Here is Florence Welch from Florence and the Machine a portrait shoot I did the makeup for. Florence is wearing Dominic Jones photographed by Ben Toms and styled by Karen Langley. For the beauty inspiration I was inspired by Renaissance and Pre-Raphaelite women. I loved researching this and got lost in the romance and languid beauty of the images of Lord Leighton and Rossetti I wanted Florence’s makeup to have a painterly quality but also feel light & modern in which I tried to achieve this by keeping the foundation pale, matte and for an interesting use of colour: peachy cheeks using Bobbi Brown Calypso Coral a dab of coral Tom Ford lipstick. I am always looking for perfectly pale foundation for redheads and other pale skinned beauties that I may work with. Look out for Japanese brands: click on the brands for the foundation I like: Shiseido, Kanebo, Shu Uemura , Suqqu or brands that have an entirely separate line for Asia only where pale & interesting is always very “in.” Meanwhile in Europe & the USA all the usual department store beauty brands carry excellent pale colours and I like Nars , MAC & Armani. Some of the cheaper high street brands such as Rimmel, Revlon and Maybelline do good pale colours. My top tip is common sense: you need to see foundation in daylight. No beauty counter can fake it even with fancy mirrors and spot lights that change colour. Take a sample and see it on your clean face in outside daylight. Warm the product up a little using your fingers (use brush or sponge too/if you prefer) and apply working lightly and evenly on the face. Getting the colour right is the most important aspect. Some foundations are more yellow based (beige) and some more red (pink) I nearly always use a more yellow based foundation and add warmth later but sometimes I do add in a bit of a pink based foundation. Truthfully totally depends on the skin tone of who I am working with. So even with all the amazing range of brands, colours, shades and tones and everything out there there is a teeny tiny percentage that perhaps you won’t find your perfect match and in that case like the great artists you need to get that palette out and start mixing your perfect colours.