GUERLAIN LIVE IN IVORY COAST

Hey loves,

How have you been? I am doing good, thanks for asking. So, as you might have guessed, yours truly has been busy(as usual), super busy, so busy, that this ‘busyness’ took me to Ivory Coast, where I went to facilitate a makeup training.  I was away for about a week and I was in the company of Charlotte; a beautiful strong oyinbo geh. 

Getting to Abidjan though, the language barrier was apparent, Abidjan, next door, made me feel like an expatriate...lol. The money was another thing, let's just say I was a millionaire for a few days...lol, but it shall be permanent in Jesus' name!!!

Our mission was to train some ladies of Zino company on the Guerlain brand. Zino is a store for luxury beauty items; ranging from skin care and perfumes, to makeup. They are located at the Cap Sud Mall in Abidjan (just in case you find yourself in that part of town).

So, while Charlotte handled the skin care and fragrance aspect of the brand, I handled makeup. Skin care went well and I wish I could report more on it but I can’t, simply because everything was done in French, comprendre?  My makeup session was also interpreted by Charlotte. And I must say, irrespective of the language barrier, the girls were very enthusiastic and it made everything a lot easier.

Fatou, Sahly, Melissa were all handson

Some of the girls had never applied makeup on anyone else before and it was so thrilling to see their eagerness and wonderment at the power of makeup. They simply soaked up everything I had to impart like brand new sponges unlike lagos gehs, y'all know too much for your own good! *snorts*.....LOL

Here I was doing a simple day look. From skin care to makeup.

 The last part of the trip required Charlotte and I to go observe the girls in the store. It was so much fun for me to see them practice all they had learnt during the course of the lectures, the previous days. 

For me it was also very enlightening. I must say, Guerlain is a brand that has a lot of goodness to offer and I cannot tell you how excited I am for the new offerings that are expected to come in 2016! New Foundation Shades anyone? You heard it here first!

The girls had even started practicing on each other before we arrived. Allow me toot my own horn a bit, I am a good teacher and this just served to remove any doubts I might have had about myself. The girls' uniform though, very african and vibrant! Charlotte really loved it.

After allowing few minutes of practice time and corrections, I took over and  did makeup on a few girls and some walk-in clients. See the pictures below

Makeup by me on cynthia. Guerlain really nailed the undertone for the foundations. If you're lucky to find your shade, you cannot go wrong. Hopefully, 2016 will usher in new shades for the rest of us.

The dark woman has only powder on by the way. And those brows were tattooed, I was impressed by how much coverage I was able to get with just powder. The Terracotta Bronzing Powder is lovely.

What I love most about these makeovers here......just powder!!!!

And of course I made friends. Will definitely be visiting soon.

Now, back to my oyinbo sisi; Charlotte….I had been itching to do her makeup and apparently she was also hoping to get some of Guerlain’s magic but our schedule was so tight that it almost looked impossible. Thank God for a small break, just after rush hour, we were able to play around a little.

I will dwell more on Charlotte’s makeover and leave some tips for working with Fair Skin; European and Caucasian skin alike. This may also apply to Mediterranean and Oriental skin as well. These tips are a mix of basic general knowledge regarding Caucasian skin, and some personal observations of mine. 

You never can tell when you might suddenly be presented with a Fair skinned sister, and God forbid that you do not know what to do! I've got you!!!

For starters, Charlotte has beautiful clear skin, and in her case, I did not need concealer at all. All I used was a dollop, the tiniest dollop of foundation. Fair skin, as I have come to notice(I have worked on quite a number, so I believe I can safely say this) doesn't need as much foundation as dark skin sometimes require. Trust me, a little goes a long way.

Before her foundation routine, I prepped her skin and did her brows.

PRODUCTS USED:

Guerlain Cleansing milk.

Guerlain Meteorite Perles.

Guerlain Eyebrow kit in 00 Universel.

Guerlain 4 Seasons Terracotta Powder.

