Colour Atelier with Shu Uemura

There are loads of beauty brands out there, and even as beauty journalist, it’s impossible to keep up with them all. So, I was delighted to be reacquainted with Japanese brand, Shu Uemura yesterday, at a ‘Colour Atelier’ appointment at the beautiful counter in Harvey Nichols in Edinburgh.

I had no idea what the ‘Colour Atelier’ appointment was, and when I found out I was going to have to do one of my own eyes after Jacqui on the counter had done the other, I wasn’t best chuffed. I was in a bit of a grump, after a bad night’s sleep and I just wanted my makeup done. Jacqui said that would be fine (she was so lovely in the face of my ‘difficult customer’ routine!), and just went through her part of the process, and did both my eyes.

If you do book a Colour Atelier appointment, you do have to do one eye yourself, and I think this is a really good way of learning makeup application techniques, or just learning how to experiment with new colours.

Colours. I told Jacqui I had no hard and fast day and night eyeshadow colour rules, I didn’t like neutrals or beiges, and I was most happy with bright, bold blues and greens. She decided to go for something softer, and I wasn’t overly happy about this (the difficult customer routine was definitely coming out again! Sometimes I don’t see the point in trying to change a customers mind that much. However I decided that Id go with it, and off we went…

…so when the second thing she used on my eye (after the brilliant Shu Uemura UV Under Base Mousse primer, £29), as a brown/beige cream eyeshadow (£19), I was a little disconcerted. Jacqui used it as a secondary base, something extra the shadows could ‘stick’ to. She applied it with her finger over the lid. I’m not sure I’d necessarily include this step at home, but I could see how the beige would blend with the colours she chose for me.

She used an eyeshadow brush (Brushes 10 and 5F, £52.50 and £12.50) to firstly apply the aqua colour eyeshadow (P540, £11), from the centre of my eye, out to the edge, only using one side of the brush and more dabbing on that brushing, to shape the eye, and then also under the eye. She then applied the sailor blue colour shadow (P645) to the edge,and then dabbed on a little of the glitter blue (P641). Next was Night Blue Painting Liner eyeliner (£20) on the inner upper rim of my eye.

The overall effect, as you can see is, well, subtle. It’s very pretty, but it’s not really me.I did also find it hard to see what Jacqui was doing, having to shut my eyes quite a lot of the time, so I would assume doing the other eye might be a bit tricky at times. However, if you do want to learn, then this is a great service. It is all about technique, as I explained with the brush before and the dabbing effect, but I sort of like to freestyle it a bit more, if that makes sense?! I tend to like to think there are no rules in makeup. The range of Shu Uemura colours is vast, and they have various different sized palettes that the colours pop into so you can mix and match.

I also added a dark navy blue to my palette, and I am looking forward to using the colours Jacqui choose, but with a little more intensity and probably in a different way. I’ve never been a fan of adding colour from just half way along the lid and out – it’s a bit too subtle for me!  I’m a bit of a bold statement kinda gal, and with eyeshadow and me, more is most definitely more. But that is just me. If you’re an eyeshadow novice, or just want a fresh new way to apply, then book in for a 30 minute Colour Atelier appointment and let the Shu Uemura girls guide you through!

Shu Uemura Colour Atelier appointments are available at the counter at Harvey Nichols, Edinburgh, and other counters nationwide. Visit the website at shuuemura.co.uk, or call Harvey Nichols on 0131 534 8388