“Reconstructive surgery with the brushes.”
That’s what you can expect out of Derrick Rutledge according to celebrity Oprah Winfrey and first lady Michelle Obama.
The great Derrick Rutledge shares a few of his make up tips. Check them out:
- Rutledge prefers a combination of creams and liquids after prepping the skin with moisturizer. Then he applies tinted creams to hide discolorations, sealing the look with a natural mineral powder.
- He is a master at contouring. He uses dark and light foundations (as opposed to powders) to create shadows and highlights along the jaw line, under the chin, and underneath the cheekbone area. “I love contouring. It’s the one feature that will lift the face up and make it appear 10 years younger,” he said, tweaking his technique according to the shape and colour of a woman’s face.
- For manicured eyebrows he has some great tip: “Get a white pencil and draw your brows.” It may look funny but it’s the best way to map out your eyebrow shape. Once you have done that, Rutledge suggests that you use tweezers and “take out all the hair outside that white area and below. Once you take it out you will see you have a beautiful arched brow.” Rutledge uses good quality eyeliner and nutrient-rich mascara to enhance the eye area.
- For a sexy lip, he often creates the impression of a gloss with no liner — using more tricks, of course. “You blend a (lip-coloured) pencil in with a brush, put powder on it, and then apply the gloss,” he said. Otherwise, he said the gloss bleeds into the skin, creating a glazed doughnut look.
- For nighttime, Rutledge deepen the look by adding eye shadows with more colour and sheen, and more lashes. He may use rich lip colour, too, depending on the intensity of the eye. But he says the real challenge for a makeup artist is to make a celebrity’s face work outside during the day. Either way, it takes him about 45-minutes to complete.
Rutledge has little trace of a diva attitude; rather he exudes warmth and passion. He also has a knack for refashioning a scene so that his client always comes out looking and feeling her best.
Rutledge is set to release a new beauty care line called Ü, pronounced “ooh” with business partner, Tim Byrd. “The reason we pronounce it ‘ooh’ is because we find that women, when they immediately like something, they go ‘ooh!’ ” he explained.