For the brows, I simply filled them with the brow kit and highlighted them a little with Guerlain's Precious Light Rejuvenating Illuminator. 

I have come to notice that most western ladies tend to favour the full brow look, while we, Nigerian MUAs especially, tend to see it as 'bushy', but then, it is not about your preference. Remember, it is always about what the client wants, and what will look good on them. 

Personally, I believe, fuller brows look better on fair skin and I will limit the concealer and fleeky brows to my African sisters. 

That is not to say you cannot go all out on fair skin. 

This is just my observation and preference for this situation. 

PRODUCTS USED:

Guerlain Eyebrow kit in 00 Universel.

                                                                            Guerlain's Precious Light Rejuvenating Illuminator.

For Charlotte's eyes, I decided to define and open them up with a dark eyeliner. I used a brown eyeliner for the lash line and a black eyeliner, softened with a blending brush, for the waterline.

When working on fair skin, you want to be careful with using dark eyeliner, depending on the look your client wants. If they wanted a simple everyday look, a dark liner might prove to be too much. You could just use a peach toned liner or a light brown to line the eyes instead.

Dark eyeliner on fair skin, depending on how applied could easily give an oriental look(think Egyptian eyes), and that might not be what you are going for.

For the eyeshadow, I started by using the darkest shade in the 4 seasons powder for her crease, and kept the lid simple with a wash of eyeshadow.  

I have noticed that for our oyinbo sisters, flesh-toned pigments, also peaches, ivory, mauve, browns and golds, tend to work better; they are cleaner and easier, if you get my drift. You will need a good understanding of colour theory to play with colours like yellow, green, blue, red and the like. There is a lot to consider before playing with such colours; skin tone, skin undertone, eye colour, hair colour etc.

I finished off the eyes with a black mascara.

PRODUCTS USED

Guerlain water resistant eye pencil in Black Jack.

Guerlain Liquid Eyeliner.

Guerlain Ecrin 4 Couleurs in 14 Les Fauves.

Guerlain Maxi Lash Mascara.

For Charlotte's complexion, we used the Lingerie de Peau with a tiny bit of Tenue de Perfection. Remember, a little goes a long way.

I set everything with powder, then I proceeded to highlight a little with the Precious Light Rejuvenating Illumintator and the Terracotta Light Powder. I contoured with the Terracotta 4 seasons Powder. For the benefits of this powder, click here.

Remember, a person's highlight shade might be the next person's contour shade....as a rule of thumb. So just follow the rules of highlighting and contour, and you will not go wrong. Just pay attention. Next came blush and we were done

PRODUCTS USED:

Guerlain Lingerie du Peau Foundation.

Guerlain Tenue de Perfection Foundation.

Guerlain Precious Light Rejuvenating Illumintator.

Guerlain Rose Aux Joues(blush) in 06 Red Hot.

For Charlotte's lips, we decided to go with this vibrant red colour and I must say, it does suit her well and complemented her blue eyes so well.

So, more often than not, fair people tend to have thinner lips, and with little or no definition as compared to women of colour. Therefore, a lip pencil is non-negotiable.

That is not to say women of colour should skip the lip pencil altogether! we definitely benefit from lip liner but I see it more as setting boundaries for lipstick in many cases, (apart from the other benefits of keeping your lipstick in place and stopping the lippie from bleeding), while I see more of the definition come to play when I work on fair skin.

PRODUCTS USED

Guerlain Lip Pencil in 24 Rouge Dahlia

Guerlain Lip gloss in 420

For those of you who will prefer your foundation looking like you'te not wearing makeup, you would love to look natural yet flawless, Guerlain has got you!

It was a pleasure working with this strong-willed  and intelligent woman! I could almost swear she has African blood!

I hope you found this tutorial informative. Please leave your comments below, it will make me very happy to read your thoughts. I wish you a wonderful week ahead. 

Till next post hunnies....

“The diligence of a man leadeth to plenty”