President, chairman, chief creative officer, and founder of her eponymous brand, Charlotte Tilbury MBE is a force to be reckoned with. While it’s easy to acknowledge Tilbury’s success based on brand power and sales alone – along with her prevalence on Hollywood’s most illustrious red carpets – it’s the products themselves that put Charlotte on the map. For those who are yet to learn what all the fuss is about, Bazaar Arabia is going back to basics with the beauty behemoth – let us introduce Charlotte’s 8 bestselling products and why every one is a must-have hero.

Airbrush Flawless Powder

Charlotte’s Airbrush Flawless Finish powder gives an airbrushed effect in seconds. “As a makeup artist, I was never satisfied with the cakey, drying powder formulas that made skin look so dull, tired and dehydrated,” explains Charlotte. As a make-up artist, Charlotte needed a finely milled powder with the right ingredients, formula and finish, but with nothing on the market, she wanted to add skincare ingredients into a face powder.

“My skin-perfecting micro-powder smooths, blurs and sets for flawless, poreless looking skin. What also sets it apart is that it is infused with hydrating Rose Wax and Almond Oil, so it is never dusty, cakey or patchy, while its light-as-air, silky soft texture moves with the skin and never sits in fine lines!” Top tip? After applying foundation and concealer, use Charlotte’s Powder & Sculpt brush to apply my Airbrush Flawless Finish powder down the T-zone, underneath the eyes and anywhere else you would like to minimise the appearance of shine.

Hollywood Flawless Filter

“When I was innovating my incredible award-winning Hollywood Flawless Filter, I wanted to steal DNA from Hollywood beauty lights and the secret tricks of 1950s films and combine it with the perfecting properties of social media filters. I wanted to bottle the soft-focus, smoothing light and give it to everyone, everywhere.” Charlotte pulled this off with panache – Hollywood Flawless Filter gives a legendary glow, and hydrates the skin for up to 24 hours. Its Glow Gel Technology™ means that it can be worn alone for fresh-looking skin, or can be mixed with foundation, or even used as a highlighter.

Pillow Talk Lipstick

“Pillow Talk began when I was on a mission to create a universally flattering shade for the lips that mimicked the tones we are naturally blessed with,” explains Charlotte. “I identified the dominant pink undertones in everyone’s lips to find one that amplifies your natural beauty, then built in nude and yellow undertones to create a nuanced shade that has a beautifying effect on everyone. Pillow Talk is everyone’s perfect shade.”

Pillow Talk Lip Liner

Once she had perfected the Pillow Talk shade, Charlotte soon launched her Pillow Talk Lip Cheat lip liner, a nude-pink hue that aims to reshape and resize your natural contours, for fuller looking lips. The pencil lasts for up to six hours, with a waterproof formula, and has hydrating Jojoba Oil for a smooth, velvety texture. “To resize and reshape the look of your lips, follow the natural lip line, then overline slightly at the cupid’s bow and the centre of the lower lip. This is my ultimate Tilbury lip trick and the secret to creating the illusion of fuller looking lips in seconds.”

Magic Cream

The first product that Charlotte ever created, her iconic Magic Cream was born out of necessity backstage to immediately revive the look of celebrities’ and supermodels’ skin. “As a makeup artist, I would create the most iconic looks on the most beautiful people in the world, but noticed their skin was often dry, dull and exhausted from their busy schedules, explains Charlotte. “I realised that if you want to have a beautiful painting, you need to have a beautiful canvas, but I was unable to find anything that could instantly transform the look of skin – so I wanted to change that.” The trick is in the science – the moisturiser is powered by Cushion + Lift Mesh Technology^TM, a magic ratio of ingredients that smooths and plumps the appearance of skin, lifts the looks of facial contours and retexturizes the feel of skin.

Charlotte’s top tip for applying? “Use my signature Tilbury Tap technique. Starting from the lower cheek, glide the product upwards and outwards towards the temple. Gently tap fingertips from the centre of the face across the cheeks in a pitter-patter motion, avoiding the eye contour, to help boost micro-circulation in seconds with this massage technique. Smooth the fingertips along the cheekbones, then gently pinch either side of your chin and smooth along your jawline in one sweeping motion. Starting in the centre of the forehead between the eyebrows, massage in circular motions out towards the temples. Gently pat the excess with your ring finger. Don’t forget about the neck – applying gentle pressure, massage along the décolletage and up to the neck in an upward lifting motion.”

Airbrush Flawless Setting Spray

“As a makeup artist, I was never satisfied with other setting sprays on the market. Where I applied glow and radiance, they would dull and mattify, where I applied rich layers of texture and tone, they would smudge and disrupt, and where I applied nuances of colour, they would blend and cancel out colour.” Charlotte’s Airbrush Flawless Setting Spray took five years in the making, but its formula lasts 16 hours – after completing your makeup look, apply it all over your face to lock in your look with no melting, no fading and no creasing all day.

Contour Wands

“I have been contouring the faces of celebrities and supermodels for over 30 years using clever lighting and shading tricks. But with so many people scared of contouring, there was nothing easy for them to use, which is why I invented the contour wand category with my Hollywood Contour Wands,” explains Charlotte. The foolproof, easy-lock cushion applicator and buildable, blendable formula allow you to customise your contour, while the weightless texture layers flawlessly over liquid and powder makeup and never sits in fine lines. “For a sculpted Hollywood effect in seconds, start by sucking in your cheekbones, sweeping the magic cushion applicator on the hollows in a horizontal line towards your hairline. To sculpt and define the nose, apply the wand in vertical stripes on the sides of your nose and loop underneath, then apply on the sides of your forehead, temples and jawline.”

Blush Wands

Charlotte’s Blush Wand formula is infused with Glow Gel Tech^TM and light-reflecting Pearlescent Pigments for a glossy, glass-like finish that stays dewy. Pillow Talk and Pinkgasm are the most popular shades, which can be added to the top of cheekbones, under the brow bone and above the cupid’s bow to give the illusion of lifting your face, like strings of light pulling it gently upwards. “All you need to do is dot, dot, blend and glow – one dot for day, two dots for disco.”

Imagery supplied