This is one look that will never go out of style
We’ve got a treat for you today – beauty is back! We’ve teamed up with make-up artist Adeola Gboyega and model Sam to show you how to bring to life a French chic make-up look. It’s all about loaded lashes, velvety skin, soft smokey eyes and natural lips. Ooh, la la! Adeola shows us step-by-step how to create this make-up look with some of their favourite products.
Prep time
Prime your face with a primer or serum designed to help plump and hydrate the skin. Ingredients such as hyaluronic acid are great for giving you that bouncy skin look.
Perfect your base
The key part of this French-inspired, Parisian glamour look is velvety skin. Choose a foundation that leaves you with a beautiful, hydrated glow. Apply a light layer all over the face and blend any excess down your neck.
Undercover
Knock back any blue or purple undertones with a corrector or concealer. Buff the product across under-eye circles, any redness or darkness. Then, pat a small amount of under-eye brightener to really highlight your eyes.
Sculpt and shape
Use a touch of cream bronzer to add some definition. Softly sweep and blend the product into the high points of the face where the sun will catch, such as the forehead, under the cheekbone and along the jawline.
Fill us in
French-chic means soft, natural brows. Run a brow gel through your arches to add definition and fullness. Top tip! Try using the product in a backcombing motion to create texture, giving you more of a feathery finish.
To finish off, take a brow pen and using quick flick motions, run the product to fill in any sparse areas. Choose one with a thin tip to help mimic the appearance of fine hairs.
Eyes on the prize
For effortless glamour, select eyeshadow shades in soft browns. Apply your chosen shade all the way from the lower lash line to your crease, blending in circles and smoking it outwards as you go. Then, select a darker shade and sweep this across the top and bottom lash line to add a little more depth to the look.
On the line(r)
It’s time to redefine that lash line! Using a dark eyeshadow or an eyeliner pencil, run the colour along for some soft definition and smoke it out using a small brush. Repeat this step in both your waterline and on the lower lashes to balance the look.
Taking your darkest eyeshadow shade, buff a small amount into your crease line and the outer corner. This is really important if you have hooded eyes or lack lid space, as it helps to open up the eye and create definition.
All a-flutter
Start by curling your eyelashes before adding a few coats of eyelash primer to add to the full-fat lash effect that’s a stable of the French-chic look. Take your favourite mascara and add a few coats for a stretched and fanned-out finish.
Blush crush
Add a dash of blusher in a shade that’s close to your natural lip colour for a luxe look. For a more modern finish, take the colour from the apples of your cheeks and up above the cheekbones.
Ready, set, glow
A light dusting of powder is all you need. It’s an important step to keep your make-up in place all day (and saves you time on touch-ups!). The key thing is to only add powder where needed – such as your T-zone and chin.
Pout it out
As with your blusher, find a nude lip liner and lipstick that perfectly match your natural lip colour for effortless glam. Choose a sheer shade for less drama or a rich, nude shade for more 90s grunge.
The final fix
No look is complete without a finishing touch of setting spray, like the No7 HydraLuminous Fixing Mist. Spray all over the face to instantly hydrate your skin, absorb any access powder and lock-in your look so it lasts all day!
