11.20.13 Beauty

The Skin You’re In

BY Kay Montano

This post is brought to you by Olay Total Effects CC Cream

Great skin is so underrated as ‘a feature’.  A feature? Sure we think of eyes, lips and noses as  ‘features’- but skin?

As a make-up artist I’ve spent my whole adult life touching skin.  Staring at skin. Perfecting skin. I’ve spent so many hours on skin that it surely must amount to months (years?) worth of non-stop complexion gazing.  Pale, skin, olive skin, red skin, brown skin, almost blue-black skin, young skin, old skin and even skin which has borne the scars of tumors removed from it.   There is almost no type of skin I haven’t spent time with.

Over the years I’ve worked with some of the most extraordinary looking women being photographed by some of the most extraordinary photographers- BPS (before Photoshop).  This has taught me that great skin is a feature. Why?  Well models are interesting in that photography is a one-dimensional translation of real, 360 degree, 4 dimensional life and usually, an exaggerated bone structure is what works best in this flat form.  Which brings me to skin again.

I can’t tell you how many times a model has walked in and just because she got the length, the metabolism, the stand-out facial feature or two plus the bone structure, didn’t mean she got the great skin gene. So when she walks in, her beauty is somewhat hidden.

Once her face has been given the optical illusion of make-up and great lighting, however, suddenly there she is, this officially otherworldly being.

On the other hand I have come across people without the pre-requisite, model ‘must-physically-haves’ who possess glowing skin that seduces the eye just as much as a pretty mouth/eyes/nose/leg/ad-perfect-infinitum.

Like all of it, it helps enormously to have the genes in the first place, but lifestyle and maintenance can make a huge difference I promise!

Very few people over 10 years old have truly glowing, fantastic skin when they don’t look after themselves.

Most of you already know that eating healthily; drinking lots of water and getting enough sleep will definitely improve the quality of your skin. Some of you may know that sugar is inflammatory and will speed up the ageing process or that stress causes break-outs because of the effects of the dreaded hormone cortisol-which also gives us more belly fat-thanks.

It’s hard with most lifestyles to rigidly stick to all of this, all of the time and this is where skincare comes in.

I’m a big believer in exfoliating, and it doesn’t have to be technical- it could be just a good face flannel or muslin cloth to use with your foaming or cream cleanser.

As for potions ‘n lotions, I’m given a lot of products and even I get confused by all of the options, so it’s great that Olay has put everything into one – including coverage – in their CC Cream.  It’s tinted and provides tone correction, UV protection to keep skin looking young and healthy, and leaves you glowing and fresh.

So play up that skin ladies, good skin signifies good health and that’s the most positively beautiful thing to have.

Kay Montano is an international make-up artist. She started her career at 16 years old and has worked with photographers such as Helmut Newton, Steven Meisel, Bruce Weber and Mario Testino. Having travelled extensively with her job (she lived between NY and London for 10 years) she is now based in  London where she is an ambassador for Chanel cosmetics. Kay divides her time between fashion and celebrity work, consultancy, freelance writing and her blog. You can follow her on Twitter @kaymontano.