Turns out the best pre- meet-the-photogs advice for celebs really is “have someone take a digi-flash photo of your face so you can see what the light bounce-back reveals.” Your makeup could look gorgeous in person, in natural light, but when a flash hits it, you could be faced with the same state of powder affairs as Ashley Judd and Nicole Kidman. Wanna see it in action?
Makeup artist and YouTube how-to blogger Wayne Goss demonstrates the invisible-until-too-late makeup faux pas. (Thanks, Tracy, for the link!) The culprit may well be Make Up For Ever High Definition Powder (or something similar), which has such a fine texture that when blended it looks flawless in person and on HD, despite showing up when flash light bounces from the pigment. And note: in his demo Goss doesn’t use much powder, and he blends quite thoroughly. Yet…
UPDATE: I’ve since tried Make Up For Ever High Definition Powder — the tiniest amount, just enough to temper my shiny t-zone — and am happy to report that a self-photo avec flash revealed none of it on my skin. The secret to this stuff is clearly Use. It. Sparingly, NOT as setting powder.
{ 10 trackbacks }
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
WOW! Glad you shared this, Janine.
Thanks, Ellen! I have to thank Tracy of Beauty-Reflections.com, who told me about this in her comment on the initial post I did yesterday! And yay Wayne Goss for demonstrating exactly how this can happen — oh dear.
:D Thanks Janine!! *hug*
Thank YOU! Now no more puzzling over how a makeup artist could miss such a thing or whether the celebrity herself is so mean that no-one told her about her makeup fail! Instead, a new geeky detail about what makeup is best for certain circumstances! Whee!
It’s funny cause MUFE tweeted several weeks back that it wasn’t their fault and that it was just rumours that their Product was the cause of these issues XD
It isn’t fair to blame MUFE, but if it is their powder, it doesn’t mean it’s bad, just that it’s not right for this medium. The texture of that powder is super tricky. It’s so sheer that it appears to disappear quickly, but has a superfine chalky texture that sticks around to soak up oil on the skin. Great for HD filming, but when it comes to snapshots, a flash bounces light off that superfine pigment. Oops.
It’s possible none of the makeup artists used MUFE, but it’s what Wayne Goss uses in his demo, and… well.
Doesn’t the illuminator do the same thing?
You mean create highlights? I don’t think the purpose of the powder is to highlight in this case as much as it is to set the makeup. Creating a highlight by letting it sit before lightly brushing it away is a side effect, usually a good one with loose or standard transluscent powder. It’s just this powder needs more blending than is obvious from just looking — which makes it perfect for high-def filming, anyway.
wayne is genius, I’ve been watching his videos for a long time, and take what he says seriously, he is honest and concise. Ya the HD powder is said to be the culprit, wearing anything with SPF can cause that white glare too though.
How “illuminating!” Thanks for posting this – I’ve never used the HD powder but I’ve always wanted to try it. Now I know it comes with a caveat.
Love that you’re not discounting HD Powder because of these incidents! It’s a great powder and deserves attention what it does well!
Thanks for this post – I had no idea this could happen. All I’ve ever seen is the “ghost face” effect when powder isn’t blended in to the neck for a flawless face-neck appearance.
It’s one of those sneaky makeup fails — unless someone checks by taking a precautionary digital flash photo, it’s invisible!
omg… very embarrassing! i just did a post on this as well! it was on the wendy williams show! hopefully these celeb mua will use sparingly next time like you said :)
great post!
xx
I’ve added this video to my post! I liked the comparison with the photos!
It’s a good video, isn’t it? Wayne Goss does well with all his videos; this one is awesome for solving The Great White Powder Mystery!