Jennifer Aniston has stepped out in so many stunning makeup looks over the years, but her fresh-faced and bronzed look from the 90s is still one of our favorites - so we were all ears when the makeup artist she worked with then lifted the curtain on getting her 'simple' and sun-kissed look.
Celebrity makeup artist Gucci Westman has worked with Jennifer for a number of decades, spanning right back into the 90s when she was on Friends and solidified a simple, bronzed and glowing makeup look as her go-to. Westman is the genuis behind this look and is largely considered to be the artist who made Jen into the beauty-icon we know today.
So, imagine our delight when Westman released a makeup line and then revealed exactly how to use her products to get Jen's look. We loved the items she launched with, her foundation stick making it onto our roundup of best foundation sticks for flawless coverage and her liquid blusher is now one of our beauty editor's top formulas.
But Westman drew our attention to a different collection products when she revealed how she creates Jen's bronzed complexion. Speaking to Marie Claire, she revealed that it's taken time to really lock down the look into one that makes Jen feel beautiful - and she's sure it will make you feel just as good, too.
"You know, Jennifer Aniston has been my girl since 2001, I think, or 2000 even," she said. "That’s a long time, and, of course, I know how to make her feel beautiful. I feel that I know what makes a lot of women feel beautiful.”
To start with this confidence-boosting, bronzed makeup look, she says to start with the skin, explaining, "I start with, for example, the [Vital Skincare Complexion Foundation] Drops and then I would go and use a Beauty Butter Bronzer.”
Shop Westman Atelier Complexion Products
The perfect skin tint for no makeup makeup days, the Vital Skincare Complexion Drops from Westman Atelier offer a radiant finish with light to medium coverage. The hydrating and lightweight formula leaves skin healthy-looking thanks to the host of natural and skin-loving ingredients like tsubaki oil, almond oil, inseng extract and pomegranate extract.
A buttery-soft formula that delivers a hefty dose of sun-kissed color in a soft-matte finish, this bronzer is a fan-favorite. With no shimmer, it's the perfect product to add a natural-tan finish to the skin. Plus, the addition of mango seed oil, cocoa seed and cupuaçu butters to the formula helps skin to lock in moisture as it intensely hydrates and nourishes your complexion.
If you're a fan of contouring, this contour stick is set to become your favorite makeup product. Designed to sculpt and define for a subtle-yet-chiselled look, the velvety soft texture of the product allows for effortless blending even when on the go, with its buildable pigment letting you create more dramatic looks when you feel like it too.
The Vital Skincare Complexion Foundation from Westman's self-titled brand Westman Atelier is the ultimate skin care makeup hybrid. It's more of a tinted serum than a foundation, with complexion-boosting drops gliding across the skin like a 'lightweight oil' before setting to offer coverage with the feel of a hydrating serum.
According to Nordstrom, where you can shop the entire Westman Atelier collection, the foundation leaves you with 'dewy, facial-fresh skin' and creates 'the perfect, skin-like base for no makeup makeup looks.'
With your glowing, hydrated base done, Westman says it's time to add bronzer - and it's this step that goes the furthest in giving you Jen's stunning, sun-kissed look.
“I do a bronzer like I’m changing her skin tone," she explained, saying to apply the product where the sun would naturally hit to add natural dimension to the face.
woman&home's beauty editor Fiona McKim says that the bronzer is ideal for warming up skin that's yet to see the sun, or that's being properly protected under a facial SPF, with Westman's formula being a brilliant go-to. She says, "Almost £70 for bronzer is no joke, but this does offer a makeup-artist-created, moisture-boosting formula, pleasingly inclusive shade range and crucially – a nice soft focus (aka non-glittery) finish. It’s no surprise that Jennifer Aniston, the embodiment of easy, summery, surfy LA beauty, is a big fan."
With bronzer done and dusted, then you want to add more depth and color by contouring the cheekbones as Westman does when pampering Jen.
“I make her quite tan using our Face Trace Contour Stick in ‘Truffle’ and the [Body Butter] bronzer. I use little by little. I add and I add, until it’s the right amount and then I add a pop of color to the cheeks [with blusher],” she says.
Everything then gets set in place with a fine layer of 'pressed powder so it lasts all day and night. And that's the skin done, allowing you to now go on and create whatever look you want to.
Westman says that this base lends itself to a variety of looks and explains, “Of course you have fun with your eye makeup and your lips. But the skin really needs to be alive. It’s not always the same finish, it’s different all the time, but as long as it looks like skin and amplified, as opposed to cosmetic feeling.”
Whether you add a glossy, peach-toned lip and play around with your blusher to find the best blush placements for your face shape, or opt for a striking smokey eye and a bold lipstick, you can't go wrong with Westman's impeccable bronzed base.
