Backstage Beauty at London Fashion Week

You have probably noticed that although I love clothes, I am not very well versed in the ways of make-up and beauty. I have so much admiration for people who are able to transform their faces with a lick of eyeliner, or add a dewey glow to their cheekbones to bring together a look, but unfortunately I’m still learning how to limit my bronzer application so I don’t look orange when I leave the house!

One of my favourite makeup and hair stylists is Alexis Day, who I recently met at my behind the scenes shoot with TUSTING, and then by pure coincidence was doing my hair and make-up for my Company Magazine edit last month. Imagine my surprise when I bumped into her again at the Kilian Kerner presentation at London Fashion Week where she and her team were working. Knowing that I have much to learn in the ways of beauty, she invited me backstage at HarleySmith to witness how the hair and make-up magic happens in the hours preceding a fashion show.

The brief was “Luxe Warrior” and Alexis and her team were tasked with creating a strong and fierce look akin to tribal warriors, whilst still ensuring that the models looked beautiful and luxurious in keeping with HarleySmith’s collection. Using make-up by Make-Up Store, the colour palette centred around a rich blue pigment to flatter the varying skin tones of the models. Inspired by the sky at dusk, a horizontal strip of varying shades of blue created an eye mask across the models faces, blending with greens and metallic tones to create a striking look. For the nails, the models wore a darker blue tone on their fingers and a turquoise shade on their toes, by O.P.I – I tell you what, make-up teams can multi-task, every limb of the young, bubbly models were being tugged and preened at all times to ensure that they were ready on time and looking uniform.

To complete the tribal look, the hair consisted of three french plaits pulled close to the scalp and falling into long poker straight hair, all done by using L’Oreal products.