I was shooting today with the gorgeous Jessica from MOT models and we were playing around with different hair up ideas. We came up with the super cool/cute double pony with lots of height through the front. This look is perfect for the summer, the soft texture through the pony looks really beach-y and everything is taken away from the face to show off your tan.

Here’s how we got the look

1. I prepped the hair with Bumble thickening spray and rough dry.

2. Then used Toni and Guy sea salt spray in the roots and blow dry with a round brush to get volume through the front section.

3. I used a Babyliss Pro wand the curl the hair in loose sections.

4. I pulled the hair back loosely from the face leaving the separated finger sections.

5. Take a section either side and pull the back tightly from the face and secure with a band. Take two more sections and secure underneath.

6. Tease the mid pony section up so it doesn’t look too tight and softly backcomb the rest of the hair to break up the curl.

Working as a makeup artist I often get asked the inevitable ‘What would you do to my face’ question which I’m usually happy to answer except when I’m cornered by a group of girls at 3 am in a shared  club bathroom! . I do love helping my girlfriends out with their makeup mishaps though and have used my best girlfriend as my living Girls world head for years now. Thanks Laura!

One of the most frequent questions I’m asked is how to keep makeup feeling trend based and updated but still wearable. I’ve noticed that there has been a huge movement towards the natural colour palette in the past few years. Gone are the Aqua and citrus brights for the eyes, they’ve been replaced by browns, greys, sage and dark plums.

I’m a big fan of colour but I also realize that it can be quite tricky to get right. Naturals are  more forgiving and tend to blend better as the tones are softer. I’m still in my obsessed by toasted copper brown makeup phase at the moment and created the look below for girls to wear, feel beautiful in and  embrace the new natural trend in makeup.

Here’s how it’s done -

1). I used a sheer foundation in a tone one shade darker than the skin to add a slight sun kissed tone. I sheered it over the skin using my fingers almost as if I were applying moisturizer.

2). Next I tried an Estee Lauder bronzing powder to contour the skin. This was a new formula for me as it came in a bronzing balls pot, I admit I was a little unsure at first as I haven’t seen bronzing balls since the 80’s but they gave the face a beautifully light cinnamon tone as well a slight satin sheen. I used a large powder brush for this as I find a large brush will help avoid a patchy finish.

3). I dabbed a little cream blush in Gladiola by Stila on the apple of the cheeks with my finger tips to keep the natural flush and health in the face.

4). I started the eyes by using a large shading brush (MAC 224) and a soft brown shadow. I circled the entire eye in this shade taking it quite low underneath the lower lash line to open up the eye. Once I had the general outline of the eye a started to define around the lash line with a chocolate brown Kohl pencil. The idea being that the eye shadow goes from a lighter brown at the edge and intensifies the closer you get to the lashes.

5). I used a darker brown eye shadow to deepen the eye lid and pressed this on with a firm shadow brush to build up the intensity.

6). I decided to leave the inner waterline free from pencil as I wanted the eye to be pretty rather than too feline. I did add a set of MAC number 4 lashes to the eyes. These are gorgeous and won’t over power the eye or look false, they are very natural.

7). I wanted to pay attention to the lips and not just slick on some gloss so I defined them with a natural lip liner first then used a lipstick with a slight shimmer. To finish I applied a dab of Toffee toned lip gloss to the centre of the lips to add shine.

The Products -

I have to admit that pink on the eyes can sometimes look a bit off as it can make the eyes look sore, however I love a challenge and wanted to use this beautiful cream colour base from MAC called Pink Shock which I’d been using on the cheeks for a while.

I started by making the skin look super clean and dewy using Laura Mercier Illuminating foundation mixed with a little Strobe cream. This gave the skin a plastic-y shine (is that a real word?!) and continued the shiny finish on the cheeks using a fan brush and a white Fardel pigment.

The Pink Shock cream base works for me as it’s such a cool toned bubblegum shade, It’s really easy to apply too. I used my fingers to build up the colour on the lid then faded out the pink using a fluffly blending brush.  I wanted their to be some definition on the lashes so I used a set of MAC number 4 lashes which naturally fan out and look really natural, I only applied mascara to the root of Sophie’s natural lashes to keep the soft separation.

I wanted to play around with the colour on the lips and wanted them to clash a little with the eye. I use MAC Girl About Town lipstick which has a creamy finish and makes the teeth look brilliant white.

Now I’m a bit of a sucker for a smokey eye, especially at a show and this season the girls at the Monique Lhullier show in New York did not disapoint. I’m drawn to the Khaki black but not black tones in this look I call it the smokey eye with extras! It works for me as the rock chick classic take on the dark eye felt a little to done for the summer season, in it’s place came the dirtied, dappled darks that wrapped the eyes in a mussed up veil of colour that felt more mesmerizing.

Monique Lhuiller SS10

Here are my tips on getting the look -

1. Start by taking a mid toned flat brown eye shadow and circling the eye using a large blending brush. This eye isn’t about a tight shape and using the brown tone first will give you the blown out edge.

2. You want a real depth of colour on the lid so try an eye Kohl as a base all over the eye. I like M.A.C Smoulder as it has a slightly green tone when blended out.

3. Next take a selection of shadows ranging from black to grey and deep green. Using a tapered blender start to diffuse the colour at the outer corners of the eye and in toward the bridge of the nose. If you shadow starts to go patchy I find that a little loose powder blended over the top will help to fade out the colour.

4. Using a black eye kohl rim the inner water line top and bottom making sure to fill in the inner corners of the eye.

5. Use a smaller shadow brush and bend the green/grey shadows underneath the lower lashes. Don’t be scared to take the colour quite low as it helps to open up the eye and balances the shape.

6. Team this eye with a luxe matte skin. Take time on concealing the under eyes, it’s a heavy look so anything to real and your eyes could look heavy.