, showcasing her curves, perfect makeup job and impeccable coiffure with a pair of cat-eye shaped reading glasses. She is a beautiful nerd.
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