A Guide to Party Skin Prep

I can’t solve the awful lights, but I do have a good skincare tip. Before you go anywhere near your makeup bag, reach for a toning facial mist – it’s a great party skincare hack if you’re getting ready in the office and you can’t cleanse and start your makeup afresh. Throughout the day, our skin gets really dehydrated – whether you’ve got the heating or the air conditioning on, or you’re moving between indoors and out. This is where a mist can be super helpful. Spritzing your skin with a product like Superfood Multi Mist helps wake your skin up and rehydrate it. Then you can go ahead and put on your concealer and foundation – because you’ve rehydrated your skin, the makeup will melt back in.

You want to keep your skincare simple before party makeup – if you use too much, it can make your makeup feel oily, it can make it melt, it can make things separate. So it actually pays not to overdo your skincare steps directly before party makeup – do them the night before or early in the morning instead. When you're going out, your skin is going to get hot from being in a packed bar or on a dancefloor; it’s naturally going to perspire and you're going to get a bit of a glow from feeling warmer in that environment. My key products for simple but effective party skin prep are a gentle exfoliator, an under-eye mask and a moisturiser that locks in hydration.

To make sure a party lip lasts really well, hydration is key. So you want to prep with a really nice lip mask or lip balm, leave that on for 10 minutes and then blot that off with a tissue. The best way to really ensure a lip lasts the longest is applying a lip liner first, covering the whole lip to create a base your lip product can stick to. Now you can put your lipstick on. And then I like to use a product called Lipcote – you put it over the top, it doesn't move. But even if you don't use that, just having that really good prep beforehand is key, making sure you're hydrating your lips and then blotting off that extra hydration so it doesn't move and shift.

The key to really great blemish concealment is what I call pinpoint covering – literally just applying the concealer directly onto that blemish and essentially patting around it. So you're keeping your blemish concealer quite heavy and then just patting around; you're not blending it out into a large surface area. That way, you keep the overall base quite clean and lightweight, and then just target the blemishes specifically.

So this is where I use a targeted powder. It really does help makeup last, but this approach preserves that skincare glow where it’s needed most. For a party, I powder a bit between the brows, down the jawline, underneath the cheekbone, on the chin and around the nose – keeping the temples and the cheekbones completely free from powder to let the glow come through.

I am partial to using a face mask first thing in the morning – or, if it’s a client, the minute they arrive on set. We always think we need to use them at night – but actually, something like a really hydrating mask – why can't we use that in the morning? Wake up a little bit earlier, you know, have your morning coffee, have that mask on, take the time to really enjoy it – because then you’re really rejuvenating your skin for the day. I love a morning mask and a morning bath!

Of course. I’m Papaya Enzyme Peel all the way!

Want to know more about keeping skin feeling comfortable through party season? Check out our Winter Skin Survival Guide.