If you’ve spent the winter on the slopes or even just shoveling snow, you can’t help but love that rosy, healthy glow when you enter your home. With the right moisturizer and makeup, you can maintain that snow bunny glow all winter long. Alexis Orlando is a global makeup artist and training executive for Laura Mercier. She gives us the details.
Begin with skin care. In the winter, our skin tends to dry out and accumulate dead skin. Orlando says that more dead skin means less light can reflect from the surface. The first step is finding a gentle but effective exfoliator. Use it as necessary–at least two times a week or even every day, if needed. Finish off with a moisturizing moisturizer. Don’t be tempted by creams that claim to repair, but rather find a product that can hydrate, balance, and protect. Orlando suggests that you should also make sure the product has SPF. This is essential for winter. Here are some of our favorite exfoliators, hydrators, and moisturizers.
Primer + tinted moisturizer. Orlando recommends investing in a hydrating prime, especially during the winter. Primer will also help to calm any flakiness that may be present on the skin’s surface. It won’t look cakey because it is sheer and glides well over the skin. Follow it with another must-do, tinted moisturizer–especially an illuminating formula, since skin loses so much color this time of year. Orlando says that tinted moisturizers are not as effective and can’t be used in place of your moisture cream. However, they work well together to give you a glow.
Try cream-based products. You can try a cream bronzer, blush, and highlighter, or opt for a product that has all three in one, such as the Laura Mercier Bonne Mine Palette (bonne mine translates into “healthy glow”). This palette is great because it includes two cheek shades, two highlight colors, and a brown shade. It’s also cream-based, which is best for winter. The products are very sheer and forgiving. You can use a variety of shades, even if your application is heavy-handed.
Start with bronzer. Concentrate on areas that would be hit by the sun, like the cheeks and bridge of your nose. Work outwards from there. We’re currently loving Buriti Bronzer by RMS Beauty.
Next, blush. Smiling in the mirror, dab the blush on your apples of cheeks and work the product toward your ears. Try a lighter, brighter cheek color to get the rosy, flirty, fresh-from-the-ice-rink hue. Inglot Cosmetics AMC cream blush comes in 12 different shades.
Then highlighter. You can use it anywhere you want on your face to draw attention, like the cheekbones and bridge of the nose. Also, the brow bone, the cupid’s arrow, or the brow bone. Read more about highlighting this.
Blend, then set. Next, blend the bronzer, blush, and highlighter, and put everything with a sheer powder. Orlando recommends this final step if you want your look to last throughout the day. Remember, less is more. If you have dry skin, try Inglot Cosmetics Loose Powder.