Makeup artist Val Garland has worked on iconic faces from Kate Moss to Helen Mirren and is a judge on BBC’s Glow Up. Here, she shares her beauty wisdom
I’ve been working on L’Oréal campaigns for four or five years now.
[Val is global makeup director for L’Oréal Paris]. Helen Mirren and Andie MacDowell, who are two of the brand’s faces, are an absolute hoot. The reason these women – and Viola Davis, too – are at the top is that they stay true to who they are. They’re good at their jobs, they know how to ‘be’ in front of the camera and they’re genuinely nice people. We get together, we have a bit of a gossip, and it’s just fantastic. I look forward to working with the gang every season.
When I’m on location, I ask for a large bowl of ice by the makeup table.
I stick my serums and tools in it, then I cleanse the client’s skin, get a serum on them and get the tools going. It’s about bringing blood to the surface of the skin, which wakes it up. A good face roller is the closest thing you’ll get to a lymphatic drainage massage. Stick it in the fridge and roll it over your skin – it’s fantastic.
I guess you could say it all started with my sister.
She was always very glamorous – still is – and was into that 1970s Ursula Andress sort of look. And I thought, well, I like makeup, but I don’t want to look like that. So there was my gorgeous, glamorous sister – big, big hair, lip gloss, highlighter, everything – and I would stick my brush in a bit of green and scribble it right across my eyes. I was a bit of an odd kid; I wanted to be noticed, but I wanted to be noticed because I was different.
I started working in a hairdressing salon when I was 15 years old.
The fashion then was mascara and fake lashes, top and bottom, and you did it every day. So, every morning I’d go to the staff room and do my lashes. Since then, I’ve always liked lashes, whether they’re fake, drawn on, or with lashings of mascara. I do love all of the L’Oréal mascaras, especially the new L’Oréal Paris Pro XXL Lift Mascara, £12.99 (6). Whenever I use it, I feel like I’ve been to the salon and had a lash lift, it’s really that good.
I love a stonking red lip but as I get older, I have to soften it a bit.
Where I used to go for a true red, I now go for With makeup, you have to experiment. Just try or buy one new thing
more of a tomato – it’s a little less cold. The one I’ve just started wearing is a really juicy red – L’Oréal Paris Color Riche Volume Intense Matte in Rose Activist, £9.99. It’s nice because it’s matte, but it’s a soft matte.
Helen Mirren showed me a trick that she uses on film sets.
With a red lip, I think your biggest horror is the colour bleeding, so she takes a concealer or one of those cream pencils you use inside the waterline to make your eyes look b
