Welcome to Five or Fewer, a new Who What Wear series that brings you the best A-list beauty looks in five (or fewer!) easy-to-follow steps. To break down each hair or makeup look, we invite the industry's top beauty talent—such as Margot Robbie's hairstylist—right into our Los Angeles office to demonstrate an easy how-to on our beauty editors, Erin Jahns and Courtney Higgs. Next up, Chanel celebrity makeup artist Kara Yoshimoto Bua breaks down Saoirse Ronan's glossy, periwinkle eye shadow moment that not only turned heads on this year's Oscars red carpet but is the perfect way to kick off your upcoming spring makeup aesthetic. Keep scrolling for the non-intimidating play-by-play and to shop the exact products Bua used on Ronan and me.
Step #1: Start With Your Skin
The moment I sat in front of Bua, I warned her about the current state of my skin. My complexion was purging after an intense facial I had received the week before in addition to my normal bout of hormonal breakouts. Ronan has been candid about her own battles with acne, and Bua immediately soothed my worries saying she could easily help camouflage any lingering bumps or redness.
After prepping my skin and eye area with eye cream and moisturizer, Bua began the process of evening out my skin tone by pressing Chanel's velvety, buildable coverage foundation into my skin with her palms. She explained to me that this foundation, in particular, has a blurring effect, which is helpful when dealing with pigmentation or textural issues. (It also happens to photograph fabulously and look amazing on the red carpet.) After most of the redness was counteracted, she went in with a foundation brush and some concealer to give more love to any areas needing more coverage—like my under-eyes and the specific areas I was breaking out.
To finish off the skin, Bua reached for Chanel's powder compact foundation (in lieu of a normal powder) to add an extra layer of super-light coverage to areas she wanted to set like over my T-zone and underneath cheekbones. To avoid looking creasy or heavy, she didn't use anything under my eyes.
Pro tip: If you're worried about or experiencing under-eye creasing, Bua recommends taking a brush or sponge spritzed with pure rose water and dabbing and blending underneath the eye area to diffuse away excess product that could cause or draw attention to creasing or product buildup.
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Step #2: Apply Your Shadow
To create Ronan's diffused and whimsical periwinkle eyelid, Bua swirled together a couple of different shimmery shadows from Chanel. (See the quads linked below). FYI: You can choose which shades to use from each palette depending on your skin tone and coloring, but here, she mixed a few shadows together: the shimmering blue-gray and champagne shades from the Au Fil de l’Eau Palette and the iridescent lavender and the sparkling aubergine shades from the Au Fil des Fleurs.
Start by curling your lashes, apply one coat of mascara (Bua likes to do this first as to avoid any mascara mistakes on top of the eye shadow), and then saturate your lid with pigment, focusing on the eye contour. To finish, she tapped a shimmering eye gloss with a purple-blue iridescence in the center of the lid for a glossy finish, followed by a thin swipe of black liquid liner. For more intensity, you can create a thicker cat eye, add a few more coats of mascara, or even add some falsies to this mix.
Pro tip: If you have fair coloring like Ronan and me, Bua says you could also opt for a brown mascara versus black, which will look a bit softer and more natural. Also, try using eye drops instead of water or makeup remover on a Q-tip to take care of any mistakes around the eye area!
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Step #3: Brows
The best way to approach your brows really depends on how sparse or full your arches are, in addition to their color. For Ronan, Bua used Chanel's brow crayon followed by a gel, but in my case (since my brows are dark and my hair is so light), Bua wanted to make sure the finish was a bit more diffused and not too intense.
She first used the same crayon she used on Ronan to add some definition, and then she went in with a powder (a neutral eye shadow totally works here, too!) in a color that was similar to my natural brow color.
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Step #4: Finishing Touches
Think lips, cheeks, and a little bit of highlight. To contrast the glowy shimmer of the lids, Bua went for a subtle, matte-stained lip. She began by defining my lips with Chanel's luxe lip crayon and then went in with the brand's mousse-like, lightweight powder liquid lip formula. She added a pop of blush to the apple of each cheek to create a hint of contrast and to amp up the contoured look of my cheekbones, and she also used Chanel's new liquid highlighter on my collarbones and the high points of my face to catch the light and lend some extra luminosity.
Pro tip: Make sure you pop on a lip balm at the beginning of your skin prep and makeup process so it has a chance to soak in and hydrate your pout before you get to the lips stage! Also, drink tons and tons of water. Bua said my lips were chapped because I hadn't counteracted my morning cup of coffee with an extra glass of H2O.
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