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Wednesday, 28 September 2011

Get the look – Georgia Hardinge Spring Summer 2012



Georgia Hardinge’s geometric minimalism was complemented by an assured and grown-up beauty look, created by head make-up artist Lan Nguyen. Using minimal colour, rustic nudes and gold tones – a staple summer beauty look – Lan highlighted and contoured to achieve a youthful and dewy look. “Georgia wanted a slight shine, but not overstated make-up, so in this look we’ve played with a lot of the skin products” Lan explained before the show. When creating this look, multi-purpose products were key - “We’ve found that The Body Shop products are really versatile, and the colours can blend anywhere – you can use them on lip, cheeks, eyes.”


First, skin was prepped with primer. “I’d recommend The Body Shop’s Skin Primer. It stops the shine, and fills in the pores and lines,” Lan explained, as she brushed it into a model’s skin. Primer is a great base for longer lasting foundation, and allows it to be spread evenly, meaning you need to use a lot less powder. “I tend to use primer a lot during shows - as there’s no need to apply powder the skin looks fresher and gives a perfect dewy look. This has been a key product backstage this season.”

The primer is followed with a mix of foundations. To create a catwalk-ready look, Lan and her team mixed The Body Shop’s Moisture Foundation and Mineral Liquid Foundation together to create a flawless coverage. It’s unlikely that one foundation will be a perfect match for your skin tone and type, and mixing two often offers the best results. The lighter tones work best when applied with a brush, creating highlights and contours across the cheekbones, and giving a great lift to your face.

Next, a pearl shimmering highlighter was blended above the bone, reinforcing the dewy finish. “The Radiant Highlighter has proved to be really popular all week, especially on the catwalk. It sits on the skin really nicely – often dewy products wear away quite quickly – but this Body Shop one stays put” Lan revealed. Highlighter is also a great cheat for blemish prone skin, as the subtle finish allows the face to reflect the light.

On the cheeks a dusting of mineralise blush was used just by the start of the apple and blended to the hairline - “ the two tones in this product gives a dimensional, easy contour

In an example of mix-and-match products, lipstick is used as a cream base for natural skin contouring on the eyes, (try The Body Shop’s Colourglide Lip Colour No 68 – Starlit Copper). On top of the eyelids softer shades from The Body Shop’s Shimmer Cube Palettes were mixed, the darker colours layered for a more intense depth closer to the lashes and blended off. “All of The Body Shop’s cubes are made with complementary colours that work well together when mixed. The light and dark can be also used for contouring. As they are stronger in pigment, they can be blended very easily.” 

To bring the look up to date, clear mascara was brushed through the lashes - “we want the lashes to stick together with a high gloss  –this just emphasises the wet look,” Lan says. The wet look tones were exacerbated by a dab of lip balm oil, placed over the top of the centre of the eyelids and all over underneath to bring out the gold tones in the eyeshadow.

Eyebrows were brushed through with clear mascara so the hairs sat in one direction upwards. Then a light foundation and concealer was brushed through with a mascara wand to slightly blend the brows into the skin - a more subtle way of giving the bleached brow effect. To finish, lips were faded with foundation then lifted with Starlit Copper lipstick, pressed in with warm fingers.


Text: Victoria Loomes