Makeup Breakup with Bipasha Basu

Bipasha Basu is not only an actor par excellence, but also a beauty icon in the country. She is known for her retro eye liner looks, absolutely flawless skin and nude lips. I’m happy the way her makeup artists don her and always get her perfectly right. Since I know her makeup artist (shall not reveal names) I got to learn his tricks for creating this sultry look. I might not suggest all the products that he uses but I’m sure I’ll be able to put the look well.

Makeup artists are actually face choreographers and they know how to put up a look anywhere with anything.

Anyways, lets see what we would need for Bipasha’s look: -

- CLEANSE, EXFOLIATE AND MOISTURIZE
- CLARINS INTANT SMOOTH PERFECTING TOUCH
- BENEFIT LEMONAID CORRECTING EYE PRIMER
- MAC POWERPOINT EYE PENCIL IN SMOLDER
- MAC FULL COVERAGE FOUNDATION
- MAC PREP+PRIME FINISHING POWDER
- CLINIQUE UPLIGHTING ILLUMINATOR IN PEACH OR BRONZE AS PER SKIN TONE
- MAC POWDER BLUSH IN SUNBASQUE AND TRACE GOLD
- MAC GRAND DUO BLUSH IN LIGHT OVER DARK
- CLINIQUE FULL POTENTIAL LIPS IN EXTRA APRICOT
- CLINIQUE HIGH IMPACT LIPSTICK IN POH POSH
- CLINIQUE SUPERBALM MOISTURIZING LIPBALM IN MANGO
- CLINIQUE BRUSH ON CREAM LINER IN TRULY BLACK 02
- CLINIQUE EYE DEFINING LINER IN BLACK
- CLINIQUE HIGH IMPACT CURLING MASCARA IN BLACK
- CLINIQUE LASH POWER MASCARA IN BLACK ONYX
- CLINIQUE BLENDED LOOSE POWDER IN 04 TRANSPERENCY
- CLINQUE SUPERFINE LINER FOR BROWS IN DEEP BROWN
- MAC EYESHADOWS IN REMOTELY GREY, DARK EDGE, SMUT, RICE PAPER AND GLEAM
- CLINIQUE EYESHADOW PALETTE IN SPICY AND COLOR SURGE MONO EYESHADOW IN BUFF

Now lets see how to put all that on. These are the makeup products in an ideal environment and have a scope of alternating or removing certain products.


FACE: -

Its very important to exfoliate especially for olive, medium and dark skin otherwise your makeup could give an ashen cast on the face because of dead cells.
Cleanse with a foaming cleanser and then swipe on Clinique’s Clarifying lotion with a cotton pad on the face and finish with a light weight oil free moisturizer like Clinique’s Moisture Surge Extended Thirst Relief in patting motions all over the face. If it’s a day look then do not forget to add a sunscreen or a primer with sunscreen like Moisture Sheer Tint spf 15 from Clinique which is an oil free tinted moisturizer that loves to behave like a primer as well.

On certain areas like cheeks, nose and middle of the forehead, the foundation is likely to wash off or flake due to oiliness or dryness. This concern can be taken care with Clarins Instant Smooth Perfecting Touch which is a balmy primer that minimizes shine and appearance of pores and makes the foundation glide better and make it stay put for long..
A pinkie size primer should go a long way. It needs to be dabbed and then spread across in circular motions to fill in pores. Do not forget the sides of the nose that can be flaky and red at times.

For priming the eyelids I love Benefit’s Lemonade Concealer that hides the appearance of under eye circles and purplish haze and broken veins and capillaries on the eyelids and yet prepares them for a smooth eyeshadow application. Put a little product and blend on the lids. Build it up as required in layers and see to it that all layers are blend.

MAC full coverage foundation is a perfect all over foundation and concealer that hides flaws and makes the makeup long lasting. Other options would be Clinique’s Perfectly Real Makeup Foundation which is very good for oilier skins and for ones who want their skins to see through and make the makeup look real.
I love to mix some MAC’s Fix + spray on a glob of foundation to make it thinner and help it spread better. For applying the foundation I prefer using a buff brush made with natural hairs that gives it a smooth and blended appearance. Scott Barnes foundation brush is an amazing natural bristled brush that blends creamy products like dream.

