Couture 2008 Make-up Trends: Manish Malhotra

Make-up artist Mehra Kolah powders the models' skin to a matte finish, with little or no sheen. Taking her cue from the sinuous lines of the collection, she paints on vines of liquid liner around the eyes. "The eyes are the story. They lend women strength," she explains. "When you do smoky eyes, put a powder guard under your eye so that if there is any black powder that drops from the brush while trying to achieve the look, it will be in control."

The cheeks are a play of colors of the skin – tone-on-tone – with a hint of shimmering pink on the apple of the cheek for a natural glow. "The idea is to work according to the shape of your face. Analyze the parts you want to downplay. Add shine to enhance the parts you want to focus on and add depth with a darker color to recede the part you want to downplay," instructs Mehra.

With innocence and youthful naiveté in mind, the hair is a loose play of texture... like curls that have opened out. "Keep the crown area neatly but loosely pinned and let the remaining hair fall loosely. I wanted the girls to appear as though they had fallen peacefully asleep, so we added a bit of disarray to one side." To get this soft-focus style, she teases the tiny hairs along the scalp line.