Words and photos by Susie Sandford Smith

I’m lucky enough to be friends with a brilliant makeup artist, Neusa Neves, who from time to time, uses me as a model to try new looks out on. I often feel as though I fall a little short when it comes to being a grown up, and one of the things I think grown ups know how to do is look flawless (pah ha, I know, I know, it’s a bit silly). I don’t wear much makeup, certainly not day to day, but have always wanted to be someone who looks ‘done’ ‘finished’ and so, as I started to think about the things I would like to see on beauty pages of a website, things that would actually make a difference to me - whether purely inspiration or, practical, it was a given that I would turn to Neusa for advice.

A few weeks ago we got together to create a couple of looks but before any of that could happen we had to PREP. You know when people say you need to get your base right for a flawless finish? Well, you’ll find it much easier to do that if you’ve prepped your face well before you even think about applying makeup.

It really is super simple and feels so good AND, this is something you could build into your daily routine whether or not you plan to wear makeup or not.

I asked Neusa, if you were going to do just one step what would that be and she said using a facial oil (and massing it in with your fingers… cheeky, that’s two steps really). And I will add, that sometimes she’ll exfoliate my skin as part of the prep if it’s looking particularly dull and tired.

We used:

• Radiance Face Oil by Eve Lom

• Multi-Active Toner by Dermalogica

• Lip balm by l’Occitane

• Find similar massage rollers here

1. Massage a few drops of face oil onto clean skin using a roller or your fingers.

2. Give your face a quick wipe over with some toner.

3. Apply lip balm.

4. Brush eyebrows.

5. Done. Simple. But absolutely supercharges your look.