Weleda’s Skin Food is celebrating its 90th birthday this year and last week I had the pleasure of taking part in the festivities with a group of other make-up artists. After an introduction to Weleda, we had a lovely demonstration of the new Skin Food facial by Caroline Burke, one of Weleda’s skincare advisors. Just watching it made us all so relaxed and calm, actually having it must have been amazing. Our model Eileen’s skin looked incredible afterwards, she was just radiant.
Next up was me giving tips on how to use Skin Food within a make-up. It was a bit daunting to speak to a room of other make-up artists, but everyone was lovely, it was good to chat make-up and exchange our favourite ways of using Skin Food. I did a demo on Eileen and tried to incorporate Skin Food into every step…
Skin
Skin Food makes a great primer underneath foundation especially if skin is quite dry – warm it up between your fingers to make it more pliable. You can also mix it into a foundation to make it more nourishing and the coverage lightweight, like a tinted moisturiser.
If you use powder minerals, try mixing a little into some Skin Food for a creamy finish. If you want fuller coverage mix more of the minerals in, if you want sheerer coverage, use more Skin Food. Use all over the face or as a concealer just where you need it. In my demo I used it as a concealer over my liquid foundation.
Next I mixed some Skin Food into a loose mineral blusher and applied it with my fingers up along the cheekbones. Again mix your ratios according to your desired finish – more Skin Food means your colour will be sheerer and more mineral means bolder colour. I then did the same with a mineral bronzer for a gentle contour. Mixing Skin Food into another product means that you can play with different textures and mix different colours, depending on how your skin is that day and the look you want to create.
I also mixed up some Skin Food and an illuminating powder and used this as a highlighting cream on cheekbones and brow bones etc (natural strobe cream). This is amazing on legs, arms, collarbones – anywhere that needs a sheen. Skin Food is also great on it’s own for a natural sheen highlight.
Eyes
For eyes I did the same, I mixed some Skin Food into a loose mineral eyeshadow to make it nice and creamy. I then applied all over the lid with my fingers – you can use a brush but the warmth of your fingers helps make the Skin Food more pliable. I then applied liner and mascara.
You can dab a little Skin Food onto a bare lid for a gentle sheen or over a powder shadow to to enliven it.
I defined Eileen’s brows with a pencil and then brushed some Skin Food through with a clean mascara wand, to tame them and add a gloss.
Lips
Skin Food works wonderfully on it’s own as a lip balm. Apply a generous amount for a treatment and then gently rub off with a cotton bud or wipe for gentle exfoliation – this was a tip from another artist.
Apply some over your lipstick for a subtle sheen or mix it in for a sheerer colour.
To finish your look, leave skin lovely and dewy or powder to mattify.
Skin Food is also great as a skin refresher. Dab a little along cheekbones and down the centre of your nose to help soften make-up if it’s looking too powdery for example. It is also amazing half way through the day – rather than applying more make-up – warm some Skin Food up between your hands and gently press onto your face to perk up your complexion and your make-up. This was a favourite with many of the make-up artists who came along. One said she put it on all her models after a show so their skin was fresh for their next one (nice make-up artist :)) One artist commented that she had tried other products as mixing mediums but they just didn’t work as well as Skin Food – the nourishing ingredients in skin Food just seem to mix really well with make-up products and make them sit really well on skin.
Perhaps you wouldn’t mix Skin Food into every step of your make-up but I just wanted to demonstrate what you could do. I used mineral powders but you could mix it in with any powders or make-up products; because there are no silicones in Skin Food, it should be compatible with anything – just try it! It’s great for getting the last bits out of your favourite compact and great for when your skin needs a little extra TLC. I used mostly Inika, Lavera and Dr Hauschka for my demo, the latter two share the Natrue certification with Skin Food which is why I wanted to use them. It was nice to revisit brands I haven’t used for a while and will write about them in a different post..
Some other uses for Skin Food –
Moisturiser for hands, nails and cuticles.
Nourish dry feet and heels – try a generous layer at night and then sleeping in cotton socks to really help it nourish.
Grooming beards, moustaches and side burns – tames hair and adds a sheen.
Smoothing split ends.
Smoothing dry patches for HD work.
Calming redness and irritation.
Great to add sheen on a bruise for spx (thanks Laura :))
Safe to use on children on a shoot – and not on a shoot! Great nappy balm.
Try mixing into ageing gel liners to revive them – this was another tip from last week.
Cream cleanser on damp cotton pads.
As you can see Skin Food is a proper MULTI-TASKER!! Have I missed any?? How do you use yours?
