From The Straits Times    |
makeup-tn

IMAGE: CORBIS

I’ve been putting on makeup since I was 13, making that more than a decade of preening in front of the mirror.

I remember when I used to experiment with bold colours and different looks but as I grew older and more pressed for time, my makeup skills have stagnated – I now do the same shimmery eyeshadow and liquid eyeliner thing every single day.

So in a bid to get my creative makeup skills going again, I decided to try out the makeup lessons at Leonard Drake Skincare & Health Spa.

The spa has teamed up with Averine Cosmetics, a French makeup brand which avoids fragrances, alcohol and mineral oils in their products, to offer four types of makeup lessons based on your needs.

Averine Goes Glam ($180 for two and a half hours) is for beginners who will learn the basics and understand the ingredients which go into makeup and Averine Goes Corporate Chic ($200 for three hours) aims to help students nail that balance between looking work-appropriate and fashionable.

Averine Private Makeup Classes ($500 for four hours) are dedicated one-on-one lessons with the makeup trainer while Averine Goes Beyond Glam ($350 for seven hours) is a class on advanced makeup techniques like going-out looks and putting on fake lashes.

In our condensed one-on-one lesson, I learnt how to do a bright blue smoky eye from Amy Lim, a makeup trainer for Averine Cosmetics at Leonard Drake Skincare & Health Spa who has worked with local magazines in her ten years as a makeup artist.

And no one’s too young or old: Ms Lim tells me she has taught women in a wide range of ages – from 16-year-olds whose mothers signed them up to 50-year-olds who came in a group to have fun and learn new tricks.

Some useful tips I picked up:

* Some concealers oxidise after you put them on, making them a shade darker and leaving ugly patches. To avoid this, always test it on the area you’d like to conceal first before making the purchase.

* Think smoky eyes are just two dark eyeshadows thrown together? Ms Lim showed me examples of different types of smoky eyes: The smouldering look’s less defined with colours blended scrupulously. Eyeliner alone can be used to create a smoky eye too, as well as bright colours – I practiced with a baby blue eyeshadow base, a cornflower blue on the crease and a pink above the crease.

Ms Lim demonstrated the look on my right side so that I could recreate it on my left side.

* You often see this instruction on eyeshadows: “Use wet for a more intense look”. A neat trick: Put some eye cream on your eye and swiftly dab on eyeshadow using a sponge applicator. This is what I did with the baby blue loose mineral eyeshadow.

I used Urban Decay’s Urban Lash in Vamp on the upper lash line and Dolly Wink’s No 7 Vivid Pop lashes for my lower lash line.

* I’m incredibly clumsy with fake eyelashes but Ms Lim introduced me to a plastic eyelash clamp which resembles an eyelash curler (pictured above). Just use it to hold the falsies and position it on your eye line. It’s affordable – I bought mine from Sasa for $5 – and it helped me put on the lashes in no time. For eyelash glue, Ms Lim highly recommends Duo Eyelash Adhesive in Dark Tone, also from Sasa.

Before and after the class

For more on Averine Cosmetics’ makeup classes, log on to www.leonarddrake.com.sg. Leonard Drake recently opened its 10th outlet at #04-23/24, nex @ Serangoon Central.

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