[trip style = any]
We're currently mid-flight in our three-part series on grooming for globetrotters, applying tips we learned at Virgin Atlantic's beauty school in London. Hot off the tarmac of Monday's sky-high skincare session, I give you:
But first; a refresher: Virgin Atlantic’s got the market cornered on runway-ready beauty {pun intended}. Intent to find out how flight attendants look hot on high, I flew to London a few months ago to attend their grooming school, a three-pronged skin, makeup and hair course EVERY uniformed staff—guys and gals—goes through when they sign up, up and away with Branson’s birds.
Face-ing The Sky After a long travel day starting at 8am in Vancouver, I arrived at Heathrow around 2am Vancouver time/10am London time. Speaking of time, it was in short demand, so upon touchdown I was whisked off to Virgin's training base, for my intensive grooming session. At this point, I was operating on pure adrenalin.
When I sat in the makeup chair in front of a too-bright-for-the-hour mirror and a counter full of open grey-hued eye shadows and pinky blushers, I obviously looked tired---raccoon-like, actually. And then the inevitable happened, Mim Allgood, Virgin's makeup maven, gingerly asked if she could take off my half-there makeup to reapply it a la Virgin. Pl-ease {and thank you}.
Bare-faced {ah!},we started fresh with a spritz of rose toner and a dollop of day cream from Dr. Hauschka. Smelling like my first ever perfume, "Tea Rose" from The Body Shop {which I still hold in high regard to this day}, Mim went about making me up. Here's what I learned:
Virgin's Modern Makeup Tips For Travelers 1/ Virgin has a minimum look; for ladies it's black or brown mascara, blusher and red lipstick. For men, it's all about manscaping. 2/ Mim used a cocktail of bareMinerals powders to mask my jet lagged skin. 3/ For the eyes, she applied a quick base, layered a grey shadow in my crease and swiped the same color with an angled brush below my lower lash line. To add more impact, she finished off with one coat of mascara, followed by a swish of mineral powder {to thicken my lashes} and a second coat of mascara. 4/ A light dusting of pink-hued blusher on the apple of my cheek followed. To St. Tropez-ify my pale skin, bronzer was applied in a "number three" formation starting just above my brows, over my high cheekbones and down my jawline. 5/ Finally, lipstick. Red, of course. Mim told me there's a shade of red that suits every woman---she'd know, she's applied the saucy stuff to thousands. If red makes you nervous, she suggests starting with a blue-red hue. To preserve your pout, exfoliate the lips and apply a liner over the whole lip. Fill in with lipstick, blot, and apply another coat. Mwah!
While this 5-step process might seem lengthy "on paper", once Mim worked on me for a mere five minutes---she's that good---my eyes popped like sapphires and my lips dazzled like rubies. Freestyling Virgin's minimum look into my own jetset repertoire, I'd add a dash of Visine to take away red eyes, a dab of cover-up {especially focusing on the inner corners of the eye}, and per the Virgin way, paint my lips a blue-red, because red personifies polished {and distracts from a multitude of skin imperfections}. Voila, jetset in two minutes flat.
Trip Styler Tip :: As we mentioned late in 2011, Virgin’s birds are flying West {again} this summer. Starting May 14th, a seasonal non-stop service takes flight from Vancouver to London {return}. Yay!
[photos by @tripstyler taken when I was a guest of Virgin Atlantic in London]