It was a day like any other: I was scrolling through my Explore page on Instagram – which is mostly packed with videos of nail art, happy dogs, bright interiors and various beauty bits – when the glowiest of glowy makeup looks jumped out at me. Bear in mind, I consume a lot of beauty content, so it takes a great deal to freeze my thumb mid-scroll. This look was everything I look for in an Instagram vid: it was beautiful, creative and informative all in one. So, naturally, I just had to interview the man behind it – makeup artist and content creator, Jonathon Thorpe.
What I really wanted to know was how Johnny always manages to make the complexion look so glowy. The skin is what initially drew me to his work and is the focal point of his looks, working as the perfect canvas for showing off fun eye looks or experimental blush techniques. You can still see texture, pores and beauty spots, don’t get me wrong, but Johnny makes the skin look healthy and radiant – everything one dreams of for summer. I love that the skin is less about “perfection” and more about a delicious, juicy glowy makeup – hairs and freckles included.
“I think what happens a lot of the time is that people do a glowing skin based on one method, which is to add something super glowy underneath a foundation or on top of a foundation, without really thinking about what their skin type is first,” Johnny explained to me.
“It’s important to understand whether you’re dry or oily, and what you’re trying to achieve. If you have more dry skin, you can use something that’s got more emollients in it, so something that’s gonna give you hydration and glow. A lot of people get confused between glow from dewiness versus a light-reflective pigment, which is gonna shine light off the skin, rather than it be like a wet-glow finish.”
Johnny explained that it’s important to think about the ingredients in your foundations of choice: “If you have more dry skin, you can use something like the Charlotte Tilbury Flawless Filter, which is an oil and silicone-based product, and you can mix that underneath your foundation with your moisturiser and then put your foundation on top. That will give you more of a glow with hydration as well. Dry skin can get away with using an oil-based foundation and more humectant-rich products underneath. Something like the MAC Strobe Cream can look really amazing all over the skin, on top of your moisturiser or mixed in with your moisturiser – and then you can put something like Dior Forever Glow on top.”
You should ditch the oil-based formulas if you already have oily skin though, instead opting for powders even though they’re not particularly trendy right now. When used right, they won’t look cakey. Trends come and go, but your skin type won’t ebb and flow with them. If a liquid, oil-based formula is trending on TikTok, think about whether or not it would work for you personally before trying it in your glowy makeup look.
“If you’re more oily, you want to go for a glow that’s more light reflective versus dewy. I would avoid putting super hydrating, glowy things underneath your foundation – you want your base to still be intact and to hold up, but you want to add that glow on top of your base. So you’d be doing that with things like light-reflective powders such as an Hourglass Ambient Lighting powder or your favourite highlighter of choice, and that’s giving you light reflection with things like mica or synthetic mica. That’s gonna bounce light and give glow but it’s not going to look oily.”
“The same goes for someone with oilier skin when they want to pick out a foundation that’s going to give them that dewy effect in photos specifically. They want to look for ingredients in foundations that are light-reflective powders, which will give a diffused look to the skin, but in a way that bounces light off the skin rather than reflecting from too much glycerin or too many oils, which can create an oily, greasy look.”
With all of this in mind, Johnny wants you to experiment with what works for you: “Of course, you can mix and match all of these products together, regardless of skin type, but it’s important to understand the basics. If your main goal is a long-wear makeup look, these factors should be taken into account.”
Shop Johnny’s favourite formulas for glowy skin below, and shop Johnny’s brand, TAMED·X, here.
FOR DRY SKIN
FOR OILY SKIN
