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Today I drove to Sandhurst for a makeup lesson with professional artiste Christiane Dowling. The first thing to say about Christiane is how young she looks. In her 20s at most. She wasn’t wearing much, if any, makeup. Maybe she has a flawless complexion. She is certainly the most highly-qualified artiste I have ever come across. For example she was Makeup Artist of the Year in the 2019 British Hair & Beauty Awards.
Before we started I changed into Ariane mode (minus wig and pearls). Today I was wearing the same outfit as the first one from yesterday, apart from ankle boots rather than the heels.
I then moved into the makeup chair. Christiane took me through the various stages of the makeup process – and believe me, there are a lot of stages – talking through what she was going to do, then applying it to part of my face while I watched in the mirror, before I had a go myself in other areas, followed by her correction as needed. I won’t try to describe every single stage but this was the general order:
• cleansing and moisturising the whole face
• styling the eyebrows, using a pencil to create more of an arch
• eye shadow above the eyes (we settled on a muted shade of gold)
• lash curl and mascara
• foundation for the rest of the face except below the eyes
• using brushes for contouring, bronzer, blusher, highlighter
• powder to set at various stages
• concealer, foundation, powder below the eyes followed by eyeliner
• lip liner, shading, lipstick (a deep red).
Then I added the wig, pearl necklace and pearl bracelet. Christiane took some professional photos of my makeup from close up – I should have these tomorrow – and also some shots from further away on my phone. Finally, she helped me remove all the makeup and Ariane went away again.
Some thoughts on the look. The makeup was subtle, understated, but professional. I did think I looked more like my original self than I did at last week’s makeover with Antonia Wood. Maybe Antonia was more full-on. Also my outfit and pearls are more subtle (plainer?) than in Antonia’s wardrobe. And it was a different wig. I preferred the wig from Antonia’s as it was simply more interesting than the classic bob I was wearing as a stand-in today. So I think there is more work to do on the outfit.
The most important thing was the makeup though. Christiane gave me some detailed notes on what to do, how to do it and in what order. She also wrote down the details of all the products she used so that I can order my own set and start practising. The sooner the better.
