With Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia fast approaching, this week gave us a taste of what’s to come with the latest collection from Aje Resort 17/18 hitting the runway. Teaming up with the talented beauty team from Laura Mercier, headed up by MUA Ania Milczarczyk, Aje delivered the perfect fusion of contemporary fashion mixed with pared-back beauty.

Queen of creating a flawless face, Ania produced a look which took a key focus on natural beauty – think flawless complexions and dewy, hydrated skin. A sign of what’s to come this MBFWA? Perhaps, or perhaps just a sign of the times.

Amongst the commotion and madness that is backstage of a fashion show, we managed to sit down with Ania for a quick chat and to pick her brain for her top beauty tips derived from this look (that can be used in your everyday routine).

1. Rosehip oil as an alternative to a powder highlight
It’s the perfect, natural substitute to a powder highlight, and it’s probably sitting in the drawer of your bathroom right now. Rosehip oil adds a subtle glow to the skin when added before or after foundation. Ania recommends using rosehip oil to improve complexion and maintain a luminous, fresh finish to the skin: “Rather than using a powder highlight, we are going in for a really high gloss, almost a wet look. We’re using rosehip oil as our highlight.”

2. Don’t be afraid to mix products
Mixing beauty products can sometimes seem like a disastrous mess, especially when dealing with liquids, however when done right – the results can be beautiful. For the Aje look, Ania combined two products and then pressed them gently into the skin: “I put a little bit of rosehip oil on my hand, and then to make it even shinier, I put in about half a finger’s worth of the Radiance Primer. I then mixed that together.”

3. Match your body to your face
Makeup 101 has taught us that matching your body to your face is pretty damn important… and Ania agrees: “If I’m doing a shoot on the beach where the girl’s covered in oil, I will actually put some of the oil on the face because it looks really weird if you’ve got an oily body and then a powdery face.”

4. Non-touring… it’s a “thing”
From contouring to non-touring, the last 12 months has seen beauty take a backflip. Incorporating this idea into the makeup for the Aje show, Ania tells us: “We’re using a cream blush so that we don’t have anything looking powdery on the skin – we want everything to look like it’s coming from within the skin. We’re using a cream so we can really blend it out super sheer. The contour is meant to be invisible – I feel like it’s that ‘non-tour’ thing that’s in now, right?!”

5. Blend, blend, blend!
It can’t be emphasised enough, blending is your best friend when it comes to refining any beauty look – even the less complicated ones. Blending with a sponge or your finger will work wonders in reducing lines and creating a seamless finish. Ania talked us through this process for the Aje show: “There’s no real tricks tonight, we’re just blending everything out. For all of the bases we’re using a tinted moisturiser, and if anyone needs a little bit more coverage, we’re using the Candleglow Foundation. To really sheer that out – we don’t want any lines – we’re blending it out with a little sponge.”

Written by: Yasemin Genc + Images by: Yelena Fairfax