Tips for fair skin: mastering the red carpet

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Awards Season is in full swing. This year we’ve seen stars from Keira Knightly to Katie Holmes embrace their natural colouring, giving us fair-skinned women some inspiration. Though we don't all have dedicated makeup teams, nor do we have the time to spend all day doing it, it is possible to achieve similar looks on your own.
1. Embrace your fair skin
Having a sun kissed tan has long been seen as a beauty ideal to aspire to. But while it may give you a radiant glow, there’s nothing healthy about a tan – real or otherwise. If you have naturally fair skin, swap your fake tan for good quality skin care and embrace your best, beautiful skin. Stars such as Gwen Stefani, Sienna Miller and Angelina Jolie are well known for their pale complexions, embracing it as a point of difference.

2. Determine your skins undertones
Have you ever noticed how foundation will give you a healthy glow, while another that appears to be the same shade leaves you looking sickly? It’s all to do with your undertones. Selecting makeup that suits your undertone, which is usually classed as warm, cool or neutral, will help enhance your natural colouring. The easiest way to tell is to look at your veins. If they appear blue, you have cool undertones. If they look green you have warm, and if you can’t tell then you’re probably neutral.

3. Choose the right foundation
Finding out which colour suits your natural skin tone is easy. Select the three that you think best match your skin. Then, starting at the top of the cheek and moving down to your jaw, apply a thin line of each foundation next to each other. Gently blend each into your skin and allow them to dry. Placing three colours next to each other will allow you to see which best matches with your natural skin tone. When you have the right shade, apply it to your face as normal and use a tissue to wipe some of the foundation off your cheeks. This will give a more natural finish.

4. Coordinate your colours
Colour coordinating your lips and your cheeks can help create a uniform look that appears more natural than when using a contrasting lip colour and blush. Scribble a lip crayon on the back of your hand as like you would an artist’s paint palette and gently blend a small amount into the cheeks. Start with less and you can always add more.

5. Make your eyes stand out
To create smoky red carpet worthy eyes, line the inner rim of your lower eyelashes and work the eyeliner into the lashes. Then, apply eyeliner to the upper lash lines and push the eyeliner into lashes so there’s no gap. Smudge the eyeliner in using a fingertip, then sweep eye shadow across your lids and into the creases. Sixty seconds is all it takes to change a look, adding drama or drawing attention to your eyes.