Back to beauty school

 Millions of women wear make-up, but how many really know how to apply it? Beauty Magazine’s LOUISE HORNE joined Premier Workshop for a day to find out

 I don’t have many idols. I’m not really into music (unless you count a minor teenage infatuation with Madonna) and I’ve never been one to marvel at heroics on the sports field. How could I, when I spent most of my informative years with my head buried inside the folds of every teen magazine going. My mission? Simple. To learn how to apply make-up.

Think about it. Your mum might show you the ropes in the kitchen while your dad teaches you how to drive, and your school masters spend hours showing you how to add up (or at least they tried), but who teaches you how to apply make-up? Answer: probably no one. Yet by the time most girls hit their teens they’re already experimenting with some form of cosmetics to enhance their God-given looks (which is more than can be said for teenage boys, who seem to think a spritz of deodorant is all it takes).

I like to think I did a good job of teaching myself (big thanks to Mizz magazine and Just Seventeen), but when I was offered the chance to attend a beauty masterclass with make-up maestro Mary Greenwell and skincare guru Nichola Joss I packed my make-up bag pronto!

Hands on

With combined experience of more than 40 years in the fashion and beauty industry, what these two don’t know about beauty just isn’t worth knowing. And now they’re spreading the gospel to us mere mortals in a series of workshops organised by the Premier Hair & Make Up Agency.

The workshops cover everything from the basics of skincare and make-up to the most tricky to master techniques – though such expertise doesn’t come cheap with prices ranging from £765 for the skincare workshop through to a whopping £5,500 for the 10 day make-up masterclass.

So if their expertise is so valuable, why spill the beans? “Good skincare techniques shouldn’t be a secret hidden behind the walls of the treatment room,” says Joss. “It’s amazing how much better you feel when you know how to do something properly. With so many products out there it is difficult to choose the right moisturiser for your skin and that’s where the courses help.”

But if anyone thought skincare was as simple as ‘cleanse, tone and moisturise’ then they can think again. “My specialist subject is lymphatic drainage skincare,” says Joss. “I spent 18 months in Singapore completing a one-on-one apprenticeship. Over there lymphatic massage is used therapeutically in hospitals but I’ve worked the technique into a beauty regime. It’s all about finding out what your skin type is and how to care for it at an early age. Skincare is becoming a huge industry because people want beautiful skin.”

Well, that’s certainly true, but who knew it was so hard to achieve? Sitting in front of a (magnifying) mirror so I can see what I’m doing, Joss takes me through the steps of her cleansing regime from working the cleanser into my hands before massaging it into my face, to the importance of eye balms. (While I’m doing this I can’t help but wonder if Joss’ celebrity clients like Scarlett Johansson and Cate Blanchett pull the same silly faces as me – somehow I think not).

Application, application, application!

While we pick a moisturiser for my oily/sensitive skin, the impossibly elegant form of Mary Greenwell breezes into the room. Great. My skin is blotchy thanks to the massage and I am woefully sans make-up at the point of meeting the woman who put the ‘art’ into make-up artist.

Unperturbed by my appearance she glances over the tables (yes tables) of make-up painstakingly laid out by her two assistants (a post once held by Jemma Kidd). Rows of lipsticks with their caps removed sit next to foundations in every format imaginable while a seemingly never-ending array of opened eyeshadow cases glimmer like oyster shells. If this is an Aladdin’s cave of cosmetics then Mary Greenwell is its resident genie.

So what are the three make-up wishes most women want granting? “The most common thing people don’t understand is how to do a ‘smoky’ eye,” she says. “They also don’t know how to put blusher on and they find it difficult to choose the right lipstick colour.”

Fair enough, but surely it’s just a case of teaching people which colours suit their skin tone? “Application is the most important thing, it’s not so much what you’re putting on but how you put it on,” says Greenwell (and she should know, with countless Vogue covers to her name and having helped transform Diana Spencer from shy Sloane into glamorous princess). “Make-up is less fashion driven now, it’s about what looks beautiful on you all the time,” she explains. “If you get your foundation and concealer right you’ve got your look right from the beginning, but if your skin’s not looking good then you’re not going to look good.”

So what type of woman (apart from grateful beauty journalists) attends the Premier Workshop? Anyone and everyone according to Premier Hair and Make Up owner Lindsay Cruickshank. “The courses on offer vary in suitability whether you’re a consumer looking to begin a career in skincare, hair and make-up or a professional wishing to hone your skills.”

So, what is the secret to flawless skin and perfect looking make-up? Well, read on to find out from the experts themselves