Soft or full: choosing party makeup in Dubai

Party makeup in Dubai comes in two families: soft, where the skin looks like skin and one feature is lifted, and full, where the face is sculpted, the eye is built up and everything is set to last until the early hours. Choosing between them is mostly a question of the occasion, the light and how long you will be out. This page helps you describe what you want, and explains the terms you will meet on the way.

Soft or full: what each one means

Soft glam is a light base, brows filled and brushed, a wash of colour on the lid, curled lashes or a fine strip, a touch of blush and a lip close to your own. From across a room it reads as "she looks well". It suits daytime gatherings, a dinner, an engagement at home and photographs in daylight. The soft glam entry in our glossary describes it in more detail.

Full glam is a fuller base with contour and highlight, a defined and often smoky eye, a visible lash, a sharper brow and a set lip. It is built for evening light, flash photography and a long night. It suits weddings, large receptions and any event where you will be photographed indoors.

Most evenings sit somewhere between the two, and a good artist can move along that line. What she cannot do is guess where you want to be.

Describe the look in words she can act on

"Natural but glam" means something different to every woman. These five things do:

1. Pictures. Two or three of looks you like, ideally on a face shape or skin tone near your own, and one you dislike. The one you dislike is often the most useful.
2. The feature. Eyes or lips. Choosing one lets the other stay quiet, and the face looks balanced. If you want both strong, say so, and expect the whole look to read as full.
3. The base. Say "I want my freckles to show" or "I want an even, matte skin". That single sentence decides most of the base.
4. The lash. No false lash, a fine strip, a full strip or clusters at the outer corner. Evening makeup with us includes lashes; tell us which kind. Read what false lashes involve if you have not worn them.
5. Time and place. Indoors or outdoors, daylight or evening, four hours or ten. Heat and humidity change what she uses and how she sets it.

Then wear the outfit, or show her a photograph of it, with the jewellery. A gold-embroidered black abaya and a pale silk dress ask for different lips.

Day makeup or evening makeup?

If the event is before sunset and you will be photographed in daylight, day makeup is usually right, even for an occasion. If the event runs into the night, or the photographs will be taken under indoor light and flash, evening makeup is the safer choice: the base is fuller, the eye is deeper and the whole face is set to hold.

What is airbrush makeup?

Airbrush makeup is foundation sprayed onto the skin as a fine mist, using a small compressor and a pen-shaped stylus, instead of being applied with a brush or sponge. The layer is thin and very even, and it can look seamless on clear, smooth skin. It is less easy to adjust once it is on, it needs a steady power supply and a case of equipment, and it is not what our artists use at home. The glossary explains airbrush makeup further.

Airbrush makeup vs traditional

Traditional makeup, applied by hand, can be built up where the skin needs cover and kept sheer where it does not, blended into the hairline and neck, and corrected on the spot. Airbrush gives a uniform film that is harder to layer selectively. Neither is "better": a skilled artist with brushes can produce a lighter finish than a poorly handled airbrush, and the reverse is also true. Judge the artist's work, not the tool.

What is HD airbrush makeup?

The "HD" in HD or HD airbrush makeup refers to high-definition cameras. Products marketed as HD are designed not to bounce flash back at the lens (which is what makes a face look white or chalky in photographs) and to blend so finely that a close lens shows skin, not powder. That standard can be met with brushes or with an airbrush. The glossary entry on HD makeup covers the term. With us, ask for a "flash-safe" base and tell us there will be a photographer, and your artist will choose accordingly.

The small decisions that make the difference

• Ask for a test in daylight. Before she sets the face, look at yourself by a window and under the room's lamps. Colour reads differently in each.
• Blush is where soft glam lives or dies. Too little and the face looks flat under flash; too much and it looks like daytime. Say if you want a flushed look or a sculpted one.
• Set it. For a long evening, a setting spray helps the makeup hold in Dubai's heat.
• Take the lipstick with you. Everything else will last; lips will not survive dinner.
• Prep matters. Clean, moisturised skin and no new products in the days before. Our guide to preparing your skin for a makeup artist has the checklist.

What you can book

Hamd Beauty offers day makeup and evening makeup at home in Dubai, applied by a woman artist in your own light. Evening makeup includes lashes. If hair is part of the plan, The Evening Out package pairs evening makeup with an event hairstyle. Book evening makeup and put your pictures and the time you need to be ready in the notes.