Stepping behind the velvet curtain at a catwalk show is one of the more thrilling parts of the life of a beauty director. It’s the birthplace of trends, a circus of fantasy and the frontline laboratory where new formulas and pigments are melded together on the back of make-up artist’s hands. It’s the United Nations of beauty; where democratic decisions are silently made regarding the way we’ll instinctively want to aestheticize our faces for the coming season.

We saw it all for spring; a timely return to groomed, feminine – yet inherently modern – make-up, after too many seasons of grunge and androgyny. The art of skin took centre stage, bringing with it a new vocabulary of ‘rugged, outdoorsy, scrubbed-clean, flushed and raw’ adjectives with which to describe this new post-perfect, super-human complexion. Colour returned too, in bright swathes across lips and whopping great cobalt ellipses on lids.

But then, real life happens. And the milieu of the catwalk suddenly feels so very far away from my daily make-up grind. I’ve forgotten how to do that magical, ethereal skin, I’m totally perplexed as to how to diffuse a red lip as Val Garland did at Mary Katrantzou and I am remiss about what I’m supposed to put on my eyelids (my make-up weakness) save for a splodge of concealer to patter away the redness. That’s the thing: I may be well versed in the trends but attempting to interpret them myself is another story entirely.

Here, to walk through me through the three trickiest trends of spring, is one of the most trusted hands in make-up; creative director of make-up artistry for MAC cosmetics, Terry Barber.

The outdoorsy glow
Right, there is no easy way of saying this but if spring was to be defined by one stellar make-up trend, it’d be a healthy, sportive complexion. Sounds simple, is anything but. In fact, the complexions that reigned at Alberta Ferretti, Chloe, Alexander Wang and Giles pose a real problem for those who do not possess the sort of baby’s bottom poreless skin that seemingly effortlessly bounces light from the face. ‘Healthy, sporty, groomed, you know – it’s simple, with fresh eyes, a beautiful streamlines brow and a moist lip,’ explains Barber. ‘It’s that idea of uber-grooming: femininity but done in a very sporty way.’

OK, I’m sold on its pastoral glory and light bulb glow, but how exactly, pray tell, does one achieve it? ‘The most important thing is getting the base right,’ says Barber. ‘Most of us need a bit of coverage, so it shouldn’t be too dewy.’ He used MAC Studio Sculpt Foundation and took time to apply it with a small-ish flat brush (maybe my 80s make-up sponges are where I’m going wrong). ‘It’s a bit cashmere; it picks up light but it’s not super shiny. BB creams are great too if you want minimal coverage. It’s that idea of very conditioned skin.’

Blusher – key to this look and its impression of health – has evolved slightly this season. ‘Blush has elevated this season. At the shows there were different takes on the idea of heat; beautiful girls in the desert. It kind of looks like activity, like outdoor heat,’ says Barber. Oddly enough for a product that appears as ostensibly simple as blusher, most of us are doing it wrong. ‘Don’t confuse blush with contour otherwise you get a stripe. Get a big dome brush and go a bit higher on the apple of the cheek [we used MAC Powder Blush in Desert Rose]. It should look quite real, like you’ve just pinched your cheeks.'

The sepia smokey eye
​Struggle with a traditional smokey eye? ME TOO. Always have. My boyfriend tells me I look like a panda whenever I’ve foolhardily attempted it in the past. Fortuitously, this spring’s smokey isn’t nearly as melodramatic as the traditional smokey which has long outstayed its welcome. The new smokey is a far more ethereal affair; a tea-stained, waxy-finished, romantic thing of a smokey eye, which propels blue and green eyes from the face. As evidenced at Etro, Simone Rocha and Aquilano Rimondi, there’s no fussy blending, no hard lines and no powdery dated finishes. 

It’s far simpler, granted, but the new sepia smokey still requires me to get to grips with my eyelids, brush in hand. She’s the modern woman who wants to do the dark eye but doesn’t want to look like she’s walking down a red carpet,’ notes Barber. ‘She wants it cooler, a little messier, a little worn-in, effortless.’

‘It’s a two product look – just a MAC Long Wear Paint Pot in Quite Natural all over the lid, swept up towards the temple.’ He then roughly traced my upper and lower lash line with MAC Eye Pencil in Coffee, dotting between the lashes and then ‘kind of all mushed together with a little smudge of a brush. I think it’s got to have that effortless quality to it. It’s not about a socket or perfect blending. And then it’s just loads of mascara on top.’ Super-duper easy and somehow far cooler than a black smokey eye. I’m converted. 

The blown-out lip
​It’s no secret that I’m a sucker for a bright lip. Beyond anything else, it’s just phenomenally easy. And quick. Spring’s bold lip update – diffused at the edges - is, admittedly, less so, but it packs the same sort of punch as a filled-in red lip. Fluorescent pigments of tomato red, lilac and raspberry red abound, it was Mary Katrantzou’s soft-focus red lip that looked the most exhilarating – a synthesis of classicism and modernity. 

I’m a swipe-it-on-straight-from-the-bullet kind of girl, so the whole idea of using a brush to apply colour to my lips feels a bit overly precious. I need to get over that, because the resulting effect of stippling the outer frame of the lips with a stiff brush after daubing on a lipstick is exactly what gives the look originality; like a neo-classical painting coming alive.

‘You know how long we’ve been plugging an orange-red lip and a nude face with no eye make-up?’ Asks Barber. ‘I quite like how we’ve changed it up this season; swapping the red for fuchsia [MAC Lip Pencil in Magenta], it has a feeling of Debbie Harry back in the day – it’s just a bit cooler. Just take a soft brush and buff out that sharp line around the edge. The diffused edge gives it a modern angle.’ Perhaps not the easiest lip for re-appyling in the loos after a few Prosecco’s but it’s a conceptual, modern-romantic look worth making the effort for. And miraculously, it’s encouraged me to consider more lip colours than simply, red. 

Photography: Hugo Yanguela