Beauty News

30 secrets from beauty experts on how to look amazing

With all the hours they spend working behind the scenes, beauty professionals pick up some genius hair, make-up and skin tips and tricks.

Always cleanse out to the ears and up to the hairline and don’t forget to treat your neck and décolletage as part of the face. When using skincare you should apply from the forehead to the bust to ensure your décolletage stays youthful and healthy too. This is especially important with your daily SPF.

Haley Tietjens, Business Performance Manager at About Face skin clinics.

Treat your skin from the inside out. As well as skincare, essential fats are so important for a healthy skin! Try high-quality evening primrose such as Efamol. This helps with breakouts, dry, flaky skin and even ageing!

Haley Tietjens, Business Performance Manager at About Face skin clinics.

If you’re going to be photographed, you need a matt foundation. You can’t do shiny skin for high-definition cameras without it looking awful. High definition shows off all your imperfections. Even selfies require a flawless finish. I always apply with a brush and then use my fingers to blend. Apply concealer afterwards, only to the areas that need it.

Pat McGrath, international celebrity make-up artist.

Test lippy by swiping one stroke on the pad of your fingertip – it needs to have the same blue-red undertones as your lips. Never apply more than one stroke as it won’t look the same when you apply it to your lips.

Rae Morris, celebrity make-up artist and author of six beauty books.

When trialling eyeshadow, take a clean finger and wipe it along the powder once, then wipe along the fleshy part of your palm before blowing on it. If you have to apply it three times for it to look like it does on the packaging, it’s no good – cheap pigment won’t adhere to your skin.

Rae Morris, celebrity make-up artist and author of six beauty books.

So often the thing that lets down the way a mascara performs is the application. For the best results, the trick is to get the mascara brush as close to the roots of your lashes as possible, then wiggle the wand side to side up to the tips for even product distribution and lash lift, followed by brushing lashes into a fan shape – inner lashes towards inner brow, middle lashes upwards and outer lashes to outer brow.

Lisa Matson, L’Oréal Paris NZ Make-up Director.

Skin often dulls with age. To give it a youthful boost I mix an illuminating liquid primer with a liquid foundation – it adds radiance and ensures the coverage is light and flattering, plus applying them together saves time.

Lisa Matson, L’Oréal Paris NZ Make-up Director.

Brows are still leading the trend right now to appear full, voluminous and strong. To assist this look, apply your creamy concealer smudged between your fingertips and blend backwards into the hair. This creates a “primed” layer to give brows a more 3D and fuller effect before the colour is added on top. Allow a minute for the concealer to set a bit to add even more dimension to the brow colour.

Hayley Gardiner, Estée Lauder NZ Education Manager.

Many people use dry shampoo but not all of them use it the right way: spray in thoroughly at the roots of dry hair and then blast it out with a hairdryer on cool setting. Most people just rub it in, but you need to get rid of the dirt and oil the dry shampoo picks up, otherwise it’s not really doing its job!

Michael Beel, L’Oréal Professional ambassador and Director of Buoy Hair Salon.

If your bobby pins slip out, spray them first with dry shampoo or a little bit of hairspray. This helps give the pin more grip. For the best hold, put the wavy side down towards the scalp – the wavy part grabs the hair while the straight part holds it down. It also looks better this way if the clip is still visible.

Michael Beel, L’Oréal Professional ambassador and Director of Buoy Hair Salon.

NEVER use a brush on wet hair! Hair is at its most fragile when wet and brushing will stretch it and cause breakage, and you’ll get more flyaways. Use a wide-tooth comb and a leave-in conditioner or invest in a Tangle Teezer brush – they really do work and aren’t just for kids! Brush your hair before you jump in the shower to help prevent tangles forming while shampooing.

Michael Beel, L’Oréal Professional ambassador and Director of Buoy Hair Salon.

Turn your cleansing routine into a relaxing ritual. The moment you begin to enjoy looking after your skin, you will find your skin will enjoy looking after you. Imagine not wanting to rush the cleansing process – but rather being able to take a moment to enjoy smoothing the product across your skin, breathing in the aromas of the natural fragrances… get the picture? The same goes for all steps – slow it down, enjoy the process and you and your skin will be best friends!

Kati Kasza, founder of Evolu skincare.

My personal life-changing beauty tip was having Botox into my jaw muscles. Not only does it slim the face down to make it look less bulky or square and more feminine, it’s also treated my teeth grinding, jaw pain and headaches, which had plagued me for most of my life. So not only does it have beauty benefits, it actually gave me my life back!

Dr Catherine Stone, founder of The Face Place MedSpa.

