Beauty: Charlotte Tilbury Makeup Appointment

As my first blog post, I thought I would share my experience at the Charlotte Tilbury store in White City, where I was fortunate enough to gain fantastic makeup advice and a tutorial of how to achieve one of the artist's staple looks.

Charlotte Tilbury's products are packaged in the most beautiful rose gold and burgundy hues, and the shop reflects this in its entirety. To start the makeup appointment, each client is given a makeup shopping list, where your stylist will tick each Charlotte Tilbury product to complete your chosen look. I simply booked a makeup session a few days in advance. The cost of the appointment is £35, however if you buy a product -or several- this amount will be taken off the total. (So an incentive that it's partly free - I stress partly).

I went in hoping to learn more about how to achieve a smoky eye, fit for daytime as well as one that I could adapt to an evening occasion. With this, the stylists highly recommend a lighter lip. Harsh eyes and bold lips can contrast rather than complement.

I chose the 'Rock Chick' complexion as my chosen look. A smoky eye using sparkling silvers, and ashy tones for the crease. Then a nude lip, with slight definition with use of a lip pencil. Below, I've detailed all the Charlotte Tilbury products needed, the application process, and my personal opinions.

To start, the Skin Care Category:

-The Magic Cream: a creamy base formula that preps the skin for foundation application. This smooths the skin thoroughly, and I highly advise this product for those who may have drier, dehydrated skin like me.

-Next, The Wonder Glow: The best primer I have used which refreshes the face by adding glow to tired looking eyes and dull skin, whilst providing a dewy touch to uneven skin tone.

Within the Complexion Category:

-Magic Foundation [For me, Shade 3, and the stylist will colour match you in store]. Whilst this achieves a medium-full coverage, minimal product is needed to achieve such. It doesn't feel at all heavy on the skin which I liked. Personally, I prefer a brush application, however a sponge would also suffice. Apply the product to your hand, rather than to the brush as this loses product.

-Retoucher Concealer [Shade 2] - This can be applied after the foundation application, or after the eye makeup is finished. My stylist advised this product to be applied with your index finger for best results. An upside down triangle is drawn with the applicator. This should be gently dabbed in to lighten the eye area, and the dabbing motion will making the most of all the product.

-Airbrush flawless finish powder [Shade 2] - used particularly for the under eye and eyelid area to set the base makeup.

-Filmstar Bronze and Glow: The best product used, the pigmentation of the highlight is flawless and the sculpting shade is perfect for a light bronze. We only used the highlight for this look, as the sculpting bronzer gives a softer contour as opposed to a defined line which I wanted.

For the Eye Category:

-Feline Flick - A classic eye liner pencil

-Full Fat Lashes Mascara -

This is a suitable day time mascara. My lashes were not as full as when using my favourite Grandiose Lancôme mascara, so as I have quite long lashes anyway, I'd possibly choose a different mascara if you're looking for bigger, more dramatic lashes.

The Pencils pictured above are specifically designed for blending and creating a smoky effect. Using the 'LUXURY: Rock Chick Eye Palette', Charlotte's four steps are to prime, enhance, pop and smoke using the smudge brush. You're going to want to start with shade 1, [top left]. Gently apply this over the eye. Next my stylist took a tissue, and began applying the enhance ash colour and the coal [top right and bottom right], blending these in the outer corner of the eye. She used the tissue to prevent spillage, but also to create a soft line which would later be aided by the winged eye liner. The sparkle can be added from the centre towards the outer edge, and she did this with her pinky finger.

Within the Lip Category:

-Lip Cheat [Lip pencil in the shade Pillow Talk]

-Lipstick [Shade Nude Kate]. Key tip is to apply the lipstick in a backwards and forwards motion on the lower lip, and for more definition, use a brush for the top lip to work into the pencil.

-Then over the top add 'Lip Lustre' [Blondie] this adds plumpness to the lips and a gentle shimmer.

And lastly for the cheek category:

-Beach Sticks [Shade Ibiza] - the harsher preference to the Filmstar bronzer, to create a more defined contour. My stylist took this down the cheek bone area by sucking in the cheeks, around my hair line area, and down my nose. The classic T Zone section. Additionally, you may want to add a small helping of the highlight to the tip of your nose.

For the brows, my stylist used 'Legendary Brow Gel' in the shade Cara. My eye brows are quite full and pigmented in colour, so if you're looking for a product that will keep the eyebrow hair in place whilst adding a slight colouring to sparser areas, this is your product.

I personally loved the lustre lip that was added over the lip pencil and lipstick shade. The eye makeup can equally be deepened with more of the darkest shade, perhaps for a going out occasion.

My stylist also interestingly applied my concealer as the last step. Any eye liner mishaps or eye shadow that you may take off before you finish will not take off the layer of concealer that you originally applied, minimising loss of product.

Charlotte Tilbury tutorials can be found on the website for more thorough guidance on each step. My makeup artist may have done some steps in a slightly different way to the online clips, however it achieves a great look nonetheless and proves how versatile Charlotte Tilbury products are in their application. Hopefully this may encourage you to try a beauty appointment to see how to use new beauty equipment, or simply to just pay a trip to visit the beautiful stores.

All My LittleMauve Love,

Hannah x

[All photos are taken by me in the London Westfield Store, or can be found on the Charlotte Tilbury Website]

Disclaimer: All makeup advice was given to me by my makeup artist, and in no way am I claiming these as my own.