Today, I’m sharing with you my experience of getting my makeup done by celebrity makeup artist, Monika Blunder, and I’m excited to show you the process and results. We got together at her home and the first thing Monika told me is that she likes women to look like themselves – just a better version! Monika, who does makeup for movie stars Jen Garner, and Jessica Alba, said she wanted to teach me not only what to do in terms of makeup for my everyday life, but also how to do it quickly and efficiently and using quality products.
I couldn’t wait to see what Monika would do. She started with skincare because she believes it is an element a lot of women forget about or don’t know the importance of. Particularly if you’re going to apply makeup over it. Some women just put their foundation on dry skin and that’s a mistake because the foundation won’t move as well.
Monika’s a great fan of serums and moisturizers because the combination gives you a beautiful glow and she started by putting one of her favorite serums on me, the firming serum from Clé De Peau. “Just like Spanx, that tucks everything in, the serum does the same for your face, giving it firmness,” she said. And I could tell. On my skin, the serum felt not only moisturizing but also tightening. I asked Monika if she uses this on her A-list star customers and the most she would say is that she uses it on many of her clients!
For moisturizer, Monika chose one from Clé De Peau, the Volumizing Cream Supreme which she said is nice and juicy so that when she applied the next item, her Blunder Cover Foundation, it would all melt together. The foundation is a hybrid foundation/concealer. She launched the item a year ago with one brush but now other brushes too, for buffing and contouring. She tapped her brush several times into the foundation and started applying it to my face starting in the center and working her way outward. Because she had prepped my face before adding makeup, the foundation/concealer just glided on.
Monika created this product because she is well-known in Hollywood for the way she “creates” a face, and while she loves the look of flawless skin, she doesn’t like looking at someone and seeing the foundation on her face. “It was really important to me to create a product that is very skin-like,” she said.
The buffing brush is for when you want to apply the product quickly and then go back in and buff it out. I asked Monika if the product covers melasma, which I have from having done Morpheus 8, a micro-needling device that uses radio-frequency energy to remodel the face. “Absolutely!” she said.
Her foundation/concealer can be used as concealer in a very thin layer, as a thicker base, or – with her fine tulip brush – for pinpoint concealing. This is for the little target areas like melasma or breakouts. You can go in with the finer brush and just cover those areas up. I asked Monika what she thinks about sponge versus brush for makeup application. She told me sponges work particularly well with liquid products and also are fast, allowing you to apply foundation quickly. But, she added, she’s a brush girl!
Monika then put her Blunder Cover Foundation on my upper eyelids to prime them for eye makeup. Then she moved on to my eyebrows. She thought I had done a little too much on my brows and wanted to teach me how to bring them down a notch and make them look a little softer. That’s because eyebrows can make you look older if you make them too harsh. She didn’t think I needed a lot at the large part of the brow but I did need a little filling in on the top for shape and the brow needed to be dragged out and up a bit at the tip. Monika said a lot of women go downwards when shaping their eyebrows and that that is the wrong thing to do. Eyebrows should go up and then outward. Then she applied a brow gel to hold everything in place. The upshot was brows that look groomed and put together.
For eye makeup, she started with a chubby pencil from Sisley which she likes to use because it’s easy to hold and allows her to work fast and effectively. And you don’t have to be a pro to use these fat brushes! The pencil was a crème one and she applied it on my lid in the crease for shadow.
Monika likes to use varying textures for the face. “You don’t want to have everything looking matte,” she said.
That’s why she took a Dior shadow and used a fluffier brush to apply it over the cream shadow just for a hint of shimmer. She then used a matte bronzer in the socket of my eye to add definition and make my eyes look larger.
Monika then traced a line along my lower lash line with the Sisley pencil she used on my lids. And as she’s a great fan of putting brown or black along the upper waterline, she ran the pencil through my lashes and made me look like I had fuller, thicker lashes. She then used a liner on top of the upper lash line and instead of using a black liner like I always do, she used a bronze one to very pretty effect.
Then she put fake half eyelashes on my upper lashes which she recommends not for the day but for going out somewhere special in the evening. They’re not full strips and a lot of women are afraid of those because they look very heavy, but the half lashes are just enough to make a difference. Monika then applied NARS mascara on my upper lashes as close to the root of the lash she could get and then to finish, she dabbed on some NARS concealer with a brush under my eyes, over my face, and down to my neck for a smooth, even look. She said a lot of women forget about their necks because they’re in a hurry but that it’s all these little details that make the makeup look good and stand out.
Monika then applied contour with a darker shade of her Blunder Cover Foundation. She picked up the color on the angled edge of the brush and drew it gently just underneath my cheekbones for more definition. She also lightly brushed the cover foundation on my forehead and along the chin below the mouth.
Then she turned the brush to its flat side and buffed everything. She’s not a big powder person and doesn’t like thick powder, especially on an older woman, so with her fluffy brush she dabs it very gently on top of the concealer under my eyes and over the hotspots of the face like the T-zone, chin and around the lip, leaving the rest of my face luminescent. After applying mascara on my lower lashes, she brushed bronzer over the face and then used one of her own products, a liquid crème blush that brightens up my face. She used a highlighter from Tom Ford and then used lip pencil on my lips which she says every woman should do to add definition. Monika then applied a Bobbie Brown lipstick on me, suggesting that in choosing lipstick you should go for a color that is in your lip color family. I have peachy undertones so she used a peach/coral color. Last of all, she smeared Tom Ford’s Sunrise Pink lip gloss which gave my lips a wonderful shimmer.
I looked the best I’d looked in a very long time!
