How comfortable are we in our own skin?
The beauty industry is flooding the market with whitening products promising quick, amazing results. A younger generation is growing up on a social media diet, seeing thin-figured, spotless-skinned, perfect-featured, idolized celebrities (and wanna-be celebrities).Unsurprisingly, many are driven to think ‘I wish I had that face’and‘I wish I had that amazing hair’.
Little do we realize that in reality, the stunning star’s face has been worked on by a top makeup artist, with top-of-the-range make-up. Their face has been carefully contoured with make-up to hide all the imperfections and highlight good features. The hair has been worked by a celebrity stylist, using lots of products. Chances are, the photograph has been edited to make it look perfect. What is made to look perfect is really not reality. We are all born with different skin colours, different types of hair, different types of features and so on. As individuals, we need to learn to accept and embrace what we look like, and be comfortable in our own skin.
The trick is to identify that one feature in your face that you think is the best and focus on enhancing it.
A good starting point is to tie your hair back and look carefully at your face. You should be able to see which features look best. If you are confused, ask your close friends what they think is your best feature. Pretty soon you will be feeling good about what others notice as your standout feature!
Get your eyebrows done professionally. They give definition to your face.
Unlike a decade ago, now there are many brands that cater to dark skinned individuals.
Get your foundation right, if you are using any. If not, a BB Cream would be good for light coverage. If you are able to get to one of the product counters, ask the staff to apply a little foundation just above your jawline and look at it in daylight. Natural light is best to see the effect on your skin. You can go one shade lighter or a shade darker than your natural skin tone. But ideally, try for a perfect match.
Use a moisturizer and prep the skin before applying foundation. Using a Primer will help in keeping your make-up in place and your face oil-free.
Keep ‘less is more’ in mind when applying foundation. Use it to even out your skin tone and not cake it up.
You can set the foundation with a powder. Remember to blend your foundation and powderinto the neck area. You don’t want to look two-toned!
Enhancing your best feature
Focus on one feature, as two or three overdone features will not bring the right kind of attention
If it is your eyes, you can give it different looks from day to night. Your eye make-up can be light with earthy toned eye shadow and some mascara for daytime. For night, create a more dramatic effect with darker eyelids, a smoky effect and a little extra mascara. The top lid can be lined with a liquid eye liner, which will need a bit of practice to get perfect. If not, an eye liner pencil or a gel eye liner, which is applied with a fine brush, can be used.
If you think your lips are the best feature, try a few shades of deeper reds. The right shade of red can look stunning on dark skin. Choose a matte finish red than a glossy red. Use a tester properly — not just dabbing a bit on the corner of your lip — and see how the shade works on your skintone before investing in a new lipstick.
| Nadisha Wittachy is Art Director and CEO of Salon Luminaire, a boutique salon located off Jawatte Road at 15 Suleiman Avenue, Colombo 5. Nadisha can be reached at nadisha@salonluminaire.com. |