Mastering Soft Glam Makeup: A Complete Guide

We love experimenting with bold hues and dramatic liner or simply scaling back our makeup entirely. Thankfully there’s one look that encapsulates the best of both: soft glam. Where natural beauty meets a touch of glamour, soft glam makeup allows your unique features to radiate through your makeup look. Soft glam makeup embraces a wealth of neutral colours and works to subtly highlight and sculpt for a beautifully universal look that complements every skin tone. To help you master a soft glam makeup look for every occasion, we’ve gathered expert advice from the makeup virtuosos at Armani beauty. Continue reading for our complete guide to soft glam.

What is soft glam makeup?

As a delicate fusion of natural-looking makeup and full glam, soft glam makeup accentuates your inherent radiance with a colour palette of nude, taupe, beige, brown, burgundy and pink. Perfect as an evening makeup look, for special occasions, or as an elevated version of your daytime look, soft glam makeup is polished and sophisticated without looking heavy. Put simply, this is a modest reimagining of full glam – think subtle eyeliner, softly diffused shadows, natural warmth and highlights, and luminous skin.

How to create a soft glam makeup look

In recreating soft glam, we want to steer away from heavy foundations and harsh contour lines. Instead, we can opt for buildable coverage, lightly diffused bronzer and a dusting of highlighter to mimic the skin’s natural glow. If you’re a makeup novice or just new to soft glam makeup, we know it can be intimidating trying to perfect this look at home – but Armani beauty is here to demystify the process for you. The essential makeup tool kit for soft glam can include all the typical base and setting products, plus a warm nude lipstick and neutral colour palette that includes shimmer shades. Now that you have the right tools, explore our tutorial below.

Start with a hydrating primer

Skin prep is essential for a flawless makeup base, so once you have completed your targeted skincare routine, you can move onto primer. A hydrating primer is going to refresh your complexion, imbue the skin with natural radiance and give your soft glam makeup look that all-important longevity. Using clean fingers, apply a small amount of Luminous Silk Hydrating Primer evenly over your entire face.

Build your luminous base

Since we are bridging the gap between natural and full glam, you can reach for a lightweight, buildable foundation. Soft glam makeup enhances, rather than masks our features, so we want a formula that unifies the complexion while preserving your iridescent glow. Allow a few minutes for your primer to melt into the skin, then you can start to build your foundation. Luminous Silk Foundation gives you a flawless, blurring effect without heavy coverage, so you can apply using a damp beauty blender or foundation blender brush and lightly buff into the skin. If you need help colour-matching, explore our guide on how to choose foundation for your skin tone.

Conceal as desired

Heavy concealer can draw attention to what you’re trying to cover up – particularly under the eyes, so you only need a light touch to achieve your soft glam makeup look. Take your Luminous Silk Lightweight Liquid Concealer and apply to the undereye using the ‘three dot method’ – one dab in the inner corner, one in the centre, one in the outer corner. Though you can use a brush to blend out your concealer, you’ll get a natural, flawless finish by using the tip of your ring finger to lightly press the concealer into the skin.

Add warmth and dimension

Deep contour lines and glitzy highlighter are the antithesis of soft glam makeup, but you can still strategically apply bronzer, blush and highlighter to warm up the face and add dimension for a softly sculpted finish.

1.   Apply a touch of bronzer to the high points of the face like the cheekbones, temples and around the hairline.
2.   Next, sweep your Luminous Silk Glow Blush across the apples of your cheeks and softly brush up towards your temples using a gentle blending motion.
3.   Finish with a dusting of highlighter on the top of your cheekbones and across your cupid’s bow for a stunning, lift-reflecting effect.

Neutral eyes and soft lines

Blending and diffusing your eyeshadow is the key to mastering soft glam eye makeup. We love understated, romantic shades to create this look and a clean sweep of eyeliner to tie it all together.

1.    Start with a neutral base colour like a beige, taupe or brown and apply all over the lid. Hold your eyeshadow brush closer to the end to help softly diffuse the shadow and avoid harsh lines. Use a mixture of sweeping and circular motions for a seamless blend.
2.    You can deepen the colour on the outer corner of the eye or along the lash line – a darker brown will work nicely. Remember to buff it out gently.
3.    Next, use your finger to apply a shimmer on the inner half of the eyelid. This will brighten up the eye and add the edge of ‘glamour’ to your soft glam eye makeup. We love the lustrous sparkle of the Eyes To Kill Stellar Eyeshadow in the colour ‘stellar’.
4.    Eyeliner is optional here, but you can apply a thin line of Smooth Silk Eye Pencil across your upper lash line to add a little more definition to your complete look.

Create fluttery lashes and fluffy brows

Soft glam eye makeup means ditching the false lashes, so opt for a lengthening formula that opens up the eye and gives definition to each lash without looking heavy or clumpy. Armani beauty’s Eyes to Kill Classico Mascara is going to give you the perfect blend of volume, length and definition while keeping the lashes flexible.

Bold brows have a tendency to pull focus, so you’ll want to keep them fluffy and natural-looking when putting together your soft glam makeup look. If you’re concerned about sparseness, you can fill in any patches with the Smooth Silk Brow Pencil and comb through with the spoolie end for a natural blend. Alternatively, you can simply apply tinted or clear brow gel, brushing up and out towards your brow tail.

Opt for a subtle lip

In keeping with our subtle, soft glam aesthetic, your lips can stay fairly neutral. You may want to simply run a clear gloss over your lips or experiment with a nude-toned shade. The Lip Maestro Mediterranea Liquid Lipstick is richly pigmented to give you lasting shimmery colour, while the creamy, velvet finish provides up to 8 hours of comfort. We love the colour ‘tan’ for a soft, dreamy look.

We want your soft glam makeup look to last, so discover our tips on how to stop makeup transferring throughout the day.