Sharon Farrell's Top 10 all time beauty products

With a background as a professional makeup artist and stints at MAC Cosmetics and Napoleon Perdis, in 2011 – Sharon Farrell decided to take her skills with a eyeshadow palette and winged eyeliner into the digital world with the launch of her ‘Sharon The Makeup Artist’ YouTube channel.

Now, part of the MAXCONNECTORS beauty squad and with a cool 220K subscribers to her channel (in fact, her most popular video has received over 662K views), Sharon is making a name for herself as one of Australia’s favourite beauty vloggers. And yes, we’re definitely claiming this one as our own – despite the fact she was an Irish compatriot up until 2012.

Getting to play with makeup and skincare all day erryday, we decided to track Sharon down to find out just what exactly are her go-to can-not-possibly-live-without beauty products. Here, she talks us through her 10 top items…

Estée Lauder Double Wear Light
My ultimate Holy Grail foundation, this long-wearing product is one of the only bases that actually lasts on my extremely oily skin. Its natural ‘skin-like’ finish is not too matte or too dewy with a medium coverage, satisfying my inner Goldilocks desire for skin that looks just right.

MAC Painterly Paint Pot
My bare eyelids look like Jackson Pollock got to work spattering capillaries and freckles on a delightfully purple canvas, so when it comes to priming for eyeshadow, I need something with hella coverage. MAC’s Painterly Paint Pot delivers a full coverage base layer that matches my pasty Irish skin perfectly – giving me a smooth, even and long-wearing canvas to blend my own eyeshadow masterpiece over.

Dermalogica Dynamic Skin Recovery
Did I mention I have pasty Irish skin? Yeah – it doesn’t like the sun. At all. Since moving to Australia, the search for the perfect high SPF that sits nicely under makeup has been fraught with zinc-y ghost-face photos and breakouts of mammoth proportions. That all ended when I discovered Dermalogica’s Dynamic Skin Recovery. With SPF 50, it protects me from the harsh Aussie sun but is lightweight enough to wear everyday under makeup without a breakout in sight.

Eye of Horus Dual Brow Perfect
I’m not blessed with naturally full and bushy eyebrows, but I can sure as hell fake them with this bad boy. It’s a double ended product with a waxy pencil on one side that bulks up the body of my brows and hides my many bald spots (is female pattern eyebrow balding a thing?), while the gel on the other end is like a tinted super glue that sticks to every hair, making them appear thicker and holding them in position all day. No other gel I’ve used can compete with this stuff’s hold power.

Klorane Dry Shampoo
How did I live without dry shampoo? I use this to freshen between washes as well as adding texture and volume to my freshly-washed tresses. Klorane is my brand of choice right now as it’s the most gentle on my delicate scalp and doesn’t leave a grey ashy haze as others I’ve tried.

L’Oréal Infallible Fixing Mist
A relatively new discovery for me, this stuff increases the wear time of my makeup by about 4 hours. It’s amazing! You simply spritz it generously after you’ve finished your face and voila! Makeup that’s sealed in for the whole day.

ELF Blotting Paper
Back to the oily skin thing… Sometimes when you’re out and about and need to freshen up your makeup, powder just isn’t enough. When you’re as oily as me, you really need to remove some of that grease before fixing anything. ELF’s blotting papers are cheap as chips and do a wonderful job of mopping up all that shine. I have a pack in every handbag.

MAC Kinda Sexy Lipstick
My ultimate ‘nude but not concealer’ lipstick. It’s a soft matte texture; peachy in tone with a hint of pink so it suits my pale skin perfectly. It looks like sex when paired with a sultry smokey eye and makes a gorgeous cream blush in a pinch. I’ve gone through about 4 tubes of this stuff and will forever repurchase.

Maybelline Colossal Big Shot Mascara
The drugstore is where it’s at for mascaras these days and Maybelline’s Big Shot is truly epic. The wand is the perfect conical size and shape to get right into the roots of the lashes and coat every single hair. The result is full volume and drama, separated but just a tad clumpy for that rock and roll look. It’s uber long-wearing and does not flake or rub off under the eyes.

Bondi Sands Ultra Dark Mousse
That pale and pasty Irish skin again, eh? Look, I think fair skin is beautiful, but sometimes I just wanna look a golden bronzed goddess, K? Bondi Sands mousse is the easiest fake tan I’ve ever used – it’s never streaky and always gives an even and natural-looking colour. Ultra dark is my shade of choice as I’ve found it’s the longest lasting. And don’t let the name put you off, one coat is still natural-looking on my ghostly complexion.