I do love my makeup but I'm the first to admit I'm not flawless at it. I can streak eyeliner with the best of them and still have nightmares about the use of pastel green shadow in my teens. Well, I'm not alone, ands now women have even more to struggle with, with the rise of mineral-makeup, Suddenly it's not enough to be a dab hand with a sponge, you have to swirl tap and buff, and often that's just to much for the already put upon working women. But you want to use stuff that's going to be kinder to your skin, so what do you do? Well booking yourself in for a two hour Mineral Magic lesson with the fabulous Ginni Bogado at Rouge School of Makeup is a good start.
Read on for my experience.
Ginni has had a lot of experience in the makeup field, styling for established publications such as Vanity Fair and Bazaar with a celeb clientele that is mind boggling. I knew I was in safe hands when I sat down with her and she explained how it was going to work.
'There's no point me making up your face and sending you off with out a clue how to do it', she said. 'So I start with making you up, then we remove it and you try for yourself'.
I was impressed by this approach as all to often people 'helping' me have a tendency to make me up themselves with no time for me to practice the techniques till I get home. She took me through the basics of mineral makeup application, and told me how she loves the Youngblood range (which won a Kiss and Makeup beauty award!).
She started by buffing it onto the skin, buffing as she went, and the powder gave the skin a lovely sheen, minimizing pores and evening out skin texture. She covered this with the Youngblood Deep Sea liquid mineral foundation with a sponge to give the skin a really dewy look. Starting at the nose she blended outwards and then buffed powder into the skin to set it. Using the powder puff she pushed powder onto the eyelid and underneath- as the excess means it will catch any shadow fall out.
I'd said that the issues I'd like to concentrate on were blending shadow and applying liquid liner so we concentrated on that. She applied lovely gold and browns to the lid, and finished off with thick liquid liner. I loved it- but now it was time to take it off and for me to try it!
It wasn't as easy as it looked... To start with I kept getting confused which step to do, and Ginni was very patient, hinting to me rather than telling me, and explaining how I should blend the powder outwards when I caked it on. We got to the eyes, and I remembered most of the instructions- lashes curled, check! Socket brush to apply colour tot the crease? Yup. Blend it above the lash line? Umm. I added slightly to much brown so it looked rather heavy, but I added some more gold shadow and managed to blend it out. The liner was also tricky and a black eye did ensue, but I wiped it away and started again. I liked how Ginni didn't just recommend products she stocked, and her tips about keeping the eyes half shut for a minute after liquid liner were really helpful.
Products Used
Last to do were the cheeks as they're meant to balance the face after all the makeup has been applied ands I went for a rosy pink to brighten the apples of the cheeks. Ginni normally takes people through two looks, but as I was short for time we concentrated on getting one just right, and I went out into the night feel smoking, and like I'd learned something.
A week on and I'm still taking some of the tips to heart, and would heartily recommend this session for anyone looking to get to grips with minerals and expand their makeup artistry.
A Mineral Magic session costs £250 for two hours with the lovely Ginni Bogado.
Rouge Makeup School 11 Shelton Street WC2H 9JN tel: 020 7836 5891