It is worrying to realise just how much make-up I need to face the world nowadays. When I was in my teens and twenties, I only put on the slap for special occasions - usually ones where I was hoping to score. In my thirties a bit of eye pencil and blusher made a more regular appearance, though rarely at weekends. But the big five-oh looms ever closer, and now I find it impossible to leave the house unless I've applied a full maquillage; without the war-paint I look tired, ill and 10 years older. This is my routine, with reasons.....
After my morning shower, I pat a tiny dab of Estee Lauder Resilience Lift eye cream round each eye using my ring finger. I then massage my face, throat and chest with Resilience Lift Face and Throat cream for Combination Skin. I use these creams because I picked up a dual pack at a duty-free shop in Turkey on holiday last year and found I liked them - they have an SPF of 15 which is probably a Good Thing, and they do a fine job of lubricating my rather dry skin without leaving it feeling greasy. I don't believe any cream will turn back the clock and magic away the years - and neither should you, Dear Reader - but slowing down sun damage and polishing the surface are things that these creams seem to do well.
I then rub a drop of Clinique's All About Lips onto mine. It contains methyl salicylate, an aspirin derivative, which helps to remove dead skin. It's not perfect, but it does seem to make my lips less flaky and prone to cracking (although avoiding the English winter this year has reduced this problem).
I apply a good hand cream - but no names, because none of them are good enough and I chop and change in search of the perfect gloop. A whinge about my horrible paws will follow in another article. I then apply it to my shins, which tend to itch, and to any dry bits of my body: elbows, forearms, knees, ankles. I use dedicated foot creams by CCS which contain high levels of urea to soften callouses. A whinge about my horrible heels will also follow.
Whilst the unguents are soaking in, I get dressed except for my upper top garment.
And then it's time to become human...and by the way, I'm Caucasian with mid-brown hair, fairish skin with a tendency to freckle, and grey-green eyes.
CONCEALER
If anyone has found the perfect undereye concealer, please let me know. But I suspect it doesn't exist. The best I've found so far are:
Laura Mercier Secret Concealer. Reasonable coverage but tends to crease.
Lauren Hutton's Good Stuff - various colours and coverages of concealer assembled in the Face Disk to be mixed and matched to blend into your skin. Actually this is rather good but very diffcult to get hold of outside the States except by mail order, and their despatch systems seem to be a bit shaky. I notice Sephora have stated to stock this range so it may become more available in Yurp.
Bobbi Brown concealer. Good coverage but again tended to crease.
Molton Brown Take Cover Eyes. I like this one a lot. It's silicone based so best to blot the under-eye area well before application. The applicator is very like the Touche Eclat one except that you twist the bottom rather than clicking it. Then dot it on lightly and pat in with the ring fingers. It can be layered for real problem areas (or events - New Year's Day?)
Marks and Spencer Autograph Concealer Pen. Again a brush applicator like Touche Eclat's, but with a side clicker. Very nice, lots of shades, but, alas, mine broke within a week!
The grandaddy of them all is, of course, YSL's Touche Eclat - which I don't like much because of the scary, sparkly, pale circles I end up with under my eyes!
FOUNDATION
I use a powder foundation because I'm trying to kid myself that my skin's not that bad really. I've tried out various makes, but although some seem silkier and finer in the pot, they're not as good on my face as Chanel's Double Perfection compact. I apply it all over my face, including eyelids, with a blusher brush (powder brushes are too big to work into the nooks and crannies), and make sure I have completely set the concealer.
EYEBROWS
I know the fashion is for thicker brows, but I pluck mine reasonably thin (not Greta Garbo, but closer to her than Freda Kahlo) and try to get a good angular arch to them. I use Tweezerman tweezers which are appreciably better than most. If any individual hairs get too long I just hoick them out even if it leaves a hole. I then use a pale brown eyebrow pencil (by Rimmel in shade Hazel) to fill in the gaps and give a good defined shape. Keeping it very sharp (Boots No 7 do a good pencil sharpener) and using small strokes seems to give an acceptably "natural" look. I do the brows before the eyes since it helps to stop me overdoing the colour - less is better than more.
EYES
I ouline my eyes with Lancome's Kohl pencil in Bleu Marine. What is it with cosmetic companies and colours? I went to replenish my pencil last year to be told that BM had been discontinued and replaced with a darker shade, Blue-black. I grumbled, but bought one; it was acceptable but not quite as good. A week ago I tried to replace that - and was told it was a limited edition Christmas color, now unavailable; I could have Electic Blue or Grey-blue. Neither enticed me so I left empty handed. But at the airport on Monday, what did I find? Bleu Marine was back!
Kohl tends to smudge and bleed (well, the way I put it on it does anyway). So I like to "anchor" it with some liquid eyeliner. I use Lancome's Art Liner which has a fibre "nib" rather than a brush, and is idiot-proof enough even for someone as cack-handed as me. During the day I ring the changes with colour - Brown, Amethyst (purple - difficult to find), or Smoke (mid-grey - found in Sephora in Washington DC last year); at night I use Blue which is darker and more dramatic. I paint a thin(-ish) line from the middle of my top lid to the outer corner as close to the lashes as I can get, and then dot a similar track on the lower lid.
I only use two eye shadows, dark blue and mid-brown. The latter is for daytime, and I apply it just above the crease in a well blended curve. For evening I do much the same application using the blue, but apply it more heavily. The current products are by Dior and Marks & Spencer but I'm not particularly wedded to them - I suspect one make is pretty much like any other.
BLUSHER
There's only one blusher I've found to be the right colour for me - Karen Millen's powder blusher, in Wine. I apply it with the blusher brush to the apples of my cheeks and then sweep it out and up to my temples. Any colour left on the brush gets dabbed on my chin and scrubbed onto my forehead. I don't think I use a lot, but it doesn't half make a difference!
LIPS
I cannot understand why anyone who's not a model wears dark lipstick. It seems to me almost universally unflattering. My own rule of thumb is not to wear anything darker than my own lips (which are collagen-free but still very full). Currently the make-up bag contains Dior's Rose Cosmique, and Chanel's Rose Baby and Baby Gold.
Collection 2000 has a lipstick fixative which works and costs 99p per bottle! Highly recommended.
And that's it.
"Aha!", I hear you cry. "You've missed something. Where's the mascara?"
Well, actually, I don't usually bother. My lashes are okay-ish, and dark for about 3/4 of their length, and mascara is a pain for getting off at night. So I tend only to use it for going out in the evening, in which case it's Lancome's Definicils in Black. I only apply it to the top lashes - gives a vaguely Audrey Hepburn feel and helps to avoid panda marks later - and seperate between coats with a lash comb from either Tweezerman or (non-metallic so better for air travel) from Barbara Daly at Tesco.
20 minutes from end to end, T-shirt on, and minerva is ready to move.
