1. It’s all about that base..

Your daily skin care routine is just as, (if not more) important as your make-up. Catering to your skins needs does all the hard work for you when it comes to make-up application. There are many different products out there to cater to different skin types from dry to oily. One brand you will find in our toolbox is Dermalogica. Try their ‘Speed Mapping’ to see which of their regimes would best meet your skin’s needs.

As most of you may already know, skin types are usually divided into 3 categories; dry, combination and oily. There are of course sub categories that cover more specific skin types, but these are how most brands categorize their products. During hotter weather many people suffer with an increase of natural oils, what once was combination skin may now be more prone to oily and so on. A good way to tackle this is to switch your daily moisturizer to a ‘light’ or ‘oil free’ version of your preferred brand. However, if you’re one of the lucky few who can get away with it, a brilliant way to lighten up this summer is by using a tinted moisturizer.

2. Prime Time

Investing in a good primer is a sure way to help your make-up routine all year round, not just in summer. Primer creates a thin layer between moisturizer and make-up, helping smooth out creases, lines and even some acne scarring. Primer powers do however really shine through in summer months when make-up would otherwise slip and slide without it. With primers finally getting the credit and ‘coverage’ (excuse the pun) it really deserves, there are now many out there that cover different skin types from deep pores to mature skin. Here are a few that can be found in our kit..

3. Building Good Foundations

As we spoke about before, with the right base, your usual foundation should hold on tight. If however you are still finding oiliness creeping up on you throughout hot days, switching to an oil free foundation is the next step you should try. Many brands now offer oil free alternatives so ‘season proofing’ your make-up bag from Winter to Summer should be pretty easy. We do of course always recommend setting your make-up with a translucent powder and/or setting spray, this should help absorb any excess oil and keep your make-up in place.

4. Cream Of The Crop

Firstly, let us state that the list of beautiful powders we use here at Catherine Elizabeth is endless, but for some, with hot weather comes powder incompatibility. This applies specifically to eyeshadows and blushers, in hot weather, even the best brands can sometimes bake into lines and creases, which does not help get us that ‘sun-kissed’ and ‘glowing’ look this summer. If this sounds familiar, try changing things up and switching to cream blushers and eyeshadows. Have a little look below at some of the products we use on our clients..

 5. Most Importantly..

If you take one piece of advice from this post, please let it be this…

SPF, SPF, SPF, please make sure that at least one of your base products contains SPF, whether it be your moisturizer, primer or foundation, protecting your face from harmful UV rays is a must. It is not hard to come by, there will be an SPF option in one of your products and can be easily added into your daily routine. Last, but certainly not least, don’t forget your lips, the skin on your lips is easily damaged by the sun and there are many balms available on the market that provide SPF.

Love,

The Catherine Elizabeth Team x

P.S. All images will link you to the brand websites, happy shopping!

Eyebrows frame the face, so shouldn’t yours be perfect? If waxing, threading or tweezing overwhelms you, Catherine Elizabeth has got you covered. Discover the most flattering arch for your face and learn tips and tricks to maintain and groom their shape.

To create gorgeous brows by following our step-by-step guide to perfect brows.

Things you’ll need

• Eyebrow brush
• Eyebrow/small scissors
• Eyebrow pencil
• Pencil
• Slant edged tweezers
• Mirror

Trim your brows before you tweeze by gently brushing the hairs of each brow upwards and snipping any stray, extra long hairs with a pair of scissors.

Step 2

Line up a pencil alongside your nostril, parallel to your nose. The place where the pencil meets your inner eyebrow is where your brow should start, so mark with a brow pencil.

Switch to the other eye, line up your pencil and mark the place where your brow should begin on that side.

Step 4

Slant the pencil from your nostril out to the corner of the eye and mark the place where the pencil meets your brow. Mark this perfect spot for the outer edge with your eyebrow pencil.

Step 5

Repeat the process and locate the outer edge on the other eyebrow, so you can make a mark on that side too.

Step 6

Remove each hair that you find outside of the markers you have made. Use your slant edged tweezers to get the best grip on tiny hairs and get as close as you can to the base/root to keep things as painless as possible. Tweeze each in the direction the hair grows.

Locate the ideal spot for your eyebrow arch by lining up your pencil up parallel to the outer edge of you iris. Pluck the bottom edge of your eyebrow at the spot where your arch should be, limiting your tweezers to about two rows of hair to keep a natural look.

Step 8

Check your look in a mirror to make sure you haven’t missed any random hairs or left yourself with small isolated holes from over tweezing. Tweeze any strays and if you notice any thin spots, fill them in with an eyebrow pencil or our favorite brow product Brow zings by Benifit.

All About Eyes!

What are the best colours to use for my eye colour?

How can I make my eyes look bigger?

Are just a couple of questions Catherine Elizabeth is asked about.  So we have but together what shades are best for your eye colour, and our top 10 tips.

Blues Eyes

Use shades of taupe, gray, violet, purple and deep blue.

Green or Hazel Eyes

Use shade of brown, apricot, purple,plum, mid and dark greens.

Brown Eyes

Use shades of copper, bronze, brown and green.

• Always use a good quality eye moisturiser to hydrate the skin around your eyes.  This will keep your eyes looking healthy and fresh.
• Always curl your lashes, using a curler before applying mascara.
• All you need is a light application of eyeliner to enhance the beauty of your eyes.  Remember not to over do it.
• Applying false eyelashes to the mid to outer lashes can make your eyes appear larger, fuller and open up the eye.
• Replace your mascara every 2-3 months, as they dry up very quickly, causing your mascara to crumble and drop from your lashes during the day.

• If you have small eyes, use a light shadow on the brow bone and lid, shade above the socket, and lengthen out your eye liner upwards.  Given the illusion of larger eyes.
• Eyeliner and full eyelashes can help make your eyes look bigger and more appealing.
• When applying eyeliner, use a gel liner starting from the outside of your eye and work towards the center, holding the inner eye with your third finger.  Then from the inside corner to the center, to get a crisp line.  Then add flicks to the outer edge if you wish.

• By applying two coats of mascara, will give your eyelashes great definition.
• Apply a darker shadow to your socket line and blend upwards and outwards to lift the eye.  Making it look bigger.

Now you have the know how, you can go and experiment.  Remember good clean brushes make such a difference to creating the best look.

Love

Catherine Elizabeth

xx