Expert Beauty Tips

Autumn 2016 Makeup Trends Translated into Real Life Tips

Looking at the runways each season is always an inspiration as the makeup looks are often as beautiful as the clothes. We've rounded up our five favourite Autumn 2016 makeup trends in this blog, and translated the trends into tips we can all use in real life….

Autumn 2016 Beauty Trend 1: Blackcurrant lips

Super dark, almost black lips were seen at the Dior and Marc Jacobs shows. In real life this is a tricky look to pull off, but can look fantastic with a little prep. If you want to go for this type of dark berry stain then choose your lipstick wisely, as a high quality formulation will stay put for longer. Our pick would be Tom Ford Black Dahlia Matte applied carefully with a fine lipstick brush. If you find a brush tricky, try Surratt Automatique Lip Crayon in Deep in Vogue as the twist up applicator allows for precise work. For a more velvety finish try Charlotte Tilbury in Night Crimson.

Autumn 2016 Beauty Trend 2: Hyper fresh skin

At Valentino, Pat McGrath used iridescent powder on the cheekbones, eyelids and cupid's bow. This trend starts with perfectly even-toned skin, and us mere mortals can achieve this with some clever colour correction. Watch my video on colour correction on our Expert Advice page for more info on this. Once you have corrected and concealed with ReCover, a subtle highlight using  Hourglass Ambient Lighting powder in Ethereal Light with a precise brush can work really well on the top of cheek bones. A word of caution though, be very careful if you have any blemishes in the area, as using an iridescent product will highlight them and make them more obvious.

Autumn 2016 Beauty Trend 3: Eyeliner in unexpected ways

The look at Altuzarra was so cool, using graphic shapes of black liner around the eyes, and coloured liner was also seen elsewhere on the catwalks. The most wearable of these eyeliner looks in real life is the edgy sixties-inspired flicks at Oscar de la Renta, with a swatch of black along the eye crease. When applying eyeliner, start with the more difficult eye rather than the easiest, as this will give a balanced final look. Our pick of the eyeliners is Surratt Automatique in Chat Noir, as it doesn’t become disjointed when applied over eye shadow and has an excellent needle thin brush.

Autumn 2016 Beauty Trend 4: Lifted eyes

Artist Pat McGrath has a great tip which she did at the Stella McCartney show in Paris: draw a small v on the inside corner of the eye with a white or nude eye pencil to lift the look and highlight.

Autumn 2016 Beauty Trend 5: Well shaped brows with definition

At the Giambattista Valli show, Val Garland created a natural fresh faced look with the unexpected twist of a silver glitter stripe under each brow. While this might not be suitable for a day in the office, we can learn from the brow treatment here. Try having your brows professionally shaped, then softly filling in with gentle upward strokes of an eyebrow pencil, following your hair growth direction. If you are brave enough to go for a flash of silver, try Urban Decay Heavy Metal In Glam Rock.