Hollywood Beauty guru Ignacia Soto-Aguilar Tips to live by
What are the differences between tv/movie makeup applications versus a night out on a date makeup applications?
When doing makeup for film you’re contending with multiple limitations and it’s all about finding a balance between what you can and can’t do without losing plausibility. Things like glitter, titanium dioxide spf, or a slight shade mismatch on the skin that you may not see, can have a very noticeable and distracting effect once the lights and cameras hit. That's why camera tests prior to shooting are so important. Another big one is the importance of continuity and makeup longevity. For example, if you went dancing in real life, unless you’re touching yourself up the entire time, you’d probably sweat some of your makeup off within a few hours. In film, 8 hours of shooting could equal a few minutes of footage taking place within 10-15 minutes in the script, so taking those extra steps to make the makeup stay intact on a scene like that requires things you normally wouldn’t put on in real life because it may feel heavy. But the good thing is (in film anyway) actors are following a script so if makeup looks a little heavier in real life to keep the camera happy it won’t alter their experience, where as you may get some weird looks in real life if your makeup is a few shades darker and the blush is brighter to counter increased lighting on a night club set.
How can we improve our overall healthy skin appearance with makeup?
Some adjectives used to describe healthy skin : even, glow, sunkissed, rosey, and trust me, there's a plethora of products to achieve those things. Evenness with a little concealer on freshly moisturized skin, glowy with a tinted moisturizer or sheer luminous foundation, rosey and sunkissed with a natural color cream blush and bronzer with no shimmer.
I do highly recommend to keep using active ingredients no matter how good you get at these techniques. Exfoliation is a must since it’s difficult to avoid looking cakey if any makeup is sitting on dead skin cells.
Can you get us your favorite brands or products to achieve this?
“
Exfoliate:
Dermalogica Daily resurfacerMoisturizer:
TATCHA The Dewy Skin Cream
Concealer : Jouer cosmetics Essential High Coverage Pen
Foundation: NARS natural radiant longwear foundation
Blush / bronzer : NARS orgasm cream blush and NARS laguna Bronzing cream on light to medium skin tones, NARS G-Spot for deeper tones ”
What are some tips for a natural everyday makeup look?
Now that you have your skin complexion appearance on point with those tips, let’s talk about eyebrows and lips. A great way to make lashes look thicker is to smudge your darker shade eyeliner right on the lash line where the lashes grow as close as you can. That paired with your favorite mascara will make a huge difference in the volume appearance. Next brush your brows up and fill them in with light strokes of a neutral brown pencil close to your brow color, and finish your look with your favorite lipstick. I personally love a color that is just a rosier version of your own lips to complete a natural healthy look.
How often should you clean and throw away your makeup?
I think a good rule of thumb is to clean your brushes as often as you can and throw things away as they expire.
Some helpful numbers for me are :
Liquid foundations- 6 months to a year
Lipstick- once a year
Powders: 6 months if it’s a compact and you double dip with your brush, 2 years if loose.
Creams- 6 months to 1 year
Mascara - 3 months tops. Once it loses the “pop” sound when you pull the wand out, throw it away.
Moisturizers : 6 months for jars. 1 year for pump containers
Eyeliner : 3 months for liquid or gel liners, 2 years tops for pencils.
Sunscreen: 1 year
Do you think vegan makeup is better?
Vegan makeup is usually plant based, which means a lot of the natural benefits from plants will be in your skin care - antioxidants, nutrients, vitamins. There’s also the benefit of not having the questionable ingredients that are added to some non vegan products. I think ultimately it comes down to staying true to your ethical compass and purchasing products from brands that are in line with those beliefs. If a highly tested pricey product with active ingredients feels wrong, there are other products with more natural ingredients that will achieve similar results when used consistently. But as far as effectiveness there’s no “better”, just better for your conscience.
Tell us more about your tv makeup you did on the Tv show CLAWS?
CLAWS was set in the Florida sun so creating looks in that more colorful environment was a blast. Our 5 leading ladies on the show each had a distinct aesthetic, and making their looks cohesive was key for the show to look like they did and I’m so proud of my team for doing such a good job with that. It’s not simple to run over swamp water in 100 degree weather in high humidity conditions to retouch Tom Ford lipstick, body bronze and FX face bruising but we all got pretty good at it.
What was your favorite makeup look you did?
Jenn Lyon who played Jen on the show and I had such a blast coming up with her looks. We even came up with random names for all of them because we had to do them all so many times and that’s how we remembered them. There was one we called “Sanrio” (if you’re in your 30’s and you like pastel things you’ll know exactly why) that I really loved because I just always thought she looked so beautiful in that color palette and it was a fun look to splatter blood on.
Nothing brings out the eyes like blood red :)