Day four of Dubai Shopping Festival’s Beauty Week on Tuesday was as star-studded and glamorous as you’d expect, with beauty influencers Teala Dunn, Shayla and Maya Mia taking the stage as part of the Festival’s inaugural Beautycon Takes Dubai pop-up event.
The evening was an educational affair, with each of the three beauty gurus (with some five million Instagram followers between them) giving the bustling crowd of keen-eyed onlookers a crash course in their essential tips and techniques for achieving maximum on-trend beauty.
Teen tastemaker Teala Dunn (@ttlyteala) was poised and precocious before a throng of adoring teenage admirers, effortlessly chic and comfortable in long beachy waves and a striped-dress-and-boots ensemble. The animated 19-year-old, hailing from Los Angeles, gushed about the expertise of the unique Dubai aesthetic: “Everyone really knows how to do make up,” she said, “I’ve met so many people, and I’m like, ‘are you a beauty guru? Everyone’s so beautiful!” Her top tip for aspiring fashionistas was heavy on the drama, touting the combo of bright eyeshadow and big lashes for attention-demanding eyes that really pop, coupled with a bold lip.
Next up was make-up artist Shayla (@makeupshayla), treating the rapt crowd to a eyebrow masterclass on none other than glamorous Kuwaiti make-up artist Fouz Alfahad (@therealfouz). The veteran make-up pro cut a vampy figure in a dramatic purple lip and a furry green vest, indulging the crowd with her essential method for achieving the perfect brow. Praising the women of Dubai for their “great brows”, she began with a dual-step approach to filling in, using brow powder from the inner brow to the arch, capping off the first step with a brow pencil applied to the tail for that clean definition. She sealed the look with a clear brow gel, stressing the importance of the product for that stay-all-day, bulletproof brow.
Her other signature beauty technique? Use multiple highlighters with a fan brush to achieve a three-dimensional glow. “The key to get that glow on your cheeks is to layer your highlighters,” she said, “Lately I’ve been using two to three.”
The evening’s parade of international glamour experts drew to a close with an in-depth tutorial on how to achieve the perfect seductive smoky-eyed glamour from Tanzanian pro make-up artist Maya Mia (@maya_mia_y). The 32-year-old gave us her personal tip for conquering that oft-bemoaned bane of women everywhere – false eyelashes. “Even when you have no other make-up on, lashes just make your eyes like ‘boom’,” she said. Her top technique for making stubborn falsies stay in place is to apply them starting from the middle of the eye for stability, secure the ends in place second, then finish up the look by applying mascara to the roots of the lashes, blending them with your real lashes for that natural yet glam look.
Have a favorite pair of lashes you’re not ready to say goodbye to? Maya’s final tip will help you prolong the magic. She says making lashes last is easy — just remove the glue at the end of the night, and place them back in their packaging to preserve that curved shape. She gestured to her own eyes during the demonstation: “I’ve worn these 20 times,” she confessed to the crowd.
— Melissa Majdandzic is an intern at Gulf News.
