This is hair & makeup artist Esther van Maanen (48). She started her career in 1999 and since then she has worked for many national and international magazines like L’Officiel, Vogue, and Elle. She travels up and down between New York, Milan, and Paris to assist, among others, top hairstylist Luigi Murenu during the international fashion Weeks. She recently participated in the famous Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.
I’ve known Esther for many years and worked with her on many photoshoots. A while ago I asked her if she could give me some makeup tips for different occasions. After giving birth to my son at age 40 and my, due to aging, changing skin, I’ve been having some trouble with my old makeup ways. My skin is different from when I was 35, and for instance, my eyelids are starting to lose firmness and cute eyeliners seem to belong to the past, or maybe not?
The 5 “easy to apply yourself” looks Esther gave me, helped me a lot to make slight changes to my own routines. I thought it would be a great idea to show you how Esther applies her own looks on her beautiful self. On the left picture, she is wearing no makeup at all, on the right picture you see the result of the look.
Look 1:
Natural makeup for women over 40 and up.
Esther:
“Personally, I think that the perfect and most beautiful natural makeup is one where you can see the effect, but where the products are applied almost invisibly. When I apply natural makeup on myself, I almost always choose the accent on my eyes and keep my lips calm.
Of course it all starts with beautiful skin, so the base of the makeup is very important. Never skip the base because it will bring peace to your face! Unfortunately, many women are afraid that it will look like they wear too much makeup (the famous pancake effect … ), but that is usually due to the wrong foundation and over-applying. When getting older it is often necessary to use a good base makeup to cover up certain spots of even fine lines, but it is important not to over do it. So choose your face primer, foundation, concealer and powder well, or get some personal advice.
From this quiet, almost invisible base makeup, you will apply your accents using a blush, eyeshadows, some natural lip colors, etc. You will see that you might even work lighter and softer because you need less to top your troubled skin complexion than if you don’t use a base. For the more mature skin, it’s important to really keep it transparent. Be careful with powder, too heavy and too dull base makeup makes you unnecessarily older!
To apply natural-looking makeup you don’t have to spend much time in front of the mirror, so no excuses not to fit it into your busy daily schedule! 🙂 All the products I used in this natural makeup are mentioned below. Keep an eye out for my tutorial video about this natural makeup, soon out on the &Bloom YouTube channel.”
For this look Esther used the following products:
- foundation primer radiance by Laura Mercier
- skin veil by Ellis Faas
- concealer by Ellis Faas
- secret blurring powder for under eyes by Laura Mercier
- airbrush flawless finish by Charlotte Tilbury
- brow lift pencil by Charlotte Tilbury
- exaggereyes by Charlotte Tilbury
- contour palette by MAC
- glowing pretty skin pallette by Charlotte Tilbury
- classic pencil by Charlotte Tilbury
- modern twist kajal liner by MAC
- hot gossip lip pencil by Charlotte Tilbury
- milky lips 207 by Ellis Faas
- black mascara by Ellis Faas
Hair created by Mark van Westerop
Kimono by Blandat Studio for Brooklyn Gallery
