How to look fab after a long-haul flight: Skincare and Makeup Tips plus Eye Look feat. Chanel Les 5 Ombres de Chanel Eyeshadow Palette

Face it - we may love going on vacation or visiting another country but I don't know many people who enjoy a long-haul flight. 

Besides lack of sleep and jet-lag, you need to deal with dehydrating cabin air that sucks all the moisture out of your skin, a tendency to retain water and get puffy around the face and eyes, and makeup looks terrible on top of all that.

So what if you need to hop off a flight and go straight to a social engagement? You kind have to get yourself looking as good as possible. No easy task.

Here are a few tips (and product faves) that you can consider on your next flight.

FIGHT CABIN SKIN

Cabin air sucks the life out of your skin. Which can give you a crepe-y looking skin surface, magnify fine lines, and compromise your skin barrier and put you at risk of sensitive reactions later on. Always use a product that is a bit more moisturizing than you normally need, even if you have oily skin. Your skin will thank you for it. 

My favorite in-flight skin protectants after trying tons of different lotions and potions over the past 10-15 years are oils, because they help seal and protect the skin surface longer than a water-based lotion will, and they don't contain fillers and additives that might give you a reaction after a 20-hour flight. 

You also get a bit more time to give yourself a good facial massage during application, which can help reduce/prevent puffiness.

For normal to dry skins, try more nourishing concoctions:

• La Mer The Renewal Oil (available from Nov 2015)
• La Prairie Swiss Ice Crystal Dry Oil
• Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate
• Jurlique Purely Age-Defying Face Oil
• Clarins Santal or Blue Orchid Face Treatment Oil

If you're combination, there are lighter oils that help protect your skin while not sitting in a greasy film on your skin:

• Kiehl's Daily Reviving Concentrate
• Clarins Lotus Face Treatment Oil
• Laura Mercier Rose Infusion de Rose
• By Terry Huile de Rose
• Elizabeth Arden Ceramide Oil Capsules

Even if you're very oily and cannot imagine applying a straight oil to your face, consider an oil-in-water serum like Chanel's Hydra Beauty Micro Serum. It will not feel oily but supplies a dose of calming camellia oil to the skin, along with other water-based humectants.

Some people also like to bring hydrating masks and sleeping masks (Origins and Laneige have some good ones) on flights. Do that if you have something on hand and prefer it to an oil, but I personally just find oils last and work better. You need less to keep your skin supple for hours and it just doesn't feel as sticky and heavy. Plus, you can use oils on your cuticles, on the ends of your hair, etc.

Reapply every few hours, and make sure you drink plenty of water.

IMPORTANT!
Keeping your makeup on for an entire long-haul flight is one of the worst things you can do for your skin. You might be able to get away with it in your teens and 20s, but as you get into your 30s and up, your makeup will look positively leathery, cakey and cracked by the end of a 10 hour flight. Putting more makeup on top of it will not help.

I'd rather have no makeup on for a few hours on the plane where few people will be looking at you (trust me, nobody will be staring at you and thinking "man she looks bad") than spend the rest of the day looking raggedy after touch-down. 

You're better off removing all your makeup after take-off so you can apply all your skincare and lip balm first, and then having a fresh canvas at the end of the flight to apply fresh makeup on.

PRE-LANDING SKIN PREP

About 40 minutes before landing time is about the time I start to prep my skin. You can't just slap makeup on and expect it to look great. Even if you've managed to keep yourself well-hydrated and smooth the past few hours, you probably still want to remove the hours of residue and dirt on the surface.

1. A gentle wipe or a very light and non-drying cleanser is usually sufficient to refresh your face. 
2. Then give yourself a nice gentle massage with a few drops of oil mixed with a brightening primer, like Le Blanc from Chanel. This not only brightens and evens out your skin slightly so you need less makeup, the lighter layer of oil will help your makeup to go on MUCH better.

Tip: In the cold, dry environments, foundations and concealers will all feel a lot drier and be harder to blend out. That little bit of oil on the skin surface is just going to make sure your makeup is not cakey and heavy-looking. If your makeup is feeling really dry, add a single drop of oil into a pump of foundation and it will go on beautifully.

