Ready for a MAC-over

If I weren’t a writer, there are few things I’d rather be than a MAC makeup artist. They get to dress in black every day with that nifty tool belt around their waists to carry brushes; they have possibly the most complete arsenal of makeup known to man (MAC has a very deep color catalogue – think of the most far-out hue you can, like puce or acid yellow, and they’ll have it); they create looks for international celebrities; they collaborate with top fashion designers on the collections every year. In short, they set the trends, determining whether this season is all about "dirty, smudgy eyes" or "clean, beautiful skin."

Celestine Sng is one of that rarefied group of MAC senior artists, of which there are only 42 in the world. Based in Singapore, Sng has worked with designers ranging from Vivienne Westwood to Vivienne Tam. She helped create the four avant-garde looks in Alexander McQueen’s famous chessboard show, and did "barefaced, beautiful skin" to match the clean, structured clothes of Balenciaga’s Nicolas Ghesquiere, the designer she most admires.

Celebrity-wise, she’s put bronzer on Ricky Martin, made Mary J. Blige pretty for her Asian performances, and enhanced the features of Asia’s most beautiful women: Zhang Ziyi, Maggie Cheung, Michelle Yeoh, Joan Chen, and Karen Mok.

Sng was in Manila last weekend to conduct a master class for makeup artists and launch MAC’s latest collection for autumn-winter 2005, Naturally Eccentric.

"Naturally Eccentric is a trend very much inspired by nature, like trees, leaves, flowers, and the textures of living things," Sng says. "Coincidentally it ties in with one of the key looks of our autumn-winter trends. It’s just clean, beautiful, very versatile, very wearable makeup."

For cool, edgy MAC, "natural" means muted, earthy tones that have a pretty – almost pastel – quality: frosty pink, pearly rose, smoky violet, dark plum, deep wine and beige in every possible incarnation – lightly pinked, off-pink, smudged, caramel and naked. This is soft, ethereal makeup perfectly tailored to the demure, Victorian fashions of the season.

"I like to call it an ‘idiot-proof palette,’" says Sng. "You just can’t go wrong with the shades. Even the dark colors are not tricky. They can be used for the brows, they can be used as eyeliner. The light colors are your basic staples where they’re never out of fashion because they’re essentials."

Sng gave me a marvelous MAC-over using products from the Naturally Eccentric collection. While the shades are so versatile you can achieve stronger looks, like a smoky eye, she chose to do a softer, real-life look I could do myself every day.

Skin

• To prep the skin for Sng’s color application, MAC resident trainer Lourd Ramos first dotted the eye area with Fast Response Eye Cream, which has caffeine to reduce puffiness and eyebags. Since I have combination skin, he brushed the pearly, moisturizing Strobe Cream just on my cheeks, and put Anti-Shine on my T-zone. To moisten my chapped lips, he smoothed on clear Lip Conditioner, one of the best lip balms I’ve ever tried.

• Next, he used a foundation brush to apply Select SPF 15 liquid foundation in my shade, then set it with new Lightful Powder Foundation. These two products are amazing – once they set, they give the appearance of real, flawless skin – like you have no makeup on whatsoever.

"Asian women have beautiful skin but a lot of them like to wear too much foundation," notes Sng. "You’ve got beautiful skin. Why do you need something so heavy? Modern makeup is about real, beautiful skin."

Tip: Pick a foundation that matches your overall skintone (not just your complexion, which tends to be lighter) because it looks more realistic. At the very least, foundation should match your neck.

Eyes

• Sng used all four colors in the eyeshadow quad Free To Be Eyes. She highlighted my browbone with Sensibility, a soft, airy pink with frost. She contoured the outer corner of my eye with Free To Be, a muted gray that looks green/blue in the pan, to further open up and brighten the space between my eyes and my brows. Then she mixed Crochet (lightly smudged beige) with a little Smut (charcoal black with red frost) for more impact, and put it in the crease.

• For maximum definition, she lined the upper lid with dark brown MAC Fluidline in Dipdown, and put white Fluidline in Frostlite on the inner corners. After curling the lashes, she used another pair of remarkable products every woman should have in her makeup bag: white MAC Lash Primer to lengthen and thicken, and Zoom Lash in black to further boost volume. End result? Lashes that are so long and thick, it’s like getting fake lashes from a tube.

Cheeks

• To mimic the most natural flush, in this collection MAC offers its two blushes in cream formulation. On me Sng used Brit Wit, a "dirty" plum that she applied with a round, two-toned brush. "If you use your fingers it can look patchy," Sng says. True to her words, by using the tiered #187 brush and swirling it lightly on your cheeks, the blush looks airbrushed on, like you’re lit from within.

Lips

• To balance the light eyes, Sng chose a darker lipstick for me: So Original, a deep wine-violet with pearl, and refined the lip line with rich Plum pencil. As a final touch she dotted on Damzel Lipglass, an almost transparent rose with pearl, on the bottom lip to make the overall pout look fuller.

Before the makeover, I used to think that because of my warm skin, only warm colors looked good on me, but Sng’s use of a predominantly cool palette proved me wrong.

"I’m a firm believer that there’s no such thing as ‘this color suits a certain person,’" Sng says. "It’s how you wear it. At the end of the day, you have to be comfortable and confident."

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Naturally Eccentric is available at the MAC outlet in Rustan's Makati in Glorietta 3, Ayala Center, Makati City.