To get a perfectly smooth ponytail without any bumps it’s important to have a good bristle brush and secure hair ties. The more brushing the better, and don’t forget our hands are our best tool for smoothing. Make sure the ponytail is tightly secured. Use hair spray to finish the look.

Nigel Luty, Kérastase National Business Development Manager for NZ.

For a long-lasting curl for your lashes, blow warm air onto a metal eyelash curler with a hairdryer so it heats up slightly (test temperature on the back of your hand before using for safety reasons) and use as normal. The heat works on lashes the way a curling iron works on hair.

Megan Bedford, The Australian Woman’s Weekly Beauty Editor.

To make lips look larger, fill lips with lipstick and place a dab of slightly shimmery lipgloss in the centre of the lower lip. Press lips together to blend slightly.

Megan Bedford, The Australian Woman’s Weekly Beauty Editor.

To apply fake tan to hard-to-reach places, pop a tanning mitt over a spatula, secure with a hairtie, and then use that to apply a mousse or cream formula to the middle of your shoulders and back.

Megan Bedford, The Australian Woman’s Weekly Beauty Editor.

When was the last time you cleaned out the filter on your hairdryer so you get the full air flow? It may just speed up your drying time. Don’t forget to regularly clean your hairbrush too or you’ll be transferring yesterday’s dirt and oil from the trapped hair into today’s clean locks.

Megan Bedford, The Australian Woman’s Weekly Beauty Editor.

Apply serums and moisturiser to slightly damp skin. This will allow products to penetrate deeper and keep the skin hydrated. Dispense them onto the top of your hand rather your palm and use fingers to apply to your face. The leftover product will treat the skin on your hands too.

Ashleigh Scott, skin expert and owner of The Facialist.

If your skin is irritated, avoid excessive bathing or showering, as prolonged exposure to water can dehydrate and further irritate it.

Caroline Parker, Head of Education at Dermalogica NZ.

When it comes to brow products, the right shade is everything. The key is to use your hair colour as a guide, but your eyebrows do not have to match your hair exactly; they can be lighter or darker and still be flattering! For the most natural look, pick a shade that matches your hair colour. For a bolder brow, choose a shade one to two tones darker than your hair colour. To soften your look, go one shade lighter.

Sarah Taiapa-Bell, Benefit Cosmetics NZ National Brow Artist.

On in-between days when you’re not shampooing, your cowlick can kick in to create that unsightly gap in your fringe or, worse still, in the crown of your head. To get it sorted, spritz the specific area with a treatment or conditioning spray. My go-to is Redken’s One United for the combo of heat protection and hair TLC. You need to wet the area down, reshape it to eliminate the cowlick, then blow-dry smooth again.

Mana Dave, Redken NZ Artistic Director and owner of Blaze hair salon.

To combat signs of age in the eye area, try using an eye primer. Applied to the lid of the eyes, it will help reduce pigmentation, brighten the lid and help stop eyeshadow from creasing. It will also reduce the amount of eyeshadow you need and it will last longer. Sometimes I just wear primer, mascara and liner to give my eyes a lift.

Lisa Philips-Hogg, make-up artist for Revlon.

To create fuller hair in seconds, use a root cover-up powder designed to cover greys to softly fill in your part and any exposed scalp or gappy areas around the hairline when your hair is pulled back.

Jen Atkin, creator of Ouai Haircare and hairstylist to the Kardashians.

For a perfect manicure, ensure you start with a totally clean nail. Even if you aren’t wearing polish, wipe nail polish remover over the surface of the nail to make a smooth, oil-free surface. Apply two even coats of polish, being sure to “cap” the nail’s free edge by removing most of the polish from the brush and swiping onto the tip. Finish with a gel clear top coat.

Madeline Poole, Sally Hansen nails global ambassador.

Always do two thin, even coats of polish, and wait at least two minutes between coats for it to set properly. Use base coat and topcoat and apply a coat every other day to prolong your manicure.

Essie Weingarten, creator of Essie nail polish.

Use a separate product to cleanse the eye area. Many people don’t realise the importance of this and will just use their normal facial cleanser for the eyes, which will strip and dry the skin, causing premature ageing. Structurally, the skin around this area is different to the rest of the face – it has very few oil glands and is much thinner.

Tracey Beeby, Global Skin Educator at Ultraceuticals.

I don’t believe in looking at the names for brushes. That doesn’t really work for me. I think, what can I do with this, how does this work for me? I don’t use lip brushes for example; I use concealer brushes to apply lipstick. People are scared of doing a lip line, they feel a bit wibbly-wobbly. So if you’ve got a fatter brush you can do a lip in four strokes. Top lip: work from the outside into the centre, two stokes – done. Same with the bottom lip. It can be done, it just takes a little bit of practice.

Val Garland, L’Oréal Paris Global Make-up Director.

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