SOPHIE SAYS
ELLE BEAUTY DIRECTOR SOPHIE BERESINER TACKLES your BEAUTY WOES and DILEMMAS. THIS MONTH, HOW TO do PASTEL COLOUR WITHOUT going FULL UNICORN
Beauty director Sophie Beresiner on how to master pastel make-up
If Instagram told you to eat your moisturiser or go to the supermarket naked, would you? Well, the same goes for colour. Instagram is a good place to find inspiration and marvel at other people’s mermaid hair, but you don’t have to jump on everything you see. Instead, use it as a jumping board.
I’m here to tell you that colour is what you are missing in your life. It’s happy-making. There are people, medical people, qualified to heal human beings using colour therapy. So don’t be afraid; you might have a better day because you chose pastel-green liner.
Psychological musings aside, I can give you an Insta-friendly beginners’ guide. Mermaid and unicorn basically refers to pastel, sweet, at times glittery amalgams of colour that seem mythical in their extra-ness. Intimidating they may be, but there also exists – in my own mind at least – a unicorn-mermaid spectrum, from fantastical (out there) to ethereal (beautiful). When you know this, you know you can give it an entry-level go.
First: nails, the easiest place to experiment because it doesn’t interfere with your features and you’ll feel young at heart – or at hand – whenever you glance down. Try a nude iridescent, like OPI Significant Other, which is chic but then turns unicool with a shift of the light.
For the face, there are countless options for a novice: YSL Shimmer Rush Palette – a collection of multi-tonal shades, and Stila Little White Lies Liquid Eye Shadow in Peach Pretense, dotted under lower lashes, are current favourites and do wonderful things to your face.
A lot of products look more unicorn than they are for the purposes of The Flatlay. Savvy brands want organic marketing, meaning their products must appeal to the digital influencer, so they package a colour-correcting powder (looking at you, Rodial Soft Focus Glow) as an explosion of unusual shades. They might look fantastical in the pan, but they will be ethereal on the face. Rodin’s Mermaid Collection Illuminating Powder is the perfect bronzer and looks lovely in photos, both on the face and in the flatlay. Too Faced Unicorn Tears (!) topcoat turns lip colour celestial, and who doesn’t want that? Its Pretty Rich Multi-Use Diamond Fire Highlighter in Canary also gives the most incredible soft highlight on the cheekbones. Nip & Fab also has a Lilac Lights highlighter fluid that I love for a holographic glow.
Then I want you to be brave and dive in with colour, but try the shallow end first. This means just a little liner – surprisingly wearable, totally fresh and absolutely uplifting. I love a matte pink or yellow (I know!) feline flick with black mascara to diffuse it and no other colour on the face. Or try green or orange kohl in the waterline. Perhaps even dip a rainbow brush in pastel iridescent glitter and highlight the end of your nose and – oops, I jumped to the fantastical end of the spectrum. Don’t do that. (But if you do, please take a pic for Instagram and tag me in it.)
Instagram tells me I need unicorn make-up and mermaid hair, but as a 38-year-old colour-phobe, I’m not so sure. Help! ROSALIN, SOMERSET “DON’T be AFRAID. YOU MIGHT have A BETTER DAY BECAUSE you CHOSE PASTEL-GREEN LINER”