What do Margot Robbie, Cindy Crawford, Priyanka Chopra and Jodie Comer have in common? Despite being some of the most beautiful women in Hollywood, these ladies also share one game-changing, secret weapon: makeup artist, Pati Dubroff. A woman who is best known for her fresh-faced, soft-toned glam, almost solely made up using Chanel products.
Though wrangling an appointment with Pati herself might be near impossible, fortunately for us she’s often spilling her secrets to the public. During a recent interview with Net-A-Porter, Pati shared her makeup application technique, otherwise known as “zoning”, as the secret behind keeping her looks natural yet completely flawless.
How does zoning work?
According to Pati, dividing your face into different sections is a simple way to maintain a “thoughtful amount of coverage but let your skin still feel alive.”
How do you achieve this?
Through a bit of deliberate and strategic skin prep. “You want hydration and moisture around the perimeter of your face and a mattifying primer through the centre near the chin, nose and at the top of the forehead, so you don’t have to rely on powder so much – it’s ageing, heavy and takes away the ‘naturalness’ of skin,” explained Pati.
Foundation application
Thought you had to make the decision between a cream or powder formula when it came to your foundation of choice? Pati encourages you to throw out the rule book and mix up the textures.
The result? “Flawless but real skin polish,” she assures. “Apply a creamy formula through the centre [of the face], where you want that extra coverage and something more liquid around the outer edges of the face so that it feels alive and glowy.”
For those who have a bit more shine than they’d like, Pati advises to take a small, precise brush (we recommend the NYX Professional Makeup Pro Blending Brush, $19.95 at NYX Cosmetics) and deliberately blot powder in the areas you’d like to mattify or blur. She stresses the importance of keeping a light hand at all times, as “it’s difficult to bring skin back to life after you’ve applied too much powder.” Noted.
Main image credit: @patidubroff
What do you think about this technique? Will you try it for yourself?
I’ve never heard of this technique before and it’s probably not something I can be bothered to do to be honest.
Haha very relatable
Sounds sensible, but a lot more work.
I agree – a lot more work!
I think I do do this a bit – I sometimes put a matte effect foundation on and then add some shimmery blush and though it sounds weird it just kind of sometimes works…. I don’t think about it too much but just use what’s sort of in my mind or at arms length!
I’m al natural technique. Keep it simple and normal.
She sounds like a fabulous make up artist.. I don’t think I’ll probably try it myself as I rarely wear a full face of make up these days.
Never thought about doing this before but maybe I’ll try it out
Interesting but seems like a lot of high maintenance.
Interesting but I don’t spend much time applying makeup.
It sounds very sensible indeed.
Not heard of this before. I don’t think I would be able to do this or have the time. Margot Robbie looks amazing, very beautiful.
Makes sense but I’m a bit lazy. Margot always looks lovely. My friends met her when she was a teenager and knew her Mum who I think was a physiotherapist at the time.
I wish I had the time lol! I do use Chanel foundation,it has a natural look which I prefer
Yeah, not for me.
Too much hard work for me. I like to keep it simple.
Makeup Artist Pati Dubroff, certainly does a wonderful job on the Celebrities that she has. Have never heard of zoning it really seems to make a difference would need to try this technic.
Wow more steps and products
I have not heard of this technique but I do think that it would be quite time consuming.
I can’t even remember the last time I even wore foundation
This really helpful. I do this sometimes.
Commonsense really, would take more time though
Sounds like a lot effort!
I think its a good technique, I don’t use a lot of make up when i do apply make up unless its a special occasion
Interesting concept, but I just don’t have the time to treat each zone differently, sometimes I just slap it on and then dash! 🤣
I am far too lazy to do this, but it does sound good!
I would love to have her as my makeup artist.
I bet this could go very wrong for people like me without good skills.
I’ll definitely try this technique, it sounds interesting. Margot Robbie is such a natural beauty and an excellent actor.
Margot Robbie is a beautiful a natural beauty
I really don’t like blending my foundation in with a brush, maybe it’s just the brush I use but it always comes out cakey.
I think you need to be quite skilled to get this right!
Havent heard of this
Very intriguing, but I just don’t have the time to devote to applying cosmetics.
happy wheels for you
Margot Robbie is very beautiful.
She sure is
Sounds intriguing,
sounds intriguing