Debs Focus: Avoiding the Casper the Friendly Ghost Effect
It's Debs season and if I can save just one of you school-leavers from the terrible cosmetic fate that befell me on the night of my own Debutante ball, then this post will have been worth it.
At 17, I had phased out of my curehead stage and was transitioning nicely into grunge, a look I'd pretty much work, with a dash of skate wear, until the end of college. But my makeup had yet to catch on and so the night of my Debs, I applied, as per usual, a trowel-load of green cream (I was convinced I had high colour - I don't), over which I applied my usual mask of stark matte foundation (Max Factor Lasting Finish being a firm fave at the time) and a very liberal application of matte white powder, just to seal the deal. I thought I looked a-bleedin'-mazin.
I didn't.
When the photos came back, oh deary me, that was brought firmly home. There I was, in my black velvet dress (oh come on, I was only a young'wan), with a stark and spectral visage dominating every picture. My supernatural Casper-the-friendly-ghost face glowed out from every shot and I looked absolutely godawful.
The kick-back from the camera flash off my layers of green cream, pale base and inches of powder caused a complete void, so I looked like some sort of faceless creature from the deep, long starved of the sun. A slug-like being with absolutely no facial features, to boot. Thankfully this horrific incident predated digital cameras so I could easily destroy the evidence (it's burned into my brain though), but today's debutantes are not so lucky.
Keeping that in mind, I'd definitely say, for the sake of the resultant Facebook shame, when you're doing your makeup on the night of your Debs, do try to match your base to your actual skintone, and do make friends with some blusher - it's amazing the difference it can make.
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Apart from that, I know lots of you prepping and planning your outfits for your forthcoming balls won't necessarily have a lot of cash to splash on beauty buys, so here are our recommendations for impactful makeup on a shoe-string budget.
BUDGET TANNING
- Rimmel always come up trumps for affordable tan options. Check out this year's SunShimmer options
- Looking for a body tan? Tan Trials '10 ought to help
BUDGET MAKEUP
- A smokey eye's always a good bet for a big event and these all come up trumps
- Cheaper base options from L'Oreal Paris and NYC got the Lynnie seal of approval
- I'm liking Rimmel's Colour Show off Lipsticks and Vinyl Gloss a lot
BUDGET NAILS
- Catrice and Rimmel polishes got the thumbs-up from Orlando recently
- We love Bourjois' amazing So Laque polishes
More bargain beauty can be perused in our Beaut.ienomics section and that just leaves one thing to discuss: what should you bring on the night?
Unless you do full makeup top-ups on a night out as the norm, and because evening bags tend to be unforgiving in kitchen sink terms, I'd say just bring along your lipstick/lipgloss, some blotting sheets if you're prone to shine and maybe a tissue or two. If you're rocking an updo, perhaps pack a small tailcomb and a couple of hair grips just in case. As mentioned in the Blather today, deodorant will never go amiss, and if you have a handbag sized perfume atomiser of your favourite scent, then pop that in as well.
Ladies - to the comments, tell us your debs disasters and what you absolutely couldn't live without beauty-wise on the night.