Again, take a minute to massage your face with firm, gentle pressing/patting motions to get your circulation going a bit. It will help to drain some water and helps with absorption. What you want to be left with is plumped, smooth skin that's perfectly primed for makeup.

PACK SMART

When it comes to makeup in your carry-on bag, less is more. Honestly, heavy thick concealers and camouflage creams will not even work well in such a cold and dry environment, so look for creamier formulations. If you have good skin and minimal blemishes, a good BB cream will do fine.

If you need more coverage though, look for one of those multi-tasking serum foundations that either have great coverage, or come with a matching concealer in the cap.

Lancome's Teint Visionnaire is a classic, but La Prairie's launching a anew Skin Caviar Concealer Foundation as well. The added benefit is many of these foundations and BBs do contain sun protection, but it's minimal, so if you're going to be in a sunny environment, make sure you apply a proper sunblock first.

GET YOUR GLOW ON

Heavy thick powder foundations can look dull and chalky on the skin. If you have dry skin skip powder entirely. If you need to set your makeup still, skip the traditional powders and use a lightweight illuminating powder like Guerlain's Meteorites (I have the traditional pearls here to show you but I would recommend the pressed compact or travel-friendly brush-on containers for traveling with. You don't want to accidentally tip these over and scatter your precious pearls all over the cabin toilet floor.)

Guerlain Meteorites in 03 Medium

Many people don't quite know what Meteorites powders are for.

These are actually satiny-matte powders that help correct discolorations and illuminate the skin without looking pearly and sparkly. They are NOT highlighters in the traditional sense. They work more like brightening setting powders, but can be used alone as well.

If you're feeling tired and sallow, the warmer shades in 03 Medium work better to correct discolorations than the cooler-toned 02 Clair, which actually does not correct undertones as well (unless you happen to be porcelain pale).

For me to look alive and rested (no matter how tired I might feel), there are a few other tricks.

• Use darker defining colors around the lash line and a matte shade in the hollows of your socket, rather than pale shimmery shadows all over, which can emphasize puffy blood-shot eyes. Well-defined sockets and lash lines are instantly eye-wideners and can help minimize the appearance of puffiness.
• Redness-relieving eye drops like Visine or Prefin will remove the bloodshot appearance in minutes. Filling in brows (naturally), and applying mascara can also make a huge difference.
• Groom your brows. They instantly lift and frame the face and make you look more alert and put-together.

KEEP IT LIGHT

I'm talking about your makeup bag. Your makeup should allow you to do both more dramatic looks as well as more natural looks. But you shouldn't have to bring lots of it.

Here are some favorites, many of which have been my trusty companion for years.

• My trusty travel companion for brows is Shu Uemura's Hard Formula 9 Pencil (above). One shave in the sword style lasts for weeks and weeks so I can be sure I don't need any sharpening on a trip. It's an investment as these cost more than most pencils. But they do last a year each, so purchase them at Duty Free and save some money.
• Benefit Gimme Brow - these tiny tubes of brow mascara actually hold your brow hairs in place amazingly well. And they're so small they don't take up any space.
• Dual-ended eyeliners like Urban Decay's 24/7 Double Ended pencil in Naked 1 is perfect because it's not only creamy and easy to use, but has 2 shades that would go with most looks.

• A perfect neutral palette that's not too large - not too small, and has both very deep, as well as pale shades in a variety of textures. It will carry you from day to night, and can work with pretty much any lip color you choose to wear.

This gorgeous thing is Chanel's Entrelac palette from the Autumn 2015 collection. It's sadly a limited edition, but again - this is one thing that you should pick up at Duty Free if you see it because it's so much cheaper than retail. (In Singapore at least.)

I love the Naked palettes but this is so much sleeker, smaller, and sharper.

THE LOOK

Stila Magnificent Metals Foil Finish Eye Shadow Review and Swatches

Stila Magnificent Metals Foil Finish Eye Shadows: Comex Platinum, Titanium, Comex Gold, Vintage Black Gold

What they are:

These are neither cream shadows nor loose pigments. They are very interesting and unique. These are intense metallic pigments suspended in a light fluid silicone/wax/crosspolymer base. It’s more like curdled milk than a cream shadow, because the dry pigments are not soluble in the silicone base.

The pigments and silicones both dissolve in the priming liquid thpugh, so they blend and smooth out once you mix all 3 things together.

