3 beauty tricks we learnt backstage at Australian Fashion Week

Fashion Week is a huge week for anyone - between witnessing expert hair and makeup artists work their magic (while under a serious time crunch), previewing new season collections from our favourite brands AND taking note of the incredible street style outfits and beauty looks, it’s all a lot to take in. And while it may all seem completely overwhelming (or for me, anyway), there are always a few tidbits worth mentioning; straight from the hair and makeup artists themselves, these are the beauty lessons and tips we learnt backstage that we will be swearing by from now on.  

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1. Prepping skin is the single most important step

It’s so easy to get lazy, but creating a flawless makeup look really starts with good skincare. Making sure you cleanse properly is one thing, but following with an exfoliation treatment is the key to a smooth, fresh complexion that will serve as a perfect base for makeup. Emma Hobson, the Education Manager for the International Dermal Institute and Dermalogica explains backstage at Hansen & Gretel; exfoliation is what “gives that really smooth, healthy glow and smooth palette, particularly if [the models] aren’t putting foundation on”. She recommends Dermalogica Daily Resurfacer. Makeup artist and director at Lee Mathews, Claire Thompson agrees; “I feel that’s where makeup and skin is headed now - it’s elevated and the quality is going into skin care, rather than making an impact with the base.”

2. Manipulating your foundation is the key to the perfect dewy finish

Glowing skin is in, and we have it from good authority that a dewy, radiant foundation finish isn’t going anywhere, anytime soon. So when we chatted to Lara Srokowski, Lancome’s National Makeup Artist, we were super excited to learn her trick for achieving the perfect textured makeup base. “We’ve used our Lancome Absolue Precious Oil, so the oil has given that really beautiful dewy base before we even apply makeup. We’ve [then] used Ultra Wear Foundation, which is actually a medium to full coverage foundation but we’ve manipulated the texture by adding a few drops of the oil into the foundation. [This] then gives it that ‘second skin’ finish, and because we do the models makeup so many hours before, we wanted that long-wearing effect where we don’t need to do any retouches,” but still be able to maintain that gorgeous, dewy finish, explains Lara about the makeup for the AJE opening show.

3. Blush is back in a big way

Lee Mathews and Karla Spetic proved that blush is back and we couldn’t be more excited about it. Moving away from the overpowering and over-powdered look we grew up terrified of, the hero products of Australian Fashion Week were cream and liquid blush formulas, specifically The Body Shop Lip and Cheek Stain in Deep Berry and Pink Hibiscus and Westman Atelier Baby Cheek Blush Stick (find it at mecca.com.au, $76) . “We applied with fingers, dabbing high on the cheek bones, under the eye bone and across the nose to give [a] fresh, flushed look,” explained The Body Shop makeup artist at Karla Spetic.

Main image credit: JuliaGronowski/BEAUTYDIRECTORY

Did you learn anything you didn’t already know?