Make-up

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How best to highlight ethnic skin? Should you be using copper, orange, dark or spicy shades? Luke Lesage from Giorgio Armani Cosmetics answers your questions.

What's the golden rule for ethnic make-up?
A tone-on-tone, illuminating base, even if you're going for a matt effect - never confuse matt with dull! Use structured colour for a voluminous look. The perfect base should cover up imperfections and highlight your best features in harmony. 

What's best: foundation, powder or both? Should you apply them with a brush or with your fingers?
Foundation should even out your skin and highlight its natural radiance: black skin has a tendency to become dull and grey-ish with the wrong foundation. It's also very rare for black or half-caste skin to be uniform all over - darker foreheads, lighter cheekbones etc. It's extremely important to apply powder over your foundation to set it and stop shine.
Apply with a brush for better control (it's more precise, so you use less) and to cover up enlarged pores more easily. 

What foundation should you choose for your complexion - the same shade, a darker shade or a lighter one?
I'd recommend going for tone-on-tone and then a bronzing powder, radiance booster or blusher to add a bit more warmth to your colour. To start with, your foundation should be somewhere between your natural skin colour and half a shade above or below (taking care to avoid anything that could show up grey).

What's your favourite product from the new Armani range - the radiance booster or the moisturising hydra glow radiance boosting SPF15 foundation?
My personal favourite is the radiance booster, especially in No.8 (bronze) and No.4 (raspberry red) for black skin, because you can give your face lovely curves and create oval cheeks by playing with light and shadow.

What are the main pitfalls and colours to avoid?
-Don't use foundation that's too far off your natural colour.
-Make sure you smoothen out lines and wrinkles before you powder - powder sets.
-Go for shimmer on under-eye circles and wrinkles.
-Don't use an under-eye cover that's too light - beware the ski goggle effect! 
-Match your blusher with your lipstick.

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