Makeup Guru

Effusive, warm and enthusiastic, Daniel Chavez is passionate about make-up and making women look at feel beautiful.

As the Director of International Artistry and Education for Smashbox, he travels the world training make-up artists and spreading his exhaustible knowledge about all things make-up.

I met him to discuss the top trends for summer make-up, how to bronze for pale Irish skins, and the quickest way to update your look for the evening.

Hi Daniel. What's the hottest make-up trend for summer?

Well as you know make up and colour is in. So what I'm asking women to do is to experiment with colour. To go from the natural look, or smokey eyes to bright colours can be a bit daunting for some women - so at Smashbox we created the Muse Collection. We want you to be your own muse! We want you to look at your skin and think "Today I'm going to be different!" The Muse Collection is an artistry inspired collection that has a palette of ten beautiful eye shadows - from your soft and your naturals to greens, blues purples and bronzes. The trick is that these colours are to be worn together - meaning you could take a green onto the eyelid then do purple under the lashes. Or if you want to stay a bit more natural, you take the bronze on the lid and take the blue as the eyeliner. It's all about being creative and being your own muse. You use a really soft blush to go with all the colours you have here.

There is a big difference in blush right now. There's a big difference between a blushed look and a flushed look. A blushed look is precision application - putting it on a specific area of your face. A flushed look is diffused over the cheeks so it looks more soft and more subtle. You take your brush and blend it right over the cheekbones and a little into the hairline and closer to the nose than you would normally go.

Then of course my favourite part - the eye liner pencils. We're doing four colour eye liner pencils, a blue, grey, green and purple. The green looks really pretty against bronze eyeshadows, and really gold/green eyeliner so sexy! The most beautiful look I've ever seen is doing a soft green or a soft purple shadow and then a grey liner top and bottom, it's so pretty!

Colours in, colour's hot so don't be afraid to experiment. And the traditional colour rules are not in. It's almost a sophisticated 80's retro trend. When's the last time a make-up artist told you to put purple on top and green on bottom! It's so beautiful, so stunning and I recommend to all your readers to at least try it.

What are the biggest make up mistakes you see people do?

Well I think one of the biggest makeup mistakes that I've seen, especially when it comes to young girls, is too much black. Lighter colours will make your eyes look bigger, brighter and more bold where darker colours make your eyes look more puny. So for a girl who's young and pretty she doesn't wear a lot of makeup and all she has on is black eyeliner on the top, on the bottom on the inside of her eye and then black lashes which all makes your eyes look smaller.

My biggest trick though for most women is ladies, oh ladies I love you so much but the windshield wiper is out! The windshield wiper is when you take the dark shadow in the middle of your eye and put the colour right in the middle. When you put the darker colour inside the crease you actually make your eyes look smaller. If you want your eyes to pop, put your darker colour onto the eyelid.

And of course number three is the bronzing. When you bronze you have to continue the bronzing onto the body. I've seen a lot of women who wear face bronzers and then you can still see the white neck. So please remember if you're bronzing your face please remember to continue onto the body!

What's your advice for paler Irish skins, would you just avoid bronzing completely?

I would avoid bronzing completely, embrace the paleness of the skin and use luminising lotions and creams. It's going to make your skin look glowing and make the porcelain look more beautiful than just pasty white. I think that's what happens a lot of times, people who have porcelain skin will use a matt powder on the face and you just look flat and white. So by adding a little luminosity in your powder, your skin looks radiant, glowing and porcelain not flat! So embrace your porcelain skin!

But if you wanted to look bronze, I could make you bronze but not in your face, I would do champagne and bronze on your eyelids and I would change your lip and do a nude, gold gloss and I'd put a pink cheek on you and then a little gold shimmer right on the cheekbone. I could make you look golden!

For a night out what's a really quick and easy thing to do to make yourself look good?

I call it "Never leave home without your three L's - Liner, Lashes and Lips". If you could put on a great liner, fabulous lash and beautiful gloss or beautiful lip you are ready to go! Flawless skin, a good powder or a good foundation and then your three L's you will look gorgeous when you go out. But just avoid the black liner, I would prefer you to use a colour liner or even in a brown or bronze liner.

But also remember little tricks, for a woman who really wants to wear less makeup but she wants her eyes to pop, it's very traditional but if you have hazel or green eyes lavenders or purples are going to being the green out. For somebody with blue eyes, bronze colours and silvers and greys bring out a blue eye. For brown eyes, you need to use a blue liner or even an indigo blue mascara are going to pop a brown eye out of your eyeballs!

Related Posts : Makeup Guru - Khush Singh