CYL magazine

I shot an editorial for CYL magazine recently where I took the model (gorgeous Roxane Glineur) from pale to a bronzy shade. I thought it might be a good idea to explain how I achieved this look.

I started out by prepping her skin with the caudalie facemasks and then applied St. Tropez wash off tan all over her face and body. This made her a little bit more bronze. The wash off tan allows you to go a lot of shades darker without it looking weird or orange. 

I then applied a mix of BECCA luminous skin colour in toast and shimmering skin perfector in opal all over her face, neck and ears and concealed any imperfections with BECCA stick foundation. I then blended some more shimmering skin perfector in pearl on the highpoints of her cheeks and the cupid´s bow, making sure to blend all the edges well. Becca créme blush in Dahlia made her look she just came from a holiday.

I should warn you if you try to recreate this look to be very careful with all the shimmering products. The idea is to look dewy, fresh and sunkissed not like a shiny discoball. I then applied 2 differant shades of matte bronzer o the face and neck. The lighter shade where the sun would naturally hit and the darker one to add some shading. Always making sure that everything is well blended. 

On the eyes I applied one side of BECCA line and define pencil in cabrera and the softly defined the lid with BECCA jewel dust in nyx.

A black eyepencil, mascara and a mango flavoured lipbalm finished off the look.

I am leaving you with a couple of shots from the editorial.

How to succesfully fake a tan

Ever since I shot in Ibiza I have been doing so much fake tanning on shoots. Something rather weird considering the fact that we are in summer and we usually shoot winter this time of year but I am more than happy to comply with this tanning craze.
Needless to say I have been trying out all types of fake tan.
Selftanners really aren't my cup of tea. Somehow the good ones do very little for me, they usually dont make me glowy and the bad ones make me look like Bugs Bunny's favorite food. But Rodial self tanner does give me a healthy look. Unfortunately for shoots selftanner is not all that handy. The model needs to be naked for a couple of hours and she can't come in contact with anything cause it will stain clothes and leave her blotchy. Also the fact that she needs to have been scrubbed and hidrated prior to applying can cause trouble.
So the solution to this problem is just to wash off tan. The main problem I had with wash off tan was finding one that actually worked. I love the Kanebo bronzing gel but it is a little too transparent if you want to get that "I just spend a weekend in Saint Tropez" look. The product I liked by far so far has been St Tropez wash off tanner.

It comes in a silver tube and you have a lotion for face and one for the body. I apply it with latex gloves and it leaves you looking like a bronze goddess. The best part after it, once set you can easily apply another layer and it is smudge proof. No more tan stains on your clothes (stylist love me better nowadays). It looks and smells a little weird but it leaves you looking oh so fine. JLo here we come!!!

New skincare regime

I haven't had any time to blog. The days I havent been working I have taken time to relax and disconnect. I will start updating my blog regurlarly as soon as things calm down a little.

In the meantime I have been trying out some very nice new skincare products at shoots. So my skincare kit has been updated with some new face masks.

I have been trying out the caudalie face masks. In case you don't know the brand Caudalie it's a natural cosmetics company that uses grape and vine extracts in their skincare.

The enzymatic peel mask I started trying on myself and somehow it's end up in my kit. Basically it's a very gentle exfoliating mask which gives instant radiance to the skin. While I am prepping the hair I usually leave this on the skin. I really am not a big fan of exfoliating skin at a shoot. I don't always have access to running water at shoots and the scrub particles dont always all get off the face where I end up giving the model a micro dermabrasion, so this mask really does wonders.

After the peel mask I apply moisturizing cream mask. This little jewel rehydrates the skin, calms and sooths it prior to applying any type of makeup (I have even applied it as my night cream after a flight). So while I finish off with the hair, the mask can just be absorbed by the skin and I get rid of the residue with some water.

Trust me when I say that the combination of these two masks makes a world of difference. Although I see foundation as the final step in your skincare regime, I am not a huge fan of the look of foundation on the skin. So the better the condition of your skin prior to applying foundation the less foundation you will need and let's face it who doesn't want glowy radiant skin without foundation.