A signature technique
The tricks Soterion uses on the candidates are the same ones she teaches to customers at her Manchester, N.H., salon, and during a visit last month, she demonstrated a contouring technique (on a 61-year-old librarian from Derry named Cheryl Stockman) that she had used nearly seven months earlier to give Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton a headline-making makeover.
First, “prepare the canvas” by applying the following items in order: retexturing cream, concealer if necessary, liquid foundation and a mineral powder foundation.
“In addition to adding a dewy, youthful glow,” Soterion says, “you’ve made a very smooth surface.”
And sure enough, after just minutes under the brush, Stockman, who seemed as pale as a New England snow bank when she first sat in Soterion’s director’s chair, had a subtle glow. Then Soterion deftly brushed a streak of bronzer onto Stockman’s right cheek. “I use my Mosaic Bronzer as a contouring powder. It has the ability to make the area that you put it look like it is recessed or receding, so if you apply it right under the cheekbone, it gives the illusion of sculpting.”
She said the biggest mistake women make when attempting to contour is putting the lines too low. “That creates jowls, and there is a fine line between jowls and lift.”
After contouring, apply a brighter shade of blush to the apple of the cheeks. “That really pulls the apple of the cheek forward and creates a look for structural lift.”
After a few more minutes fussing over Stockman, Soterion stepped back to compare the contoured and uncontoured cheeks, and the results were impressive. The right side of the librarian’s face suddenly looked taut, toned and sculpted, with a high, defined cheekbone that hadn’t been visible before, while the unenhanced left side looked so puffy by comparison it seemed that perhaps she’d recently undergone dental surgery.
“It’s a simple little trick that makes a woman look more lifted, and it can instantly take 10 to 20 pounds off the appearance of a fuller face.”
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-- Adam Tschorn
