Brush-up on beauty

LIKE A sculptor working on a piece of art she went about her task with an assortment of brushes (lip brushes, powder brushes, and blusher brushes strung around her waist and a palette of powders and blushers in hand) bending over the volunteer model. With a few deft strokes she achieved an impressive transformation creating a sophisticated look.

Dispensing practical tips on how to apply make up, Samantha Kochhar, India's leading professional make-up artist who conducted the three-day ``The art of make-up'' workshop (which was divided into party make-up, evening make-up, bridal make-up and fancy make-up) at Pivot Point, Chennai, pointed out the many common mistakes people make. The motley crowd of beauty parlour owners and housewives also got an opportunity for hands-on experience. Daughter of India's leading aromatherapist and beautician Blossom Kochhar, 25-year old Samantha, whose passion is make-up and hair-styling has worked with Hindi actress Dipti Naval and Rashmi Virmani of the fashion industry. She recently worked for a Mira Nair film. Trained at Pivot Point, Chicago, Samantha has done every course possible in the trade. Incidentally Pivot Point International Inc USA is a world leader in hair and beauty education with a network of over 2,300 affiliated hair and beauty schools in 52 countries worldwide. Pivot Point, Chennai, was set up by Blossom Kochhar and Loretta Andrews.

``Make-up is such a creative line and with so many products entering the market, make-up artistes now have a line to work with. Make-up makes a person look beautiful, and why would a woman not want to look beautiful? But applying it the wrong way or too much of it can make a beautiful person look horrendous... Make-up is also about image. You have a social image too, and, for that you have to groom yourself - clothes, shoes, hair, face and make-up,'' explains Samantha.

Sharing some make-up secrets in an exclusive interview, Samantha says, ``You have to go by your skin type (colour, texture), your lifestyle and your personality. If I am a housewife trying to put on make-up like a model I would look bad. I might use three to four eye shadows on a younger person and only two on an older person to create a more subtle look. The colours I choose for the older client would also be understated like peaches and browns.''

But with more young people putting on make-up (girls now enter modeling at the age of 14 in Delhi and Bombay) the make-up for them should achieve a fresh, healthy look as opposed to a plastered appearance, she says.

Samantha also stresses on the tools of the trade. ``They play a vital part in creating a final, polished effect. To look natural, blending does the trick i.e. removing the excess and polishing the surface so to speak. Anyone should have a brush set (a lipstick brush, a blusher brush, powder brush and eye shadow applicator.''

Here are more tips. Always follow the natural pattern of your face. Darken your eyebrows, lighten areas where the eyebrow hair has been removed and darken the crease lines and lashes. The areas around the nose and mouth are not supposed to be dark. So lighten those areas too. A basic thumb rule for facial make-up - concealer has to be one shade lighter than your skin. Foundation which evens out your skin should match your skin. If you don't want to use foundation, use compact powder which matches your skin.

But if you want to look pretty quickly and have little time or patience with compacts and powders here is a practical approach. All you need are a concealer, blusher which can double as your eye shadow and lip gloss. Instead of a liner and a pencil use mascara which is faster and in fashion.

If you use eyeliner, to prevent it from chipping, dip brush in water. As the day wears on it just blends and smears instead of chipping and falling.

If you want lipstick to last longer use a lip pencil (a not too dark colour) make an outline and fill layer with that pencil, then put on your lipstick. So even if the top layer wears off the pencil colour stays on and your lips don't look bare.

The rules of course are determined by what time of the day it is. For the evening, your base immediately becomes thicker, colours are matched to your clothes and you use more colours on your eyes. If you are wearing a blue outfit you can use a little gold, pink and a touch of navy blue. If you are wearing a pink outfit use silver, pink or lilac. With lipsticks too, opt for light, summery colours during the day and a more made-up look for the evening.

Samantha also urges the younger crowd to follow fashion trends (shade cards brought out by cosmetic companies and fashion mags provide inputs).

Calling upon people to experiment, she says, ``pick and choose. Try products to see what suits you. And quality is very important. People sometimes buy make-up of any brand. Thanks to the advanced technology, make-up is today very skin-friendly. How do you judge quality? When you apply it on your face, it should look and feel good and not itchy.''

Finally, if you're always complaining about what is wrong with your face rather than what is right with it, as Samantha says, remember there is beauty in every person. ``Someone who has very bad skin may have the most beautiful eyes. The trick is to highlight your strong points and downplay the negatives.''

SUDHA UMASHANKER

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