10 Beauty Lessons from Clinique’s Bridal Event

Remember the Clinique giveaway we held on the blog recently? The two brides who won the contest were in for a very special treat – an afternoon with Clinique Colour Specialists learning the basics of skin care and makeup, and Clinique goodies for their bridal trousseau. I was, of course, right there with the brides – taking notes at rapid speed while the Clinique experts demonstrated their magic on a model.

For those of you who didn’t win the giveaway, I made sure you didn’t miss out on all the good stuff. Well, atleast most of it. As an original lip balm+kajal girl, I feel your pain when it comes to being an absolute newbie with all this skin care and makeup stuff. I still go to sleep without washing my face…occasionally (never with makeup on, though! Ok, sometimes rarely that too), but thanks to all the amazing makeup artists and skin care gurus I’ve had a chance to interact with over the years, I’ve picked up a few pieces of fairly solid advice. I usually like to try and test out any tip I hear and share only the ones that work with you. But then that would mean I’d share this with you maybe after 6 months, and that’s 5 months too late for all of you getting married this season!

Here they are, then, the things I learned at the Clinique Bridal Makeup Event, hosted in partnership with Bougainvilla Design.

1. Prioritise skin care over makeup: Without good skin, even the best makeup won’t look good enough. You have to take care of your skin first.
2. Moisturise, moisturise, moisturise: Dry skin, oily skin, combination skin, normal skin – whatever your skin type, your skin will thank you for moisturising it every single day. And eventually, your makeup will too. Don’t believe this is needed for oily skin? Read about my experiments with moisturising oily skin here. For those of you wondering what’s a good moisturiser, Clinique’s Dramatically Different Moisturising Gel is perfect for my combination skin type and it’s what I’m currently using (and loving!)
3. Right way to apply foundation: There are a lot of “right ways” to do makeup that we learnt by Clinique’s Colour Specialists. For foundation, they said you should start at your nose, then go outwards then downwards. This is because it’s usually the centre of your face that needs more coverage, and by the time you get to the outer areas you won’t have that much foundation left on your brush (or fingertips), which makes it easier to blend on the edges of your face. Which reminds me – the absolute key to applying foundation well is the good old, good old – blend, blend, blend. If you’re interested in learning how to apply foundation with different tools (brushes, sponges, etc) – you should check out this really detailed post.
4. Right way to apply eyeshadow: Only the tip of the bristles should touch your eye – don’t paint it on. Oops! I’m totally guilty of painting on eyeshadow. I’m going to try and use this tip and see how it goes.
5. How to make eyes look bigger: The easiest way to make small eyes look bigger is to add lots of mascara.
6. Trick to apply mascara without getting it on your eyelid: You’ve heard of that tip that says – place a business card just at the edge so that all excess mascara goes onto the card? Tried it. The only problem – what if you’re in a hurry and there’s no business card in sight?! Clinique Colour Specialists gave us a tip that’s probably just plain old common sense for all of you but I needed someone to actually tell me – use your thumb instead!
7. Right way to make lipstick last longer: Want to know about another “trick” that had some practical problems? Have you seen that Pinterest image of a woman applying some powder on her lips and then adding another layer of lipstick to make it last longer? Well, I tried that. And it had a surprising (read: unwanted) side effect – the shade of my lipstick changed! I learnt the right way to do this at the Clinique event. You’re supposed to place a thin tissue paper over your lips, and dab some powder OVER that tissue! Then remove the tissue and apply your next round of lipstick. Longer-lasting lipstick, same colour!
8. Right way to apply Concealer: First apply it with a brush, and then dab it into skin with your ring finger.
9. Right way to apply powder to an oily t-zone: If you have an oily t-zone, take transparent loose powder on a cotton ball and just dab it onto the nose. Then lightly dust off the powder with a brush. I usually depend on my blotting paper to zap the oil out of my face, but that’s because I always felt like adding even a little bit of powder to my face made everything cakey instantly. I’ve finally come to realize it’s probably because I’ve been doing it wrong – I always put too much powder on. Time to try using a small amount.
10. Right way to apply eyeliner: Start as close to the lash line as possible, and try starting in the centre. Make small strokes and keep joining them. Use an angular brush for it. Honestly, I’m an eyeliner virgin – I still don’t know how to work that thing. I probably just need a good eyeliner, right?

The Clinique Colour Specialists also gave us these tip sheets, with even more makeup advice –

Of course, there’s nothing like learning from the experts themselves. If you’re a bride to be and want to book a one-on-one session with one of Clinique’s Colour Specialists, you can do that at select stores in India. Just give them a call and book your appointment. You’ll get to learn about how to take care of your skin type, have all your personal beauty queries answered and learn tips on how to do your own makeup. You’ll also receive a luxurious bridal trousseau box to stow all your essentials in –

The Bridal Trousseau Service costs INR 15,000 and included the one-on-one session with a Colour Specialist, the bridal box as well as an assortment of products that you decide with the Specialist are right for you. Quite a good deal if you’re going to buy skin care and makeup products as part of your bridal trousseau shopping, and are particular about buying only the best for your skin.

Have you tried any of these tips before? Have they worked well for you?