Hands up who loves watching the Victoria’s Secret Catwalk Show every year? Such a guilty pleasure! It personally heralds the beginning of the festive season for me as it airs the first week of December and usually sees me wrapped up in cosy PJs venting my frustration at those inhuman body goals with a large bar of chocolate and tea. But it isn’t all confidence knocking, for there is one aspect that really inspires me every year. The amazingly fresh, flirty and glowing makeup! For essentially, I am all about the glow. And luckily, this is one thing we can all appropriate easily, and without hours at the gym.. Although a better diet would probably help things along…but it’s Christmas, and all that. Keep reading to see my take on the VS makeup for this year.

Judging from these pictures, the focus of the Angel makeup seems to be pink, rosy lips and cheeks, minimalist eye makeup, fluttery lashes and incredibly glowing, radiant skin. This kind of look is relatively simple and would be gorgeous paired with bouncy, voluminous hair and a confident walk. It is definitely a flirty, girl-next-door vibe. The motive is to create a makeup look which is “your face but better” i.e. natural tones and portraying a lit from within glow. Therefore this is a lovely everyday look, as it won’t have you looking super made up!

Before I begin, I do want to state that; 1, I’m not a makeup artist so this is totally amateurish and 2, I am obviously not a VS model and this obviously won’t make me look remotely like I could be. It is just me taking inspiration, playing around and incorporating it into my own look! Enjoy!

Base

For the base I didn’t use any primer whatsoever after moisturising as I wanted all the luminosity I could get, and felt a matte balm would be detrimental, but this is totally optional! I’m fortunate to have skin that doesn’t always require a priming step, but my eyes are a different case. For any shadow to remotely stay in one place, it has to be Urban Decay Primer Potion in ‘Eden’. Then I used Charlotte Tilbury Magic Foundation and Mac Prep + Prime under my eyes to brighten this whole area up. Then I set the concealer (and my lovely shiny nose) with Rimmel Stay Matte Powder in ‘Transparent’. Please excuse my puffy sleepy eyes and wet, ratty hair but I was too lazy to style it first.

Eyes

This is actually not a very dramatic eye look, the idea is to focus more on creating a subtle contoured and wide-eye effect. My eyebrows were kept natural and defined, I brushed through them with a spooly and used Too Faced Bulletproof Brows in ‘Universal Taupe’ to darken them and keep them in shape (the only thing about me that is staying in shape this Christmas).

To do this I used some Mac Eyeshadow in ‘Charcoal Brown’ blended in a window-wiper motion through my crease, to create the illusion of natural shadow. Next I dabbed some The Balm Cosmetics Mary-Loumanizer Highlighter along the lid (under the crease shadow) in the inner corner, and under the arch of my eyebrows. This plays with light and shadows on your face to suggest bigger and more defined eyes. To further polish of this effect, add a white or nude eyeliner along the waterline and a black liner along the tightline.

Finally, bring your makeup firmly into the realm of glamorous with jet black winged eyeliner and perfectly fluttery eyelashes. I used the Soap & Glory Supercat liner which I definitely recommend for people not that well rehearsed with eyeliner – it is simply the easiest pen to use and mistakes are quickly amended using a cotton bud dipped in micellar water. .

Finishing Touches

Now for my favourite parts. To contour my cheekbones (because a VS model is all abs, hair and cheekbones so we have to try get at least one of these factors right!) I used the Kiko Bronzer Contour Pencil and Topshop Cream Highlight in ‘Polished.’ To make the glow even more extreme I set the cream with some more of The Balm Cosmetics Mary Lou-Manizer Highlighter. Next I took bareMinerals Blusher in ‘The Faux Pas’ which is basically Barbie in powder form! The perfect rose-pink shade.

Finally, I went for equally pink and girly lips – Mac Lipstick in ‘Please Me’, and some mascara (which I forgot to do earlier, oops) which was Maybelline The Falsies. I added some baby powder to them in between coats to cheat some length. Try this trick, it seriously works.

(L-R) Universal Taupe, Please Me, The Faux Pas, Polished, Mary Lou-Manizer, Kiko Contour

And here’s the finished look, complete with dry hair and a cringey-little pose…

Love love love,

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