11 Beauty Rules To Follow From Two Industry Insiders

Lisa Potter-Dixon, Make-Up Artist & SL Beauty Contributor 

Nail the beauty basics and the rest will follow. Your base is a key thing to get right as it’s the one part of your routine that can make you look way older or way younger. One of the biggest mistakes that women make is to use a heavy foundation to cover a troublesome skin issue, when in fact you should use a lighter foundation and let your concealer work its magic on your problem areas. If you absolutely have to use a base for confidence, try sheer products or tinted moisturisers. I recommend both the bareMinerals Original Foundation SPF15 and Benefit’s Hello Happy Soft Blur base. La Roche Posay’s Anthelios Tinted Fluid is fab, too.

Avoid ‘highlighting’ concealers when brightening dark circles. Instead, use a concealer that is one shade lighter than your complexion to brighten around the eyes. But never use a highlighting concealer – this just illuminates dark circles and brings attention to them. Look to formulas with lilac and pink tones which cancel out dullness, like Charlotte Tilbury’s Magic Away Liquid Concealer and NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer. 

Do adapt a different make-up technique if you wear glasses. Or contact lenses for that matter, which I wear myself. My biggest tip is to highlight the inner corners of your eyes – it adds extra brightness behind the lenses. If you wear glasses, and love liner, match your frame size to your liner. This means if you wear a heavy dark frame, you should wear a thicker line to make the eye stand out. Otherwise glasses can overpower your face.

Know the do’s and don’ts of mascara. For starters, don’t keep one for longer than three months as once opened they carry bacteria. Do test a variety of different ones to find the best product for you – your friend’s favourite won’t look the same on your lashes. My biggest tip is to concentrate the product in the middle of your eyes to make them appear rounder, or focus on the outer corners to make lashes appear longer. Benefit’s Roller Lash is great for long, straight lashes, while Clinique’s Lash Power Mascara works wonders on short, fine lashes. 

Skip trend-led make-up looks for wedding or special occasion make-up. Instead, stick with classics – whatever the occasion – as you’ll have to look at the photos forever. I swear by five key products for wedding day make-up: BECCA’s Back Light Primer, Benefit’s Precisely My Brow Pencil, Chanel’s Tan De Soleil, Fenty’s Gloss Bomb and Glossier’s Play Glitter Gelee. The latter is great for the evening party and adding a touch of sparkle to your look. It’s also the easiest way to amp things up without going overboard, and you can just dab it on gently with your ring finger. As for BECCA’s Primer, it creates a soft-focus highlight you can wear underneath foundation and makes sure make-up stays put without any stickiness – essential for everyday really. 

Finally, have fun with beauty day-to-day and remember to do what you love. That rule is the same life-wise, hair-wise but especially make-up wise – nothing is permanent when it comes to products. If you don’t like it, just remove it. Sophie and I don’t subscribe to trends or beauty ‘rules.’ Our rules are – if you love it, wear it. It’s always worked for us so don’t be afraid. 

Sophie Beresiner, Beauty & Style Director at BURO 24/7 

Don’t neglect the powers of beauty tools. If you want the best results with your make-up you need the right tools, and brushes are the best. I swear by the following five: 

• Zoeva’s Concealer Brush for a flawless smokey eye. 

• Charlotte Tilbury’s Powder & Sculpt Brush for dispensing not too much and not too little product.

• bareMinerals Original Powder Foundation brush is great for mirror-free application and an even buff.

• MAC’s 316 Lip Brush for concealer – the flat head lets you pat on the right amount of product. 

• Finally, Benefit’s Angled Brow Brush & Spoolie, makes arches look fuller and I can’t do my brows without it. 

Make sure you focus on real life when it comes to beauty. We did a whole section in Back Chat Beauty on ‘disruptors.’ It’s dedicated to going beyond the advice and ideas and basics of beauty to really thinking about how it affects us, and how we can use it in real life. And real life isn’t just about going out or wedding days, it’s about when your face is grey because you drank too much, or when you got rained on en route to an important meeting. As for concealing hangovers, I really recommend using a nude liner in the waterline – not white, it makes eyes look smaller – to counteract redness and make you look more awake. Same goes for after you’ve been crying. Put some colour back into your face, too, with a touch of coral or orange blusher. 

Play with glitter – it makes everything feel extra special, and it doesn’t have to be overly bold. I love putting a dot of liquid glitter under the bottom lashes for an easy, but low-maintenance, impact. Do it yourself by taking a flat lipstick brush, dabbing it in your chosen glitter shadow and applying below the lashes – but in the middle only. Stila’s Magnificent Metals Glitter & Glow Liquid Eyeshadow or Hourglass’ Scattered Light Glitter Eyeshadow are both great ready-to-go products. 

Plan your make-up just as you would your outfit for work. While you don’t need it to be powerful or to do your job, it will give you extra confidence. Try a bold lip, like MAC’s Ruby Woo. It will make you feel good and stand out, as well as being smart and appropriate for both a first day and day-to-day work life in general. Plus, it’s the speediest way to switch up your look with minimal effort. 

Utilise colour to feel good and boost your mood. We put a whole ‘chromatherapy’ section into the book because colour always makes us feel good. We’re not interested in what shades go with your skin tone; we just wear any colour we’re drawn to and you should feel free to as well. We’re interested in what colours might mean for our personalities, so we put in some psychological insight (you have to get the book to know what we’re talking about). You see? Psychology and beauty! This is a different kind of read. 

Back Chat Beauty, The Beauty Guide for Real Life is out now. Order your copy here.
 

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