This past Monday was “Family Day,” a four-year-old provincial holiday in Ontario. As far as I’m concerned, “Family Day” is just the PR-friendly name — it’s really more of a “Don’t-Lose-Your-Mind-Because-It’s-Still-Effing-Winter Day.” Clearly the season’s been getting on my last nerve. I yearn for warm breezes and high-contrast shade on a briney, sandy beach. And although I do not tan, ever, I feel dull and pasty, like a light has burned out.
If you feel the same way, we have to buck up. Stalker-like winter is going to hang around until the heat runs it out of town. At least with a few pro glow tips from celebrity makeup artist Scott Barnes (above, in a photo snapped last year), we can look blithely unaffected by the stupid weather.
Warm Glow — Not Obvious Bronzer
Have you noticed that the amazon-bronze that looks so sexy in summer can look overdone in sunlight-deficient winter? A more restrained warm luminosity, though, can enliven the complexion without looking like we’re using bronzer to compensate for being stuck in a deep freeze. (These next tips are especially good for anyone still nervous about bronzer and worried about looking too oompa-loompa.)
“I like the skin to look like it’s glowing, like it’s lit from within,” says Scott, who has worked with A-listers such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Julianne Moore. He’s best known for creating The JLo Glow back when Jennifer Lopez’s celebrity star hit big. He’s also the man behind Body Bling, a favourite with fans of wash-off body-bronzing makeup, and two well-received beauty books, About Face (2010) and Face to Face (2012).
“It’s not about going dark, because then you wind up with mud,” he says about bronzer. “People always think ‘brown,’ but it’s not about that. It’s about the warmth, the subtlety.”
For your best, lit-from-within glow, Scott recommends a powder just “half a shade, or almost a shade deeper than your skin.”
Will that even show up? you wonder? Yes, when you offset the warmth with a touch of luminizer to accentuate the planes of your face. “It’s not about re-inventing your whole skintone, it’s about complementing and highlighting it,” says Scott.
The how-to:
1) With a powder brush and a pressed powder a half-shade darker than your skintone, use the 3-shape bronzer application demonstrated by yours truly in this video. Start at the temples, sweep your makeup brush around along the hairline to under the cheekbones, sweep back out to your hairline then curve down around your jawline. Try MAC Mineralize Skinfinish Natural, $35 at maccosmetics.com.
2) Lightly blend luminizer — pale champagne for fair skin, more golden for darker — on brow bones, along the tops of your cheekbones, down the centre of your nose from just above the bridge, and just below your lower lip. Try Benefit Cosmetics Watt’s Up! Luminizer, $34 at Sephora.ca. Or make your own, as per this Beauty MacGyver highlighter story beautygeek Liza wrote.
Smile, then blend a soft pink on the outer edges of the apples of your cheeks.
And there, you glow.
Do you have a go-to powder you use as bronzer or to contour? And a favourite highlighter?
Celebrity images via scottbarnes.com.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
I think what happens a lot of the time is people take the same bronzer they wear in summer and slap it on in winter. Then they get the Oompa-Loompa and wonder where they went wrong and then they become afraid of bronzer. Okay, maybe that’s conjecture but it’s definitely something that I do. I don’t have a bronzer for winter. I just have the one and I wear it through all the seasons. I probably shouldn’t do that on account of the paleness I get in winter. I probably should go out and get a second, shade-lighter bronzer, huh?
What’s a shade lighter than Deep Dark?
Hi You — you’ve hit the bronzer-nail on the head. With so much less incidental sun exposure, and more sombre wardrobe palettes, we do tend to be paler in the winter months, too pale for the bronze that looks so great with our summer brights and warm-weather skin. Re: a shade lighter than Deep Dark, it’s… Dark. *grin*
(Seriously, isn’t Mineralize SkinFinish Natural just the best??)
Yes, Mineralize SkinFinish Natural IS the best. I have tried several different bronzers – many very high end, many lower end, and lots of them in between. The M.A.C. really is the best. Right now I have a M.A.C product, a Guerlain product, , and an Essence product (I run the gamut, huh?). I absolutely don’t know why I have the last two when all I ever use is the M.A.C.
p.s. I use it with a Quo brush – a big fat Quo Bronzing Powder Brush. It’s my favourite bronzing brush ever.
Julianne Moore is so gorgeous. JLo scares me. Her bronzer is subtle but maybe her lips are too baby pink? Maybe a warmer shade would be better. Janine?
JLo does seem to favour those nude and pale-pink lip shades, huh? I’m with you on the shade she’s wearing in the above shot — I’d like to see a lip with a little more life, too.
Hey Janine, luv the bronzer brush also…what brand? Thanx ;-)
Hi Lisa,
On the subject of bronzer brushes, I prefer a fluffier blush brush instead. A fluffy brush delivers a softer, more natural-looking finish. A smaller brush with dense bristles deposits a more concentrated amount of pigment, which could lead to too much colour. (That said, if you follow Scott Barnes’ recommendation on going just a half-shade or so deeper than your skintone, you’re less likely to get an overdone look even if you use a more compact kabuki brush.)
MAC, Bobbi Brown, Lancôme and Smashbox brushes are great. I’m also a fan of very reasonably-priced Quo and super-affordable EcoTools brushes. Sephora’s selection is excellent too.
I’m seriously considering buying one of those SAD lamps (there is one shaped like a pyramid available on well.ca) and just sitting in front of it and eating cupcakes until spring. And maybe some kale so I don’t get scurvy.
I hear SAD lamps can really make a happy difference, so if you get one, you may not have to eat that many cupcakes. But if you can figure out a recipe for tasty kale cupcakes, go to town, SAD lamp or not!
Hi Janine, thanks for the brush recs! I think that’s an EcoTools you’re using in the video ;-)
I also love MAC Cream Colour Base in either PEARL or HUSH as a highlighter.
Ahh — the brush in the video! Actually, that’s a Bobbi Brown brush, a powder brush, I think.
Thanks for the highlighter recommendations, too! Was hoping for some suggestions!