Apply foundation all over the face and the eye area and smooth and buff it out with the above mentioned brush. Apply some foundation even in the space between inner corners and the nose bridge as that areas has the maximum darkness and bluishness.

Set the foundation with MAC prep n prime powder. The best way to apply powder is with a fluffy brush and apply very less amount as powders can give a mask like appearance. To correct the color apply Clinique’s Blended Loose Powder in minuscule amounts over the T zone. This will also help prevent any shine on the face.

EYES: -

I prefer to do my foundation first and then go with eye makeup. This invites emergencies like eyeshadow fall outs and color getting applied everywhere. To prevent eyeshadow fall outs, I tap the excess color from the eyeshadow brush and apply the eyeshadow in buffing motions rather than swiping. This also gives me a better color loading and results in a better color payoff.

Start with lining the lid with an eye pencil applied as near as possible on the lash line. This stains the lash line and gives an illusion of fuller lashes. Plus it also acts like an extra base for the eyeshadow to sit on.

Then apply SMUT eyeshadow in the outer corners and blend it in the crease. In the outer corners buff a dark bronze eyeshadow from SPICY Quad and blend it towards the crease. Apply the metallic brown in the crease and blend it inwards and till the sides of the nose. This needs to be done under professional assistance.

Apply the peachy bronze eyeshadow from the quad all over the lid with a fluffy eyeshadow brush. To highlight the brow bones mix the gold color from the quad with Buff mono eyeshadow and with a large buffing eyeshadow brush dab it over the brow bones blending downwards. In the area immediately under the brow use some BuFF eyeshadow to open up the eyes. Use Ricepaper eyeshadow in the inner corners and inner parts of the upper and lower lids.

On the lower lids smoke an eyeliner pencil from outwards within and shade in SMUT eyeshadow till the outer third. This gives an illusion of big and beautiful almond eyes.

Take the brush on cream liner on a thin eyeliner brush or a flat liner brush and walk its way in the inner rims of the lower lid. With extra precision draw a thin line over the upper lid with the liquid liner. I like to start from the outer corner coming inwards and love a line that is thin in the inner corners and gradually gets thicker till the outer corners and again fades away thinning outwards. This gives a perfect winged appearance to the liner and lifts up the eye area.

Two coats of curling mascara on the upper lid and two coats of lengthening mascara on the lower lid finishes the look.


CHEEKS: -

Apply a liquid illuminator on the highlight areas of the face. Apply Sunbasque which is a bronzy peach blush all over the cheek bones and highlight the apples using Trace Gold blush which is a sheer tone shimmery gold and looks amazing as a blush.

The overall effect is peachy and luminous with a perfect looking skin.

LIPS: -

Apply high impact lipstick in POSH POSH by dabbing it over the lips to create a base for the lipgloss. Mix extra apricot lipgloss with mango superbalm and glide them on the lips.



This look is very easy to sport and very flawless. Hope you try it on.

Till then,
Ciao

Beauty Essentials for PROs

We have so many talented makeup artists who want to make big in the business and who dream big. As starters they have limited access to products and a limited budget to start their profession. Just like ideas even the makeup products are limitless and artiste nouveau are confused of what to buy.

So I thought of dedicating an article to all pro and amateur makeup artists who want make their own stand and their own makeup kit. You need not have to get all branded stuff and invest worth lakhs of money, just by buying essentials you can start off and build your makeup case slowly and steadily. Hope this article helps..

Here’s a list of things I find perfect for a beginner: - (these are my recommendations. And that doesn’t mean its mandatory to buy what I have recommended. This article is for an Indian makeup artist who is a beginner. Others can update their kits according to the need of their clients.)

- Skin care: - Any good skin care brand helps you get a very good canvas to work on. I recommend Clinique’s Wash away gel cleanser, Mild Clarifying lotion and Moisture Surge Extended thirst relief or Moisture Sheer Tint spf 15 in Beige.

- Foundation: - MAC Studio Fix Fluid in NC 40, NW 40 and NC 42 to begin as a liquid foundation. Kryolan Supra foundation palette of 24 colors for heavier makeups. Custom fit foundation colors according to needs but start off with these as basics.

