Here at EcoSalon, we’d never tell you there are any rules when it comes to looking you’re best. The confidence that comes from choosing to embrace your unique self is what true beauty is. Glamour, on the other hand, is a totally different animal. As Dita Von Teese remarked, “glamour is the process of turning yourself into something.” Admittedly, most of us aren’t heading off to jobs as vintage burlesque performers every morning, but women throughout history have put their “face on” to deal with the challenges in front of them.

Making friends with make-up is key. Wrapping our heads around the fun and creativity of exaggerating the feminine form as an empowering ritual, rather than an oppressive one, is the beginning of our journeys towards authentic glamour.

The other essential part comes down to recognizing there really is an art to it. The difference between lipstick that is quickly smudged on and one applied with a sense of artful delight is always evident. Thankfully, there’s a wealth of knowledge from the cosmetic industry’s top innovators available on every Internet-connected device in your home.  Now that every one has access to the latest insider beauty secrets, it’s up to you to define and create your best face forward.

Here are our picks for the best tutorials on the top seasonal make up trends to enhance and inspire your personal make up technique.

1. Sisters Sam and Nic Chapman, known to over 650K subscribers as Pixiwoo, have made their focus recreating the kind of make up seen on film and on the red carpet. Their popular Bond Girl series are fun looks to recreate, this ’70s shimmer Solitaire Make-up from 1973’s Live & Let Die exemplifies what spring 2013 runways were all about – smoldering eyes with loads of highlights and pointy bow lips.

2. Helping you to finally master liquid eyeliner is Michelle Phan’s goal in this instructive Easy Ways to Use Liquid Liner tutorial. With more than 2.25 million subscribers, she’s the Internet’s most popular make up blogger. Take a look at her tips for achieving the perfect cat eye, an enduring and flattering vintage look.

3. Lisa Eldridge is the talented industry insider providing insight into the world of the editorial make up artist. Her stunning make up applications reveal the art and technical prowess behind the process. In this tutorial, Eldridge shows how two items – bronzer and highlighter – can totally transform by creating the ultimate in ‘no make up’ looks.

Image: Brendan W. Brown

The post Spring Glamour Guide: The 3 Best Video Makeup Tutorials appeared first on EcoSalon.

As I flicked through the January edition of Harpers Bazaar, I came across an excerpt from a newly released bio of Jacqueline Kennedy by John Loring, who had worked closely with her during her days as a Doubleday book editor. He described her savvy approach to dressing and wide knowledge of fashion, writing, “Yet Jackie was more interested in how people wore things than in what they wore.”

I imagine in this digital age of fashion voyeurism, the many online style tools available with a click of her mouse would have delighted the high priestess of American chic.

Photographer Scott Schuman, better known as “The Sartorialist” to the rest of the world is one of the industry’s most influential figures, capturing exactly how the stylish are wearing their things from New York to Milan. Together with StreetPeeper, currently documenting the world’s fashion editors as they arrive for the fall shows, the sites make for utterly irresistible daily style inspiration. Another favorite of mine is Vogue’s online feature “Five days, Five looks, One girl” where they break down the looks of glamorous gals about town in their daily ensembles.  Rather than looking at fashion through the abstraction of a magazine layout, it’s useful to see how real people wear the latest designer fashion to work, albeit to a job that accommodates 5-inch ponyskin heels.

Putting together our outfit for work every morning is one of the most creative things modern women do. In our fast-paced, work-heavy lives, few of us engage in other types of creative pastimes. Many of us are waking up to the environmental ramifications of forever buying more while still wanting to revel in the fun and creativity of fashion. Happily there are a number of sites that aim to provide with the grown-up version of playing paper dolls. Vogue’s Light box, Polyvore and Closet Couture allow users to put together an outfit, to see which combinations work – and which don’t – without handing over credit cards or adding to our overstuffed closets.

Perhaps you get your creative kicks from hair and make up. The hundreds and thousands of viewers who enjoy the beauty tutorials on YouTube phenom, Pixiwoo prove you are not alone.  Make up artists, Samantha and Nicola Chapman’s exhaustive resources show you everything from how to wear to Spring’s acid bright color palette to how to skillfully recreate the chiseled cheekbones seen on the runways.

InStyle magazine’s Hollywood Makeover feature allows you to upload a photo of yourself and superimpose a collection of celebrity make up and hairstyles.  Another way to utilize the style know-how of celebrity stylists  (who are largely responsible for enhancing their client’s best features and minimizing their worst), is to take some cues from your celebrity lookalike.  Try uploading a picture of yourself onto My Heritage’s face recognition tool to find out which star you most resemble and pick up some hair and make up tricks from your Hollywood doppelganger. You can spend a frivolous ten minutes, okay, 40 minutes – uploading your photos to produce a range of celebrity faces that are most similar to yours. Consider yourself forewarned and turn the gender function on first.

And if, after all that fun and creativity, you do decide to go ahead and buy something, first visit Made By, a U.K. based non profit that recently launched a set of online tools that allow us to make our fashion purchases as transparently as possible. Features such as Scorecards and Track & Trace, record the eco-developments of the participating brands and allows the consumer to see exactly where and who created a garment.

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