Well it’s been an amazing week, firstly the TV show that I’m in – Made In Chelsea on E4, has been nominated for a BAFTA award! And then I discovered that the dance music video I’m in has stormed into the Top 40 Billboard dance chart in America and the Top 20 dance chart in the UK.

So it’s a double whammy of good news.

The other nominees for the Reality and Constructed Factual BAFTA Award are The Audience, I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! and The Young Apprentice. Good luck to everyone, and win or lose I’m looking forward to doing a bit of red carpet glamour on May 12^th.

I had a top bit of red-carpet styling advice when I shot Stacey Jackson’s dance music video Pointing Fingers in New York, earlier this year. Stacey and her stylist gave me great advice on how to do make-up for studio lights and red-carpet black tie events.

And you can see how well it worked in the video for Pointing Fingers below. (I play the DJ on the video and I’ve got a cameo role near the end.)

But this look is not just for showbiz – just ask yourself how many times you’ve been pictured with flash photography on a Saturday night out and ended up on looking sweaty and shiny on someone else’s Facebook page.

For flawless, photo-ready skin you need all high tech beauty products at your disposal, that means smoothing primers, light reflecting concealers, colour-clever foundations and highly pigmented eye shadows for make-up that even the camera can’t trip up!

Step 1 – Prime it

Primers smooth out and brighten your complexion and control oily and dry skin types. Apply your primer with your hands on a clean, dry face. The bareMinerals Brightening Face Foundation Primer feels like smoothing silk on your face and will help hold any foundation you’re going to put on. You can also experiment with eyelid primers that are going to help keep eye make-up crease-free and make any eye colour you apply more intense. I love the Stila Prime Pot, you can wear this on its own for a pretty day look or use it as an eye-shadow base. Put the eyelid primer all over your eyelid, this is going to help even out any discolouration, brighten up the eyelid and give a great even canvas to your eyeshadow.

Step 2 – Create your flawless base

Now you have the perfect canvas for your foundation, it’s time to apply your base. Camera-ready foundation needs to be long-lasting and preferably have a matte finish. The Clarins Ever Matte Foundation is perfect for lasting all night. Make sure you find your correct shade of foundation by matching shades on your jawline in sunlight.

To make foundation last longer, always apply with a brush as this pushes product into the pores of the skin. Take small amounts of product on to a foundation brush and buff into the skin in circular motions, little by little, building up the coverage gradually.

Step 3 – Conceal and contour

For a striking make-up look try some Kim Kardashian Kontouring (sorry – had to do it). Contouring slims down your face, and brings out your cheekbones.

Dark colours push back and lighter colours highlight. Suck in your cheeks and where the hollows of your cheeks are, apply your bronzer or alternatively a darker shade of foundation. If you’re using a bronzer you need a formulation that’s glitter free. Daniel Sandler has done all the hard work for you and made a Sculpt and Slim-Effect Contour Face Powder. Take the dark colour in the hollow of your cheeks and on the jawline and apply the lighter colour on the highest point of your brow bone and your cheekbones. Ta da, cheekbones in a flash!

Next conceal any under eye bags with a creamy concealer, I find concealers that come in a click-pen perfect for this sort of thing. Look for a concealer that has a light-reflecting formula to rid any under eye bags. Try the Clarins Instant Brush-On Perfector, this brightens and tightens, perfect for getting rid of under eye bags from late nights.

Finally use a thicker concealer to hide any blemishes, little spots or redness around the nose. My personal favourite, The Vichy Dermablend Ultra Corrective Cream Stick is absolutely incredible and masks spots and blemishes flawlessly.

Step 4 – Apply blush

So now you should have a perfect contoured base. For Stacey Jackson’s video, they used a warm rusty/pink blusher. Smile with your lips closed to get the plump apple of your cheek and sweep on some Daniel Sandler Mineral Matte Blusher in Hush Pink. Apply with a blusher brush, the Cosmopolitan Blusher Brush is angled so you get a lovely natural finish.

Step 5 – Apply eye make-up

For my eye make-up, I was given a subtle black smokey eye.  A black shimmery shadow was used just on my eyelid, without winging it out. The Clarins Ombre Single Eyeshadow in Black Sparkle is perfect. Pack the colour on the eyelid by patting on with a flat brush, the eyelid primer you applied earlier will keep the colour on all night and make it more intense. After you’ve packed the colour on, take a fluffy brush through your socket crease to blend out any harsh lines.  To give more intenstity, wet your brush and create a liquid liner with your eyeshadow, just sweep this along the upper lashline and finish with a mascara on the upper and lower lashes. The Dior Backstage DiorShow Mascara is great for creating serious length and volume.

I was given some strong brows to compliment the look. The Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Brow Colour has a fine felt tip which means you can draw thin hair like strokes, something the camera doesn’t need to see is painted on eyebrows!

Step 6 – Lips and Nails

As we were in New York, there’s nothing more Sex In The City than matching your lip colour with your nails. I had a pretty glossy pink on my lips with a bright pink nail to match.

First a lip stain was applied to my lips, the Stila Crush Lip & Cheek Stain in Cherry was applied straight from the pen, followed by a pretty pink gloss, The Dior Addict Ultra Gloss in Sari Pink. Then for a nail colour to match, sweep some Nailtiques Nail Lacquer in Rio over manicured talons.

Step 7 – Finish with powder

To finish, a photo perfect powder was applied. Place a small amount of the Daniel Sandler Invisible Veil Powder in your palms, rub your hands together and push onto your face where you naturally get shine – down the t-zone, on the upper lip and under the cheek bones. This powder is ultra fine, so it’s perfect under flash photography and it will keep skin matte for hours.

So that’s how the wonderful Stacey Jackson’s team did my camera-ready make-up. And you can get Stacey’s fab dance track Pointing Fingers track here.

Lots of love,
Binky x