Who else better to ask?!
There are make-up artists, and then there's Val Garland. You may not know her by name, but you will know her work; Mario Testino, Kate Moss, Lady Gaga, Alexander McQueen, countless fashion weeks. You name it, she's done it. There are very few faces in the fashion and film industries that haven't been painted by this make-up guru.
She also happens to be L'Oreal Paris' Make-up Director - helping to develop product, as well as her boundary-pushing artistry. She says her aim when designing beauty images, is to create something 'I would want to hang it up on my wall.'
In celebration of the launch of her book, Validated (which is out now and would make one heck of a great Christmas present for fashion lovers), we sat down with her and demanded that she share some of her knowledge with us.
Here are her go-to tricks that make make-up that much easier:
The Feline Flick
'Always do your liner looking down into a mirror. For the complete novice, you want to start with your flick. The best way to sort out your flick is to take a pencil, or a business card or some tape, and go from the corner of your nose to the edge of your eye, and that will give you a good diagonal. Draw a little tick along that line. I like to use a felt tip pen to do my own eyeliner – it’s quite idiot proof. Then, draw another line from the top of the tick to the centre of the eye. Next fill in that negative space. Then draw a thin line from the inner eye out to meet the centre. Then the secret is to match the other eye with the same angle. Every single person can do one eye great, and one not-so-great. So always do your not-so-great eye first.'
The Highlighter
'If you want that super high shine gleam, then you want a powder highlighter that’s not going to move. If you’d rather something a bit more subtle, then the L’Oréal Paris Glow Drops are great. You take a tiny drop of that and using a fluffy brush buff it into the high points of your face. If you’re really scared of highlighter and looking too shiny, once you’ve finished your base take a little bit of moisturiser and just tap it in with your fingertips.'
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The Concealer
'When you have big bags under your eyes, you want to draw attention away from them. A lot of people make a mistake by choosing a light colour of concealer, in the hope that it will hide the bags. But invariably it makes the area just look grey. So the secret to camouflaging a good under eye area is to use a peach coloured concealer, because eye bags are green-blue so you want to bring the red back a bit. Use this first, and then put your base over the top. Concealer placement is also very important. Instead of applying concealer right up close to your lash line, you should be placing it more on the bottom of the socket line. You’re using concealer to reflect light up into the eye.'
The Lipstick
'Applying lipstick is so easy. I think lipsticks are so fantastic today that you can just go straight from the bullet. You can soften the look by going over it with your fingertips, so there isn’t a harsh line. What I sometimes do with models is just apply lipstick onto the lower lip, and then get them to press their lips together, and then you’re half way there.'
The Eyeshadow
'It totally depends what sort of effect you want to achieve, but I think if you’re unsure of how to apply eyeshadow the best way is to use a soft eyeliner or creamy eyeshadow pencil and buff it out. That way you get the ease of the buffing of the cream, and then it will set and won’t move. And you're done.'
The Lashes
'Everyone should curl their eyelashes. Everyone.'
