Glow your own way this season with a combo of smoky eyes and luminous, sexy skin. Here’s a quick tutorial with international make-up artist Paul Williams

``When you do your make-up, your age, lifestyle and personality should form the palette on which you mix or try out colours and textures. This way you know which colour matches these elements and which doesn’t,” says Paul Williams, make-up artist and consultant to Clarins.

Paul, also a jazz dancer, likes to talk about make-up in conjunction with fashion trends. His beauty forecast for the summer is: Dramatic and Natural.

“You’ll be seeing a lot of women doing up their eyes smoky and seductive; heavy mascara and flashy lipsticks will be the highlights of this look,” explains Paul, adding that the right fashion accessories will be a must to complete the dramatic image. So help yourself to loads of zips, feathers and rhinestones.

The natural look this time gets a post-modern, hippie-meets-spa-trekker take. Think neo-romantic flower power, but in pastels instead of psychedelia. The idea is based on wellbeing — radiant and healthy skin and hair that reflects light. And to do this fashionably so, match the look with soft and light fabrics that are cut to enhance breasts and hips.

For our model Tej Walvekar, Paul decided on the neo-romantic day look. He began by preparing her face with the Clarins cleanser, toner and moisturiser trio. To try it at home, gently massage the skin in an upward circular motion. Next, with a sponge or your fingertips, dab concealer in downward strokes from around the mouth. Keep blending the concealer into the skin tone. Seal with a powder blush in Rose (30).

“Think of the blush as a shadow that falls across from your temple to the apples of your cheeks. If you have high cheekbones, only highlight till where your cheekbone begins to rise,” he explains.

Next, move to the eyebrows. Define them with a dark brown pencil or light strokes of brown eye shadow. “Your inner personality sits on your eyebrows,” believes Paul. Defining them well also helps you frame your face right.

For Tej’s eyes, Paul decided to use a light green eyeliner. He brushed the eyelids with Bronze Green (18) from Clarins’ new range of eye shadows. It is transparent and reflects light. And helps enhance the next layer of colour, making it last longer. Cover the entire lid with the Bronze Green eye shadow till the point where the lid folds back. Take this line under the lower lash line to create a smoky effect.

“Wearing browns to look natural doesn’t work. They make you look tired; it’s better to try terracotta and earthy colours,” says Paul. On Tej, Paul used the Soleil Trio with earthy tones. The Bronze Green on the eyelids boosts the Soleil shades of orange over the eyeball. “If you choose to apply these colours at night, do so using the same technique, but just intensify the shade,” suggests Paul.

To soften the eyes, use inward strokes to pack in an intense shade like indigo close to the upper lash line. Follow the same, albeit a bit finer stroke for under the lower lash line. Dust a gold pigment over the eyelids to rev up the sparkle quotient.

Clarins’ three new formats in make-up give you a variety of options: The Auto Focus range allows light to reflect in a way that all imperfections go unnoticed. The Soft Focus line fills in wrinkles and makes light bounce off your skin. And Concilift is an all-weather make-up line that works, irrespective of heat or humidity levels.

If you want to wear Tej’s look for the evening, Paul also suggests violet and blue for the eyes. “They are less dark than black and brown, and more luminous. A violet line on the top and bottom lids, thicker on the outer corner of the eyes, works very well,” adds Paul.

For a final touch, dab a bit of a light eye shadow just where the inner corners of the eyes meet the nose bridge and sweep some green mascara over the lashes.

Coordinated by Ruchira Bose