SWEETIESAL

Before I went on Holiday, I was invited to attend a 'Screen Sirens' Makeup Lesson by Illamasqua, hosted at the Selfridges Store in Manchester Exchange Square.

I love learning about makeup and how to achieve certain looks, so when that invite popped into my inbox I jumped at the chance to attend!

We were greeted by 2 fabulous makeup artists from Illamasqua, sat down with a glass of fizz and Grace set to work on the gorgeous model to create a 20s screen siren look.

Due to the very low definition quality of the video cameras back in the day, the makeup had to be strong and convey the emotions of the character. Features were transformed to become much more dramatic so that they would stand out on camera.

Grace first of all concentrated on the eyes and smudged a mixture of blacks, browns and nudes to create a wide eyed look, using white eye pencil on the rims to make the eyes pop.

One of the main characteristics of makeup from this era is the eyebrow as they help to convey emotions by a simple movement. Actresses would frequently shave off their brows and have them applied to help them achieve the look of different emotions on camera. They were often delicate but almost always achieved by applying dark pencil or liquid liners.

Contouring and highlighting is the next trick to achieve the perfectly chiseled facial structure to fake high cheekbones and a sharp profile. Grace gave us tips of how to achieve this and that whilst it looks difficult it is so easily done, using a dark concealer worked into the natural hollow below your cheek bones. The plumper cheek is then made more pronounced by using a shimmer from your temples along the highest part of your cheek. Grace suggested if you apply as though writing a Nike 'tick' then you can't go far wrong!

Some other tips were; apply a pale shimmer in the inner corner of your eye to widen your eyes and look wide, to achieve the perfect rosebud lip - blank out your natural lip colour using concealer and then apply the colour you want in a heart shape on top, ignoring your natural lip line.

Black lipstick was used to achieve the look above and we were all treated to one to experiment with ourselves! I've not given it a whirl yet but I am excited to try!

I have to say that I think this event was one of the friendliest group makeup lessons I have attended and the staff at Illamasqua were so welcoming and knowledgeable. I have used Illamasqua previously so knew full well the high quality of their products but having them demonstrated to me in this way, for free(!) is one of the reasons that I think Illamasqua stands out in terms of excellent customer service and being completely unique. I would definitely urge you to head down to the Selfridges Exchange Store to say hi to the gang and try out a new look!