Without getting too technical, I’ll just say they can be used on their own without the “primer”, but they can flake, look uneven, and won’t set and stay in place. With a tiny bit of the liquid primer, they smooth out like Chanel or Dior cream shadows, build up and apply more evenly, and last much better as well.

The Kit:

Stila Magnificent Metals Eye Shadow in Metallic Laurel, shown with items in a full kit

You get a little box including:

1. A pot of metallic pigments
2. A tiny dropper bottle of the confusingly-named “primer” liquid (it’s more a liquid sealant because you don’t use it to prime your lid)
3. A small flat metal pan for blending the 2 together

Stila Stay All Day liquid eye primer for Magnificent Metal pigments

Application:

Definitely not recommended to wear the pigments on their own without the base because they can smear, flake and crease quickly. While the instructions are for you to add a drop of priming liquid to some shadow and blend on the metal pan, I find it hard to control the proportions and and leads to a lot of product wastage.

Stila Metallic Laurel swatched with and without the liquid primer

Stila Metallic Cobalt swatched with and without the liquid primer

Tip: My preferred method is to dab a tiny bit of sealing liquid onto the center of your lid, then use a finger to apply pigment over, and blending right on the lid.

To see detailed pros and cons of these, click here! 

LIP TARS: What they are, how they work, what I think of some of the colors.

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics Lip Tars

I was recently asked my thoughts on Lip Tars and whether I thought it was worth it to invest in them. Well, I own 5 tubes so that's saying something. The thing to remember though, is that it's not for everyone. I'd recommend it if:

1. You need to enjoy "mixology" and blending colors to make your own,
2. You LOVE very strong accent makeup on your lips and you don't mind spending more time on your makeup, OR
3. You're a makeup artist and you need to do both of the above.

 Most people would have no use for lip tars because:

• They can't be applied quickly like a balm or gloss; it would look crazy
• With most colors you need to use a brush
• A lot of the colors are incredibly strong and not practical for school or regular office-work (ultraviolet, yellow, blue, black, white,... )
• The pigments separate from the oils after awhile, and you need to have the patience to tip it the other way and shake it around until everything is mixed up again

That said, here are the colors I own and what I think, plus tips at the end of the post if you want to use them!

OCC Lip Tar in RX

True black. But you MUST wear a lip liner or some sort of wax base round your lips with this. It will very quickly bleed into fine lines.
I actually recommend MAC's Black Lipmix from the Pro range if you can get it.
It's not as glossy when it goes on, but the formula doesn't separate as badly and it goes on more opaque, with no bleeding. I would probably not repurchase this after I use it up unless I can't get my MAC for some reason.

MAC Lipmix vs OCC Lip Tar: The MAC isn't bleeding. It's just smudgy application. The OCC is though.

Mix with: ANY color to darken it or dull it.

OCC Lip Tar in RX

True, true primary blue. If you're looking for an opaque, intense blue whether to mix or wear on its own, this is the BEST shade you can get. I love it. Here's a post with a few things I did using RX.

One word for bloggers and those taking photos; this blue has a tendency to flashback in flash or bright lights, so it looks almost pastel blue in certain conditions. 

Mix with: Any color to cool it down. Use only a TINY dot when mixing!

OCC Lip Tar in Belladonna

This bright purple doesn't look this blue in real life. But even more than RX, the blue in this picks up in most frontal shots I take. In real life, it's not so ultraviolet.

Still it's a fantastic bright purple, and if you're the sort to love things that are "somewhat left of the center" (like me), you'll love wearing this color neat, without mixing anything in.

Mix with: Pinks to make them more lavender toned, with red for a burgundy/wine. 

OCC Lip Tar in Pretty Boy

Bright fuchsia pink.
This is the older sister (or brother) of Anime, OCC's best selling neon pink. It's still bright, but slightly more grown up and slightly more flattering on most skins. This is a shade I would recommend wearing just on its own with a fuchsia lip liner.

OCC Lip Tar in Ophelia

Soft beige pink.
The only pale shade I have in my collection at this time. It's a gorgeous cool-toned pink, but you can see no matter how much patting and blending I did, the lines are still visible where the pigments sank in. From a slight distance, and in real life, it's not really noticeable. Just be careful when you're taking anything in high-res.
Mix with: A bright color to soften it slightly. Although I'd also recommend just wearing this on its own because it's a very pretty and wearable shade for those with pale to medium-fair skin.

