Valentine Alexander - Face Focus

My recent consultation with Valentine Alexander in London proved to be an extraordinarily eye-opening experience in more ways than one. Valentine has spent the past 20 years as a makeup artist for photographers including Peter Beard and Helmut Newton. She now offers one-to-one consultations, based on her own method, Face Focus, a make-up technique based on light-reflection... and I walked away enlightened by her mastery.

Valentine tests every new product on the market, and her mission is to show women and men how to actually 'see' their facial structure and to 'focus' on it in a simple, graphic and refined way, using the same techniques as Renaissance portrait painters, adapted for modern times. You will walk away with a 'face map' so it is easy to re-create the looks at home.

Devotees include Nicky Haslam, who says of Valentine: 'She kind of paints a perfect portrait on your face, and can make any pit bull into a Brad Pitt.'

Valentine is based in Paris and comes to London every month to see her clients. To book an appointment with her, call +44 7956 846 909 or +33 69 963 3410.