Ojas Rajani and Some Handy Makeup Tips

By : Juhi Bansal

Ojas Rajani is a well known make up stylist and her clientele includes the likes of Aishwarya Rai, Sonam Kapoor et al. She visited Ahmedabad a few weeks back to do a makeup workshop for INGLOT Cosmetics. A regular visitor at the INGLOT outlet (there’s no other major makeup brand in Ahmedabad), during my last visit I was invited to attend the workshop by the illustrious Ms. Rajani.

Celebrity make up artist -Ojas Rajani

Now I have attended enough make up trainings in the last few years to understand and in turn use the oft repeated basic skin prepping and priming etc but a quick Google search told me she specialized in dramatic eye make up and that got me interested. For all those who know me well, know I am not much of a makeup person. On an average day, you would mostly find me wearing my trusted tinted sun screen, little eye liner/kajal and a dab of lip balm but I do like to dress up at times and definitely love writing about my make up experiments as much as anything else.

She worked on 3 looks for us:

A smokey eyes evening look, peaches and cream day look and a traditional bridal/wedding look.

From Left to Right: smokey eyes evening look, peaches and cream day look and a traditional bridal/wedding look.

My favorite out of these was the peaches and cream, day look. It was so effortless and low maintenance. The only requirement-you must have a gorgeous skin since she hardly used any preppers on the skin! The main products she used to get the desired look:

Illuminating cheek serum- this one got me really interested. It’s perfect for a dewy look. I have not tried it personally so will not recommend it yet.

Peach and pink lip stain with plumper- I am not a big fan of lip stains but seeing how she used it both on the lips and cheeks, it is on my shopping list now.

The second look was the Smokey eye look. I’ve tried it here before.

I normally use a combination of black and grey shadows, kajal and eye-liner to get the desired smokey eye look.

Ojas used a mix of black and brown shadows which gave a totally different effect and a lovely one at that! She also suggested contouring the top arch of the eye socket with peach shadow before working on the smokey look to give a more defined look. I have to agree completely!

Ojas working on the wedding look

The third look was the wedding/bridal look.

She’s used highlighter below the eye brows and the cheeks to grab light on those points. She’s also used Extra Shimmer Powder by INGLOT to dust the face in the end for the extra glowy look.

I will do my own version of these 3 looks later, but here, let me just sum up some important tips by her that are worth keeping in mind.

She suggests using an angled brush instead of using fingers or a sponge to apply foundation. I swear by my foundation sponge but this tip seems worth trying.
No make up is complete without mascara! I have to agree with her on this.
If you have deep set eyes do not close the liner at the tear ducts. This will make your eyes appear bigger.
While sticking false eye lashes always start with the inner corner of the eye lid and slowly move outward by stretching the lid.
Mix and match two or more lipstick colors to get your own unique shades.
Use translucent powder instead of compact on your foundation/base.
Gel liners are better than pencil or liquid ones. They stay longer and are more versatile.
Blend-blend-blend. Use a blending brush and keep blending after each step-primer, foundation, loose powder, bronzer, blush, translucent powder.

She was extremely approachable and patient with the crowd. However, there were certain things I didn’t quite agree with.

She talks about using lip colors that go with ones complexion-dark skinned girls should try lighter shades and vice versa. I have always believed in experimenting rather than following the so-called “rules”. After all, dusky is the new fair so flaunt it!
She mostly uses cream based blushes and eye shadows which considering the weather may not be the best idea.
She talked about the magical eye brow pencil by INGLOT and I bought it immediately. Sadly, there are no short cuts when it comes to the perfect eye brow. Comb-fill-press-set is the mantra. The brow pencil is wax based and leaves your brow hair clumpy. I will not recommend it.