A few tips for those who can't resist the lure of these little tubes:

• Try to always use a lip brush, except with some paler colors that look patchy or streaky. Then I recommend using your ring finger to lightly spread an pat it out.
• Apply a very very thin layer first, spread it out sheer, let it set a bit, then build up more when needed. Don't plonk on a whole lot (this is not regular lip gloss!) because it will seep everywhere, and be more likely to bleed and sink into lines.
• Lip tars are a blend of pigments and oils. This is the reason they separate, and why they seem to go on glossy, then lose some of the shine after awhile. The oils vaporize and get absorbed, leaving mainly pigments, unlike wax-based glosses and lipsticks which will just sit pretty on your skin.

If you want to make your own D.I.Y. Lip Tars (works better with metallic pigments), I also have a post on that here.

OCC: http://www.occmakeup.com/

Olivia Palermo Eye makeup: Tips for women with thick lids and/or deep sockets

Olivia has got to be one of the most beautiful women in the world, in my opinion. She reminds me of Penelope Cruz, Heather Graham and Shania Twain all rolled into one.

I was VERY hesitant to do this post despite a lot of requests to do an Olivia Palermo look, because the truth is her eye makeup is quite straightforward and simple (which I can recreate and give tips for), but the end result is really largely due to her natural eye shape (which I can't recreate). 

• Very deep and defined sockets
• Huge, rounded eyes, slightly down-turned at the outer corners
• Very thick double-lids
• Medium lid space (probably the only thing I have in common with her, in that her brows are not very far or very low and close to her eyes)

Even with the same makeup I will never look anything like her, but if you have a similar eye structure (a lot of Indian and Mediterranean women do), then this is a fantastic look for you.

Orange Candy: Juicy, Bright Orange Lips (and Tips)

Swatches above (L-to-R): Revlon Super Lustrous Lipgloss in Coral Reef,  Milani Mango Mambo, MAC Morange, Lime Crime My Beautiful Rocket, Revlon Lip Butter in Tutti Frutti

Orange is such an eye-popping color that you'll instantly draw all eyes when you're wearing it. Here are a few tips to help you make it work.

1. What you need to note when choosing an orange is how much red/pink is in your skin. If you have very noticeable pink undertones, choose an orange that has stronger red tones (e.g. Milani Mango Mambo) rather than a true-true orange that has a lot less red tones than your skin (My Beautiful Rocket). 
2. If you have very pigmented lips, you might need to get more opaque formula (like the MAC or Lime Crime) in order to getting a true orange on your lips. If you're not used to a bright orange or want to tone it down for school or work, go with a translucent formula like the Revlon Lip Butters or Balmstains (Tutti Frutti).
3. A translucent formula would also work well if you have very pink undertones in your skin, because it allows the pink of your lips to show through under the orange.

Here are 2 ways you can get a variation of looks if you own 2 orange lip products; a translucent one and an opaque one.

1. You can wear an orange-toned gloss or lip butter direct. It will look more coral because of the natural pink/brown tones of your lips.

2. To add a little intensity without going over-the-top, you can add a stronger orange (I used MAC Morange below) onto the center of the lips and then press them together to even it out slightly. 

 This maintains a lightweight and translucent feel, but adds some intensity just around the center so the overall look is more obviously orange.

MAKEUP TO WEAR WITH ORANGE LIPS

The automatic reaction is usually to match orange with more warm tones like browns, reds, oranges, golds, and yellows. This works, but it can also make the overall effect slightly sallow or even jaundiced if done wrong. 

I don't like those overly-restrictive color-rules that say "you are Autumn and you should only wear warm/autumn colors on your face." That's like saying you have blue eyes and you should only wear warm bronze and copper shadows so they will pop. Sure, a nice bronze will make blue eyes stand out more. But what about bringing out your skintone? Your hair color? Your outfit? Your lip color?

A great idea is to pair a bright orange with cool tones on the eyes, so the overall effect on the face is actually balanced out, and both your eye look and lip color stand out even more. 

Remember your primary objective is to make the overall look work on your face and outfit.