“On your wedding day, you want to look and feel like the most beautiful version of yourself. To enhance your natural beauty,” says British makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury. The fiery redhead, who endearingly calls most people ‘darling’, has makeup junkies obsessing over her eponymous makeup line and online tutorials. For more than 20 years, she has created looks for fashion magazines, runway shows and countless silver screen sirens, such as Penélope Cruz, Demi Moore, Cara Delevingne, Gisele Bündchen, Alicia Vikander, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston. “Achieving beauty starts with living a disciplined lifestyle,” she says.
Practical Advice
Don’t underestimate neutral, fresh glam. Charlotte says “I do” to neutral shades of eyeshadows because they never date and they suit all complexions.
She says, “For Amal Clooney and Kate Moss’s wedding days, I used a palette of matte chocolates, taupes and brown, which contour the eyes beautifully.”
She says blondes and brunettes suit lighter taupe shades. For darker complexions, use richer, chocolate shades and a dark eyeliner to define and lengthen the eyes.
A soft feline flick at the outside corner lifts your eyes, as seen in her signature cat-eye. For bigger, brighter eyes, she uses a nude-tone eye pencil to line the lower eyeline.
Charlotte was raised on the Spanish Island of Ibiza, so she understands how to mimic a sun-kissed finish on the skin. For instance, she opted for metallic bronze highlighter to sculpt the gams of both Victoria’s Secret fashion show models and Kim Kardashian (on the 2015 Grammy red carpet).
“For Kim’s limb contouring, she also highlighted down the center of the legs and arms to accentuate their slimmest part –making them look glossy, bronzed, longer and leaner.”
For brides, she recommends a nude, natural lip. To create a complementary, flesh-tone pout – like the nude-beige hue she concocted for Kate Moss, “I mixed several shades of nude lipstick with concealer to create that colour.”
To make your lipstick last while air-kissing with guests and sipping champagne, Charlotte traces the natural outline of the lips, and then fills in with the lip liner pencil; it acts like a stencil for your lipstick. She says, “My liner lasts without smudging for up to six hours.”
Charlotte swears her husband, British film producer George Waud, never sees her without makeup! “I love makeup so much, that I sleep in it. At night, all the eye makeup comes off and then I apply a ‘bedroom eye’ for my husband. I put on my WonderGlow (from my beauty line). It soft-focuses all my lines and pores,” she says.
“So many women don’t understand the power of makeup, except for celebrities, who understand perfectly.”
Contour Like J.Lo
Charlotte Tilbury says, “The secret to contouring is to not overcomplicate it. So many women are afraid of contouring, but it’s an affordable, painless way to give yourself a quick facelift.”
Follow the contouring technique created for Jennifer Lopez:
1. Have a contour palette with finely-milled ingredients; natural-sculpt tones (bronze shades), and a good highlighter.
2. Dip a tapered precision brush into a natural bronze shade. Then suck in your cheeks and follow the hollow.
3. You can also brush it along the jawline for a slimmer looking jaw.
4. Use a bigger bronzing brush to blend, blend, blend for a more sun-kissed finish.
5. Add a highlighter on top of the cheekbones, down the nose and on the Cupid’s Bow for a perfect finish.
Originally published in Today’s Bride magazine, Fall/Winter 2016.
