Beauty update: products you need to know about from our Good Housekeeping shoot

Caroline Piasecki making us look better on the recent Good Housekeeping shoot.

It’s far too cold to consider buying spring clothes currently and I think it’s madness to buy anything other than good sale finds in January anyway. So today we’re going to talk about the excellent beauty advice we were given recently on our Good Housekeeping shoot.

We’re in the April edition of Good Housekeeping but we can’t say  much before the issue comes out. What we can tell you about is how our terrific make-up artist Caroline Piasecki made us look better versions of ourselves and gave us some fantastic tips on product.

I was so impressed with her knowledgeable advice -and how we looked- that I went and bought most of what she used on us. And have loved them all.

First up, the Luminous Silk Foundation by Georgio Armani. I’d heard good things about this from other bloggers and Caroline said she uses it on everyone because it’s good at creating a light but lovely finish every time. I’ve used it regularly since December and it gives a hardly-there, haven’t-tried-too-hard finish.

Under this Caroline used the Charlotte Tilsbury Wonder Glow, Instant Soft Focus Beauty Flash, which is a bit like an illuminating tinted moisturiser-come-primer, you can use it beneath your foundation for a perky glow, or instead of it for a low-fi everyday complexion boost. The Charlotte Tilsbury range has had good press, it’s certainly a fun counter -with great staff- to visit at Selfridges where I’ve been hanging about recently. The Wonder Glow seems to have teeny, shimmery gold bits suspended within the liquid, which I find uplifting to apply in the depths of January grimness. Whatever, it’s good. I also love the slightly retro packaging and rose gold lid.

More CT on the right above, it’s the Retoucher Concealer, which Caroline rates highly. I didn’t buy this as I’ve still got plenty of the YSL Touche Eclat one left, but it did do an excellent job of covering up my darker patches. You might also note that Caroline is holding one of those Beauty Blender sponges we talked about recently, she used it to apply our foundation and also to brush off any surplus, which is a ritual I’ve adopted to avoid that over-caked look.

Then we had turbo false eyelashes! These were applied in individual sections -just to the outer edges of our top lashes- rather than a long strip- to give a more natural look. You can buy similar lashes from MAC, but Caroline gets hers from PAK Cosmetics, a treasure trove of beauty bargains which also does mail order. Caroline told us to tilt our heads back and then look sort of down your nose towards a mirror to get the best view of where to apply your own lashes (which you glue on). I haven’t actually bought any yet, but absolutely loved the look, so will be practising this at some point.

The MAC Pro Longwear paint pot in Vintage Selection or Groundwork (for darker skin) is an eye base primer that I have hardly left the house without wearing. This is my favourite product of this whole new selection and I apply it to my eyelids as a kind of foundation/primer either to leave as is, or to apply eyeshadow over, which then lasts much longer. It just evens out the colour on your eyelids and adds the tiniest bit of sophistication to your natural-face look.

And then finally a few things I found in New York which you need to know about. Toronto based Bite lipsticks (above right) are fabulous, made of all natural ingredients that are safe enough to eat and with the best make-your-own-colour pop up Lip Lab in New York if you ever happen to be there. This is a waxy Line and Define Liner pencil that stops your lip colour bleeding all over your face. I hate the way pigmented lip liners leave a severe line around your lips so this is perfect at providing an invisible barrier. I can’t find it here in the UK but if you’re ever in Paris/New York anywhere with a Sephora OR live in the US /Canada, you’ll get it easily.

Another New York or Europe only purchase above, the Sephora own-brand pots of nail polish remover and nail care applier. It’s genius is in the pot design, which is lined in a foam, so you dip your nails in the foam and rub the polish off (no cottonwool needed) or do the same in the cuticle care pot to coat your nails in soothing oil. So no spill-issues and if you get just one nail wrong when you’re painting them, you can just dip it in the pot without endangering the other perfect ones. Dead clever. For the umpteenth time, when are we getting Sephora back in the UK?