Did anybody else spend endless hours drooling over Kendall and Adriana last week? Unless you’ve been living under a rock, then it would have been pretty impossible to avoid the tidal wave of iconic pink satin robes, bronzed glowing pins and perfectly tousled locks that is the infamous Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. And I certainly ain’t complaining.
It would be kind of hard for the annual show not to be incredible, if not slightly depressing, given that Victoria’s Secret recruit the most successful, beautiful supermodels in the world to showcase their collection. But despite the fact that the show has a tendency to make us regular human beings want to cry into our pizza and bathe in coconut oil in hope that we wake up in the morning looking 1/10th as good as Alessandra Ambrosio, what I DO really love about the show is that the hair and makeup that the Angel’s wear is always so wearable and effortless, and every girl can pull it off.
The makeup artists at the show mix up the look every year, and 2016 was all about champagne tones, subtle winged liner and soft, pink lips. I love this look because it’s so girly and innocent, and it flatters any skin tone. The artists enhanced each of the Angel’s natural features, adapting the look slightly to suit their colouring and eye shape. And it’s safe to say that they all looked, well, angelic!
Keep reading to see a step-by-step guide on how I created this look. You could wear this on a day-to-day basis, or in the evening for a really soft glam – it would honestly look good on anyone, anytime, anywhere! I was so pleased with how it turned out, and I can’t wait to recreate it on some of my clients!
Step 1 – The Eyes
Before I did anything else, I primed my entire eyelid all the way up to my brow bone using the Kevin Aucoin Sensual Skin Enchancer in ‘SX06’, blending it in using a fluffy brush to ensure that I had an even canvas for the eyeshadow. I then set the entire area that I just primed with my Ben Nye Setting Powder in ‘Banana’ so that my shadows would blend in easily.
Next, I worked my all time favourite Mac Eyeshadow in ‘Haux’ (any matte, medium cool tone will do) into the crease using my Morphe E23 fluffy blending brush. I used a fluffy brush because I wanted to create more of a ‘wash’ of colour, rather than an intense cut crease. I kept building and blending this colour until I was happy with the saturation. I then took the same colour on a small smudging brush, and blended it into my lower lashline for some definition. For the lower part of the lid, I took The Balm Mary Lou-manizer and applied it directly to my lid using a dampened flat eyeshadow brush – adding some moisture to the brush first will really intensify the shimmer. Try to keep this below the crease colour, as we want to see a clear contrast between the matte shade and the shimmer shade – this will add dimension to the eye. Ensure that the transition between these two shadow is well blended.
To brighten up the inner corner of the eye, I applied NYX Jumbo Eye pencil in Milk to the tearduct and inside the lower waterline. This will really widen and brighten up your eyes for that angelic look! I then applied the same shade from The Balm that we used on the lid to the inner corners of the eye for a really highlighted effect.
Next was the all important winged liner! I used my favourite liquid liner, the Makeup Revolution Eyeliner Flick Thick & Thin Pen to draw a smooth line from the inner corner to the outer corner, making sure to keep it as thin as possible – we want it to be quite subtle. When I got to the outer corner, I flicked it out really slightly to give my eye a lift without it being too dramatic. To make sure your wing is really fine and tapered at the end, release the pressure of the pen slowly as your get closer to the end of the line. Finally, I applied some mascara and added some lashes. I went for individual lashes because I find that they look so much more natural and have that wispy, fluttery effect that the angels were rocking at the show.
Finally, I filled in my brows using Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade in Dark Brown. To make sure that they looked as soft as possible, I made the shape more rounded than usual and I applied little to no product on the inner parts of the brows, letting my natural hairs show through. I then brushed through the brows with a spoolie brush to blend all of the product in.
Step 2 – The Skin
This year the Angel’s took a break from the deep, bronzed tan and went for a fresh look instead. I wanted my base to be really dewy and ‘skin’ like, so I tried to use mostly cream, lightweight products. I prepped my skin using Mac Strobe Cream for a pearlescent glow, and then I buffed Nars All Day Luminous Weightless Foundation into the skin, before spritzing my face with MAC Fix Plus and pressing everything in with a damp beauty blender. This will make sure that everything is blended in seamlessly whilst adding lots of moisture back into the skin, giving us that healthy, dewy look.
Next, I used my LA Girl Cosmetics HD Pro Concealers in the shades ‘Light Ivory’ and ‘Toast’ to contour and highlight. I used these products sparingly as I didn’t want to add to much texture to the skin – remember we want to keep this look as fresh as possible. Again, I pressed everything into the skin using a damp beauty blender.
To warm up the contours of my face (the cheekbones, temples, hairline, and jawline), I took a small amount of my Chanel Soleil De Tan bronze Universal and buffed it into the skin. Then I popped a bit of Mac Powder Blush in ‘Peaches’ to the apples of the cheeks to add a healthy glow.
Whilst we want this look to be dewy, there are some areas that will just never look good when they’re shiny! Nailing this part is really important in making sure your skin looks healthy and glowy, rather than oily. I took a small powder brush and pressed my Ben Nye Setting Powder in ‘Banana’ into the areas where shine can look kind of unattractive – for most people this is down the t-zone (particularly between the brows – no sweaty monobrows over here please!), and around the smile lines and upper lip. So long as these areas are matte and shine free, you never risk looking oily rather than dewy.
Finally, my favourite part – highlighter! Because we used The Balm Mary Lou-manizer on the eyes, I decided to use this for my highlight too. I think it really pulls a look together when the same tones are used throughout! I took my Mac 224 blending brush to apply the highlighter, because it’s quite small and I wanted the highlight to be really concentrated. I sprayed the brush with Mac Fix Plus first to amplify the highlight, and then I applied it above and below the brow bone, along the bridge and tip of my nose, on the cupids bow, and of course on the high points of my cheekbones. For this look I brought it a little further down than usual, all the way to the apples of my cheeks, for a really youthful healthy glow. I always like to take a clean powder brush to buff everything in afterwards to really diffuse and soften the highlight.
Step 3 – The Lips
To finish off the look, I copied the Angel’s girly, glossy pout by filling in my entire lip with my Bobbi Brown Lip Pencil in ‘Ballet Pink’ and adding a generous amount of Mac Cremesheen Glass in ‘Boy Bait’ over the top. Could the names of these products be any more fitting?!
Step 4 – The Hair
To get the iconic Victoria’s Secret bouncy bedhead waves, I couldn’t resist adding in my Luxury For Princess Hair Extensions (which I have custom dyed to match my hair). Once they were clipped in, I sectioned off my hair and took 2-3 inch sections (making sure these sections included both the extension and my natural hair for a seamless blend), curling them very loosely with my straighteners. I made sure to alternate the direction of the curl each time for a tousled effect. Once I’d completed every section, I shook out all of the curls using my fingers to really loosen them up and add some texture – we want to look like we just rolled out of bed, but in a good way, you know?
And there we have it! We’re basically official VS Angel’s now, right? Let’s all just sit and patiently wait for our call for next years show…
Seriously though, I hope you enjoyed this post and have fun experimenting with this look! The pout and peace sign and the sassy robe are optional, but also very hard to resist. Just warning you.
G x
Georgia Tobiasen 