How to pull off the pressed flower makeup trend
Australian makeup artist Karla Rocuzzo shares her tips
If you thought pressed flowers were just historic touchstones, harking back to an era of Victorian botanists and afternoons spent with your grandmother scrapbooking, we think you’d be pleasantly surprised to discover you are very much incorrect.
The quaint and delicate preservation of some of nature’s most beautiful specimens has started making its way into our makeup routines, and these naturalistic beats incorporate and utilise just as much glitter and modern makeup formulas as they do fresh blooms.
We spoke to Australian makeup artist and founder of With Karla, Karla Rocuzzo, about how we can fully embrace this botanical beauty trend.
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It’s all about tools and skin prep
Just like applying a pair of faux lashes, you’ll need to “get your hands on a great pair of tweezers,” says Rocuzzo. “This will help immensely in precision” when applying all those delicate pressed blooms.
As for adhesives, Rocuzzo recommends staying away “from anything that isn't skin-friendly… [and using] makeup adhesives only.”
Her fail-safe suggestion? “Use eyelash glue”. You heard her, put down the Pritt stick, sis.
In terms of skin prep, it’s all about minimising any excess oil: “Steer away from having thicker, oilier products on the skin,” the With Karla founder explains. “This can cause the [lash] glue to slide, and we don't want that.”
“[Instead,] stick to thinner consistency products like gel primers, they dry much quicker and leave less residue on the skin.”
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What about using pressed flowers as lash decorations?
“This technique is incredible and requires a lot of patience,” says Rocuzzo.
“You want to work with actually applying the flowers to [a faux] lash band before applying [the faux lashes] to your eyes,” the makeup artist explains. “This will make it a lot easier for you to keep them in place and stuck down.”
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Want a more wearable alternative to the pressed flower trend?
“A more wearable look can be achieved by choosing [just one] part of your face to focus on,” says Rocuzzo.
“For example, if you choose an eye look, you can create some really beautiful work and keep the rest of the face a little more minimal,” the makeup artist explains. “This will keep the focus on that area and therefore be a little more wearable”.
After all, you can always save a full face of flowers for the weekend…
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Main image credit: @sweetmutuals, @rowisingh, @siennadaisymakeup
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Briar Clark got her start in the media industry in 2017, as an intern for Marie Claire and InStyle. Since then, her keen interest in fashion and beauty has landed her gigs as a Digital Content Producer and Beauty Editor with titles like Girlfriend, Refinery29, BEAUTYcrew and beautyheaven. She loves the way seemingly innocuous topics like skin care and style have the ability to put a smile on people’s faces or make them think about themselves a little differently. A big believer in self love and experimentation, Briar has made a point of becoming the Australian beauty industry’s unofficial guinea pig for unusual treatments and daring hair trends. When she’s not testing out the latest beauty launches, Briar is big on broadening her horizons, mostly in the form of food but she’s also partial to travelling to new destinations both near and far (and of course, allocating an extra bag to bring their best beauty offerings home with her).