- Concealer: - Clinique All about eyes concealer in No. 5 Medium Beige and No. 8 Deep Honey.

- Powder: - Clinique Blended Loose Powder in no. 4 and no. 8 and MAC Prep+Prime Powder

- Blush: - Some universal shades like Clinique Blushing blush in Smoldering Plum and Bashful blush, MAC Powder blush in Tender Gold, Sunbasque, Coygirl and Peachykeen.

- Eyeshadow Primer from Oriflame

- Face Primer from Clarins Instant Smooth Perfect Touch

- Eyeshadows colors from MAC in Smut, Carbon, Tempting, Sumptuous Olive, Gleam, Shroom, Nylon, Amber Lights, All that Glitter and Silver Ring.

- Mascara in MAC Zoomlash Black or Clinique High Impact Mascara

- Eye liners Clinique Quickliner for eyes in Really Black and Dark Chocolate

- Brows from Clinique Super Fine liner for Brows in Deep Brown

- Lipsticks in some basic colors like red, pink, beige, brown, burgundy and coral or orange.

- Lipglosses in peach, pink, nude, beige, gold and brown.

- NYX brushes as they are a good substitute to MAC brushes and have equal professional touch.


The more you buy, the better it gets. But one needs to start some where.
Till then,
Ciao

Le Grand Duo………

I’m a huge fan of MAC Mineralize blushes and eyeshadows and have been collection entire collections over years from their limited edition launches. Guys from MAC @ Juhu would agree with me on how fast these collections move and how they have to handle the “Out of stock” anguish of flustering customers like me.

There is a reason for this. The pay off of these Mineralize products is out standing with an amazing pigment quality and fairy like textures. The products create a lovely intermix of colors on eyes and a supernatural halo on the cheeks of which one could only dream of. Let me keep away from blabbering more and talk about the amazing Grand Duo collection that MAC launches yesterday.

If you have seen the duos and trios from the Mineralize collection and if you have owned them, I’m very sure at the back of your mind somewhere you would have craved to have blushes in these duo textures too. I think the craving paid off. MAC launches a duo collection of Mineralize blushes that goes hand in hand with their eyeshadow collection and is something that every girl and every makeup artist using MAC must have dreamt.

The Grand duos are duo blushes with a solid half and a marble half what MAC calls MELANGE. The colors are exquisite and the intricate veining of gold and lilac with copper and bronze and even purple make them a must have in the vanity case. (I believe the word VANITY in the vanity case comes from the vanity a woman or a professional has to store so many products in a makeup case….lol…whatever)


The pay off of the blushes is amazing and one needs to be very cautious in using them. I would not advice using the same technique that you use for other MAC blushes where the color is loaded on the blush brush and then applied on the face. Since these blushes are highly pigmented just a whisper of color is enough for the blush to show on your face. That’s why MAC promotes their brush no. 188 a duo fiber brush to apply the blush delicately on cheek bones.

Though the blushes are frosted, they do not impart that chunky and tacky shimmery look on the face. Instead they create a halo on the cheeks and the shimmer is very subtle yet powerful and pronounced. The marble side gives a mélange of colors that blend together to give a radiant shine whilst the solid side is packed with blush pigments enough to make one look like a Raggedy Ann if used in excess.

The best part of owning this blush duo is the number of colors that you can actually get from a single product. It has all the colors necessary to accentuate cheeks but MAC do not recommend this product to be used on eyes so be cautious.

Since I was not very keen on Intenso and Moon River which are for the extreme dark and extreme fair complexions respectively, I ended up buying the rest of the five. Btw these blushes are priced at Rs.1350 and I strongly recommend them.

Lets see the shade description: --

Moon River Blue pink mélange / Pale yellow pink

Love Rock Gold violet mélange / Bright blue pink

Grand Duo Copper pink mélange / Plum

Light Over Dark Orange yellow mélange / Deep brown

Earth to Earth Purple bronze mélange / Yellow brown

Hot Planet Copper yellow mélange / Mid-tone plum

Intenso Pink gold mélange / Terracotta rose


Do try them at MAC stores all over India and do write about how the products are…

Till then,
Ciao