The Trick To Perfecting Undone Skin, As Seen At Fashion Week

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If the idea of layering colour corrector, concealer, foundation, contour, cream blush and liquid illuminator to achieve a 'no-makeup makeup' look feels contrived (not to mention tedious) — we have great news.

While backstage at the Maggie Marilyn show during Afterpay Australian Fashion Week, it became apparent that the quintessential ‘just emerged from the ocean’ vibe is achievable with a focus on skincare and a bare minimum of makeup products. 

Picture an array of fresh-faced models, some with visible texture and acne, some without, and makeup stations stocked with piles of skincare products instead of high-coverage foundations.

“Skin is the focus,” head makeup artist Molly Warkentin tells Refinery29 Australia, who ensured that every model who went out on the runway looked hydrated and glowy. “The inspiration is a woman who’s just had an ocean swim. She’s just come out, and she’s fresh, and she’s glowing, and she’s kissed from the sun.”

“[We’re] happy for the natural texture of the skin to come through, so we don’t really need to over-conceal,” she explains. “I’ve had quite a few girls come through today with tired skin that looks a bit dull, and once I finished with the [skincare], they were just glowing.”

Watching Warkentin manipulate the models' tired skin into lively, flushed faces with Emma Lewisham’s stable of skincare, it became evident that a no-makeup look can be achieved without much of any makeup at all. Read on to find out how to achieve the look at home.

With fresh skin at the forefront of the show’s aesthetic, Warkentin relies on facial massaging techniques and illuminating skincare formulas to reinvigorate the model’s complexions. Stimulating blood flow and pushing hydration into the skin “is what is going to give us that glow,” she assures me. 

First off, she uses Emma Lewisham’s Illuminating Oil Cleanser to melt away the remnants of makeup from the models’ last shows. This is followed by the brand’s Skin Reset Serum, which Warkentin pushed into the skin in sweeping motions to ensure maximum penetration of the product’s ingredients. 

The Illuminating Brighten Your Day Cream is next, and it’s patted into skin “to seal in the serum”. A pea-sized amount of Skin Reset Eye Cream is rubbed between her fingers and tapped gently around the orbital bone and under the eyes. The Supernatural Vitamin A Oil follows close behind, and is distributed over the face, neck and decolletage to seal in all the prior steps and boost hydration. 

But the brand’s multi-purpose products, such as the Supernatural Sleeping Mask and Illuminating Body Oil, are the true backbone of this look. 

The former doubles as a blurring primer that’s used to fill and minimise the appearance of pores throughout the T-zone. For those at home, “makeup sits on top of it beautifully, because it takes away any uneven texture, pores, and fine lines,” explains Warkentin.

As for the latter, Warkentin says it “has the most beautiful bronze lustre through it”, making it the perfect mixing medium with a drop or two of the already ultra-sheer M.A.C Cosmetics Face And Body Foundation. 

She dispenses both into her palms, vigorously rubs her hands together “to mix that and warm up the product,” and massages them into the skin. 

“Most of the girls have fairer skin on their face because they use SPF, so this [step] will just help to match up the face colour-wise to the body,” she explains. “[But it’s important it looks like part of the skin, and not something on top of the skin.” 

A whisper of concealer is applied under the eye area for the models who feel they need it, and cream blush in “terracotta, earthy tones” to the cheeks to “give a lift” and a “little flush”, resulting in a sun-kissed look that “looks like skin, but it looks like you’ve been in the sun having fun”. 

The illuminating body oil makes a reappearance, but this time as a finishing product, which Warkentin dabs onto the high points of the face, over the brow bone, the centre of the lid and over the lips with a small, fluffy brush. 

She’s a proponent of a light hand and advises that a slightly lower highlighter placement on the cheeks is less obvious. Forget blinding your haters, the goal here is to look “dewy… like [you’re] hot from the sun”.

Similarly, brows are groomed with a quick brush and a “tiny bit” of clear brow gel. In fact, Warkentin wipes off the majority of the product that had gathered on the brow gel’s spoolie brush, before she applies it to set the hairs in place. 

The model she is working on has thick, dark, swooping lashes, but the makeup artist advises that “if the girls need a little bit of definition [around the eyes], [I’m putting] a little bit of mascara on a fan brush and [working] it into the root of the lash, but not taking it through to the ends.” 

“That way, it defines the eye without it looking like there’s any mascara on there,” she explained. 

“I’m [also] going to use blot paper or matte powder just to take the shine away from [anywhere] that can read as sweat under the light,” she continues. “And then everywhere else will be left really luminous.”

It's clear that her intention is to work with the features of the models rather than forcing them to fit into a rigid brief. 

On the runway, the result is just as flawless as a full face of makeup, but in a way that feels fresh, real and unfiltered; the beauty equivalent of a yogic exhale in the crux of a sun salutation.