I want to talk about contouring in greater detail soon; there seems to have been this crazy fad for it and I’m not sure that everyone has been embracing the trend with quite the caution and trepidation that they should have been. There’s a reason why it’s a relatively new idea, in mainstream beauty, and it is that contouring is actually quite a tricky thing to get right. And it doesn’t suit everyone. In fact many people look as though they have simply “painted on fake shadows”, a bit like the bodybuilders who spray on extra definition around the stomach area to give themselves more impressive abs. Do we want fake abs sprayed on us? No. Do we want fake cheekbones painted on our faces? Definitely not. Contouring should be about subtle enhancement of the existing features, not creating some crazy optical illusion, but the world has taken the contour trend and run with it and now we all have weird facial hollows and cheekbones that look as though they’ve had strip-lights inserted beneath the skin.

I’m going to say no more on the matter for now, but let me just point out that there is absolutely nothing wrong with a spot of contouring if you work with your face and what it has in the way of bones and fleshy padding. Contouring can look amazing – sharp, polished, professional, “photo ready”. But if you have very rounded cheeks and try to make them disappear and somehow morph into Kate Moss’s razor-blade cheekbones, things are going to get weird. Look at your face, follow your instincts, work with your assets and not with the ones you’ve seen on other people. If we could all carry off Kim Kardashian’s contouring, we’d all have Kim Kardashian’s face. And how dull would that be?

But moving on to today’s product which is the Tom Ford Shade and Illuminate duo. I’m not going to do that whole “gosh it’s so expensive” routine, because we all now know how pricey Tom Ford’s makeup is. If you feel like a proper treat, a real splurge, then you know where to find it. If you can’t justify it (or won’t) then there are always alternatives. (I have some suggestions at the bottom of the page that I think work well. Still not “bargains”, by any stretch of the imagination, but less “all-out luxe”.)

Tom Ford’s Shade and Illuminate is a compact containing a duo of cream highlight and cream bronzer. It’s quite a warm and orangey bronzer, very flat so that it doesn’t reflect light, and the highlighter is incredibly sheer and non-shimmery. You apply the creams expecting to have two very distinct shades to play with but in actual fact, the highlighter barely registers on the skin at all. It’s only when the light catches it that it glows on the skin – there’s no glimmer or shimmer, no “snail trail” of light across the cheekbones.

In the photo above I’m wearing the highlighter and shader, both unblended – you can only just make out the gleam of the highlighter on the cheekbone, but the contouring cream is very obvious. There are two arguments here, about the level of pay-off: some might say that they want something very potent and show-stopping for the price of the palette (£56)); some might argue that for their investment they want something that is foolproof and that gives the finest, most subtle results every time. The latter group will not be disappointed. You can’t really go wrong with this duo at all – the creams slide on beautifully, blend out seamlessly and leave you with just the merest hint of a glow and a shadow.

(Please do excuse the fact that I hadn’t yet applied by undereye concealer in these photos! Massive oversight, but you can’t remember everything…) I used a little foundation brush to apply my Shade & Illuminate; you could easily use fingertips, but I like the airbrushed finish that you get with the buffing motion of the bristles. If you find that the brush buffs away too much of the colour, you can always build the product up. Makes for a more seamless finish, rather than relying on your finger-painting skills.

You can find Tom Ford’s Shade & Illuminate at Selfridges.com. Alternatives to the Shade & Illuminate would be Tan de Chanel for the contour (same lovely flat, warm bronze as the one in Tom Ford’s Intensity 1 duo) and for the highlighter, RMS do the most wonderfully sheer and subtle highlighter, the Living Luminizer. Creamy, non-shimmery and impossible to overdo. Bourjois have a famed “dupe” for Chanel’s Tan de Chanel; personally I don’t think it’s anything like it. Chanel’s is a solid cream and Bourjois’ is a creamy cream, for a start, but by all means give it a try. I must remember to do my comparison post…

I have just realised that my two “alternatives” actually cost more in total than the Shade & Illuminate! Cripes. You do get two full-on standalone products, but still. Bear with me and I’ll experiment with some more bits and pieces.

The post Contouring Mishaps and a Foolproof Fix… appeared first on A Model Recommends.

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I was sat testing out about ten thousand different shades from Clarins’ new Joli Rouge lipstick collection (as you do) and it struck me how absolutely face-changing certain lip colours can be. A tone only needs to be slightly “off” for your skin to suddenly look sickly and pale or slightly jaundiced or ruddy and flushed. But get it right and you instantly look fresher, brighter and more awake.

Sometimes it can look like overkill when a brand offers a dozen or so very similar-looking tones, but actually when you look closely the tiny variations (bit more blue, maybe more yellow, a shot of rose-gold shimmer to brighten) they are what makes the range wearable and flattering to a larger number of people. One nude lipstick does not suit all.

Take a look at my two favourites from the Clarins Joli Rouge line-up – lipsticks that are creamy, hydrating and have a nice whack of colour. Not ridiculously pigmented, but easy to apply and sumptuous in feel. The first one is 745, Pink Praline:

A perfect pinkish-nude, for me; juicy, and not so pale that I end up looking lipless. Just a very quick and gorgeous shade that makes me look instantly polished.

And then check this out: same makeup, same lighting (natural light from the window), same absolutely everything. Apart from the lipstick, obviously. And the fact that I mussed my hair up a bit to add a bit of interest! Doesn’t the brighter shade really change my face?

(By the way: maximum respect to Deciem’s NIOD Photography Fluid for making my skin look as though it has been retouched to within an inch of its life. It just seems to work magic on camera! You can find it here – I apply beneath a very light layer of foundation.)

This vibrant face-changing orange-red is called Orange Fizz (shade 701). Though it’s a brilliant tone for beachy, sunkissed skin, it’s also great for autumn and would be quite dramatic with an otherwise bare face. (Read: tonne of concealer, base, brightening malarkey and clever “no eye makeup” eye makeup. And brows. And a bit of pale bronzer.)

The new Joli Rouge lipsticks are available now for £19.50, or a slightly cheaper £17.15 from the ever-amazing Escentual.com here.

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