The idea of the no makeup makeup is something that as an artist I’ve really tried to explore and develop throughout my career. It’s often easier to beautify a face with the use of many products but the real art of makeup for me is being able to enhance a persons beauty using very little.

I wanted to explore this idea on a recent test with my good friend and model Kirstie Bennett who has recently signed with FM models. Kirstie has incredible skin and stunning bone structure which I wanted to bring out.

We played with illuminating products and very little concealer where needed to perfect the skin and give it a translucency. I wanted her face to have one strong feature and with my love for the fuller brow I decided that this element would give an edge to the natural pared down face.

To get the look I used the following products -

MAC Strobe liquid on the face and body.

Laura Mercier brow pencil in Dark blonde.

Shisedo Concealer.

I like to use this concealer when I want a very natural finish. It comes in very pale tones too which I like to mix and the creamy texture blends well into the skin.

Makeup forever High definition powder.

Vaseline on the lids and cheekbones.

I spent a sunny Sunday on the North East coast with my photographer friend Kayti Peshke shooting Olga @ Profile models.

Kayti is a bit of a location vulture and found this beautiful stretch of coast line with the most amazing bleached rock. With the sun blasting of the stark surroundings Olga was taken to a beautifully baron place…almost other wordly, hence the title Alienaton.

Kirstie Noble style the story with pieces from London new gen designers. I loved the piece by Falguni and Shane Peacock which helped inspire my monochramatic makeup.

I used my trusty MAC palette of Chromacake body paint to get the bold black and white eye makeup and blanked out the brow using soap to flatten then a full coverage concealer to take away the brow tone. I wanted all of the attention on the eye not the brows.

I was super excited to shoot with one of the first models I ever met at fashion week Victoria. She’s now styling and wanted to put this gorgeous street shoot together with Fiona Garden….. would I like to do the makeup … hell yes!!!!

I think Victoria has the most incredible face, cheekbones to die for and the fullest lips. It’s great to work with a girl who really understands her own look and how to work it and to top all that she’s a great stylist too! Here’s a few shots from the day, raw and unedited.

Phoebe @ Models 1 was the perfect choice of girl for our Petulant teen shoot in Queens Park the other day. Styled by Karen Munnis and shot by Fiona Garden we wanted to capture the idea of a teenage girl hanging out after school and toying with being a ‘rebel’.

At age 13 the girls seem to be getting younger and younger but with her super lovely mum in tow we set off to find the perfect after school hang out spots to shoot our story.

Pheobe had such a cute look so I wanted to toughen her up a bit with some worn in eye liner, MAC Smoulder Kohl is great as it’s nice a greasy so will move a bit to give the worn in look. There’s something beautiful about an eye liner that’s a bit messed up.

I’ve really enjoyed getting in the studio lately and shooting beauty.I shot with Frankie at Boss and Sarah Jones the other day. Frankie has amazing hair and I wanted to give it lots of volume and texture so I used a technique I learnt for Zoe Irwin. To get this romantic soft fuzz I knotted the hair from the roots through to the tips then ran the straightener down each section to hold the shape. Once the section is undone I brushed the hair through with a Mason Junior. The finish isn’t a curl or a crimp and felt really modern.

I’ve worked with Alex for a couple of years now and apart from being one of the most lovely people I know she’s also a dream to makeup. I admire a girl who knows what she likes and what works for her look. When I work with Alex I always get a clear idea of the look she wants, she’s very trend driven and always looks immaculate, I love her style. For the Elton John party we went for dramatic angled liner on the eyes with Alex’s trade mark ultra highlights on the cheeks. I found a beautiful limited edition gloss from MAC called Poetic License which is the perfect pale peach to compliment the dark eye and used NUxe body oil to give her skin a sheen.

I’ve had a bit of a spring clean of my kit lately and I’ve shelved my bold pigments and glitters and replaced with lots of peachy nudes and pale wheat tones, there’s so much beautiful new makeup around at the moment! Inspired by my freshly edited kit I got together with one of my favorite beauty photographers  Mark Enstone  (www.markenstone.com) and Select new face Rebecca Dixon to play around with the natural side of beauty.

I stumbled across the new Ellis Faas collection whilst in Liberty. Firstly the packaging is amazing … eye shadow in high shine pen shaped applicators, yes please! I also love the ultra wearable tones and the sheerness of the finish.

I’ve also been rediscovering some old favorites again. MAC eye shadow in Era has been around for years and is a perfect biscuit tone to circle the entire eye in.

In the beauty shot I also used an inner eye pencil from a brand called Paris Berlin, I’ve not seen it outside of Paris but it’s available at the IMATS makeup show in London. I like it as it’s not too white which can yellow the eyes but still makes them look bright. I wanted the lips to look full and glossy so used MAC Cremola lip liner to define them first, I think lip liner can look beautiful as long as it’s not too over drawn. Then I filled in the lip using NARS Bambi lipstick.

I worked with Layla Regan and Amanda from MandP models on this beauty shot. We were playing around with textures of black in beauty and styling. I used MAC Carbon all over the lid and up through the brow with Elizabeth Arden smokey eyes pencil in black as the base colour to give it depth.

I was in Italy last month with Katherine Jenkins. She was performing on ‘Io Canto’ which is there version of the X Factor. I’ve just discovered the Surabaya eye shadow compact from Nars which I’ve been using lately. It’s the perfect warm brown duo and really makes the eyes super bright and intensifies the blue. I’m all about a brown smokey eye at the moment!

Loving this mix of rich browns on the eyes.

Adam Lambert was in the U.K for a few days last week and I had the pleasure of working with him. I don’t really watch music reality shows on T.V so researched Adam a little before I met him. I was blown away by firstly his voice, a mix of glam rock Bowie and Kiss with a little Elvis thrown in for good measure. The second thing is Adam’s style, he’s already being hailed as the male Ga Ga with his love of rhinestones and amazing tailoring. Working with him was a lesson in hair and makeup, I like an artist who knows there own style. For the U.K part of his promo tour it was all about an over exaggerated quiff and a seriously smokey eye. It’s great to see a guy rocking the whole glam look again and doing it so well.

Check out Adam’s performance on GMTV at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmURPaV1VLw