Clad in seashells, safety-pins and pearls, Cate Blanchett was always going to turn heads on the red carpet last night. Yet even this experimental ensemble couldn’t manage to outshine the real talking point of her look: her flawless, ‘lit from within’ skin.
With such a gorgeous complexion to work on, Cate’s MUA Mary Greenwell MBE only needed the lightest of touches to complete Cate’s look: a sweep of rosy blush, a matching lip and a soft wash of smokey copper-toned shadow.
The real beauty lay in the canvas itself, which was prepped and polished to perfection by A-list super-facialist Keren Bartov. A favourite of stars such as Demi Moore, Carey Mulligan and, of course, Cate herself, Keren is renowned for delivering skin that’s ready for the closest of close-ups on glitzy occasions.
Cate’s glow is a look that Keren calls ‘ethereal skin’, and she’s given GH an exclusive step-by-step breakdown of exactly how she achieves it.
‘When you’re looking to create ethereal skin, my aim is to enhance the skin’s glow, smoothness and firmness, ensuring it looks flawless under bright lights and HD cameras,’ says Keren.
With cameras poised to pick up on the smallest of flaws, any potentially aggressive ingredients are jettisoned for those Keren knows will give her stars an immediate, risk-free boost. ‘I focus on instant radiance, skin tightening and hydration instead of anything that might cause irritation or temporary side-effects,’ she tells us.
Her ethos is to combine rehydration with rapid results on the treatment couch. ‘Technology that infuses the skin with hydration, and active ingredients for immediate glow-giving results are what all my clients enjoy before a big event,’ she tells us.
While it’s her expert hands that do the real work, she appreciates it when clients give her a leg up with some DIY prep work. ‘Twenty-four hours before, I would amp up what you can do at home for your skin,’ she says.
Her recommended tool is The Wand, her own, just-launched device, which combines radiofrequency, red light therapy and infrared technology. This will ‘enhance and prolong my professional treatment effects as well as enhancing skincare absorption. It also stimulates blood flow and improves elasticity’, says Keren.
With skin primed to glow, Keren likes clients to add in a few extra steps on the event day itself – nothing tricky or risky, but a few extremely effective tricks.
On the day itself, her advice is to: ‘Keep skin prep simple and use a cooling roller in the morning to improve circulation and reduce any swelling.’ She also recommends her own Advanced Skin Repair Serum to nourish and hydrate, prepping skin for makeup later on without clogging skin, and a brightening SPF50. ‘Triple Active Cream + SPF50 contains tranexamic acid, an amino acid that provides a brightening effect and reduces skin redness,’ she says.
And there you have it – the secret to a Cate-level Hollywood glow revealed.