World class makeup artist, Shella Martin, graced Canberra Centre’s beauty precinct with her amazing talent on Saturday to share her makeup and beauty tips and tricks with a lucky few. A Canberra girl at heart, Shella grew up here before moving to Melbourne and becoming the Creative Director of Salon XVI.
Shella has famously mastered the art of balanced beauty by combining her considered approach to skincare with the versatility of makeup. Originally interested in dermatology, Shella has been working as an events and editorial makeup artist for over 18 years, working as Makeup Director for Vogue Australia and Elle, gracing the pages of ID Tokyo, Numero Tokyo, Vision China, Vogue Italia and Cream, and beautifying the likes of Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, British Royal Lady Kitty Spencer, Collette Dinnigan, Tina Arena, Kimbra, Elyse Knowles and Steph Claire Smith.
“My biggest career highlight was going overseas and working with Pat McGrath. You can’t even explain what it’s like to do an international runway. It is just phenomenal. It was a dream come true.”
Shella’s point of difference is her appreciation for skincare and make up, proving that less really is more. She is well recognised for creating radiant glowing skin, brushy brows and precise lined eyes. Shella caught up with Out in Canberra to share her best tips:
- Beauty before makeup:
“I want you to get back to the focus of skincare. You want to let everything radiate, and this will help everything on top of your skin to look beautiful.”
- The biggest beauty blunder:
“The biggest faux par I see is everyone reaching for the foundation bottle first. I want everyone to work on their skin care, start on their eyes when doing makeup then reassess if they need foundation afterwards. I’ve always been a Rationale girl [yes, she is an official ambassador], so go in and see the staff to discuss what your best beauty regime is. Once you have done this, come back and use makeup to enhance your beauty.”
- This season’s number 1 trend:
“Glass skin is the biggest makeup trend this season. For me, I feel like I’m already a ‘glass-skinner’ [yes, Shella made up that term!]. Glass skin is becoming such a big focus and that’s telling me that anyone who doesn’t know about skincare is going to learn about skin care this season.
