Adele met her makeup artist Michael Ashton in the summer of 2007 through mutual friends. He told NY Mag‘s The Cut: “The first beauty looks we did together were for a collection of images to coincide with the release of 19. Adele has beautiful almond-shaped eyes and fantastic natural bone structure, which is the perfect canvas to work with, so at the beginning it was always about making the eyes a focus feature. We played around with different eyeliner looks, lashes, and some dazzling dustings of metallic glitters.”
For the Brits, Adele rocked flawless skin, a bold red lip to match her red dress and thick eyeliner. Her lashes were big and full — get the look with falsies!
Adele At Brit Awards — Get Her Thick Eyeliner & Red Lips
Adele’s makeup artist Michael just told The Cut how to copy Adele’s signature cat eye: “Product cocktailing is key to achieving the intensity and opaqueness of the eyeliner. I always start by outlining the shape of the liner, working from the inner to outer corner of the eye with a black gel liner. I then work the product right into the root of the lashes and then build thickness gradually. Once I’m finished creating the desired shape, I use a waterproof liquid liner with a precision tip to intensify and refine the line, finishing by winging the end of the liner last.
I have a couple of fantastic eyeliner brushes I picked up in a little beauty store in Japan years ago and they have the perfect taper. They’re thicker at the bottom, which allows a quick application of product, but the tip is extremely fine so you can gently drag out the wing of the liner until it fades away into the finest point. If I do need to clean up any edges, I’m never without Bioderma Crealine and Muji thin cotton tips close by.”
Though she is known for her cat eye, she has also been seen with red lips lately, and she rocked that look again at the Brit Awards. Michael says: “I’ve always loved a red lip on a woman — it’s a great way to amp up the volume of any beauty look. At the moment I have a few different products in my kit, but one that I’m using a lot is a liquid lipstick, Lip Maestro by Armani, which has a demi-matte finish. I start by applying the product onto the lip with a lip brush and then have the client distribute the color by rubbing their lips together in different directions. To finish, I will either feather the edges using my fingertip, or, for a more defined shape, I will sketch the outline using a slightly darker lipliner for added dimension.”
For her perfectly sculpted face, Michael says: “Contouring and highlighting the face is the ultimate way of creating a truly three-dimensional polish. Contouring is another time when product cocktailing works so well to give added depth. I always start using a cream stick in a deep-brown shade, applying product first to the back of my hand and then buffing it into the skin using a natural hair foundation brush — right underneath the cheekbone toward the center of the face, through the temples and around the hairline, then lightly down each side of the nose.
The second stage is to go back over using a powder and an angled blusher brush in a circular buffing motion to set and soften. I have a palette of contour colors, which are a mixture of matte shadows, blushes, and bronzers as well as some with soft reflective finishes — mixing them together depending on the finish I’m wanting to achieve.”
Did you love Adele’s hair and makeup at the BRIT awards?