As you know, I’m all about walking the talk, only once I had created myself a Capsule Wardrobe could I possibly feel comfortable expecting the same of my delegates at the Training Academy or from my clients. I proudly now no longer wear 20% of my wardrobe 80% of the time instead I wear 80% of my wardrobe 80% of the time.

Until very recently my make-up bag however painted a very different picture! You see I like so many women was an impulse make-up shopper. Every time I went into a department store I could never resist buying a new lipstick or blusher or trying out a new make-up brand of concealer or foundation. There’s something about buying a new lipstick with nice packaging that just makes me happy what doesn’t make me happy is seeing how much of that new make-up I never wear. All that has happened over the years is that my make-up bags have gotten bigger and bigger to accommodate all of my impulse buys!

A few months ago I decided to have a big clear out of my makeup drawer and there staring me in the face was the revelation of just how much money I had wasted over the years. What shocked me more than anything was all the items I wasn’t wearing were in all the wrong colours and didn’t flatter my winter: deep, bright and cool complexion.

The make up I wasn’t wearing was in all the warmer and peachier tones that of course would do nothing for my cool complexion.

It made total sense as to why I was buying it. Being dark haired and of a fair Indian complexion I often feel very pale so to warm myself up I would gravitate to warmer bronzers, peachier blushers and lipstick but they never warmed up me up instead they made my complexion look yellow and sallow and my face look so much heavier. I’ve lost count of how many contouring sets I’ve bought to counter act the wrong doing of the yellow under-toned foundations and don’t even get me started on how many smokey eye shadow palettes I owned (all in the unflattering colours of course!)

Wearing a peach coloured blusher to warm you up when you have a cool complexion is the same as wearing a belt trying to accentuate a waist that doesn’t exist, instead of creating the illusion of a waist it just draws attention to the fact that you don’t have a waist! A peach colour will just add weight to the face rather than giving it definition as a pink blusher would. Our make-up needs to be a natural extension of us; we want to see our features not hide them.

I decided to apply all my colour analysis knowledge on to my makeup bag, only keeping colours of lipsticks, eye shadows, blushers and more importantly concealers and foundation that are all within my winter palette; these are colours that will always flatter me, bringing definition to my features, diminishing dark circles, lines and evening out my skin tone. I now proudly own a capsule make-up bag with key items that will always suit me, items I can use to go from day to night, season to season. Trust me it feels amazing, putting on my makeup is hassle free and as result saves me precious time.

Most of our Style ME stylists are not trained make-up artists but they have all been trained on colour analysis therefore during the session can advise on the undertone of your skin and on the brightness of your complexion hence advise you on what are your most flattering shades of lipsticks, eye shadows and blushers so that you can go to any

make-up counter and tell them exactly what shades you’re looking for to create you a radiant youthful look so you’ll never waste your money on make-up again!

Nisha x