You may know Meredith Duxbury as the ten-pump foundation queen, but there is way more to the makeup influencer than meets the eye. Her colossal following on TikTok (19M) and Instagram (1.9M) have watched her uncover the biggest beauty finds, mesmerise viewers with her ASMR videos and build an empire off her Get Ready With Me videos.
Undeniably, she’s on the up and up, having been named in this year’s Forbes Top Creators list. But Meredith Duxbury has also faced her fair share of criticism for her makeup techniques. Her heavy, multi-pump foundation method found itself on the receiving end of abuse after users on TikTok criticised the unnecessary waste of product and bemoaned her ‘poor pores’. But, as we chat via Zoom, she offers up a simple solution for the sceptics. “Blending is really key – and working in layers,” she says.
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Even so, Meredith is moving away from the foundation ‘caking’ she made so famous. “I honestly grew up hating my freckles until very recently. Now I’ve learned to love them and I’ve changed my perspective on it. That’s kind of why I’ve transitioned a little bit from my ten-pump foundation routine to more of a soft glam look, because I just feel more confident with my freckles,” she tells me.
I managed to catch Meredith in the midst of her getting ready for the British Fashion Awards red carpet, which she was invited to by none other than honorée Charlotte Tilbury. Her brief: “A shimmery eye paired with a really glowy base,” to complement her statement XXL Chopard necklace. Wearing a black Stella McCartney dress, Meredith wanted the beauty and the fashion to marry together immaculately, and that they did.
But as we caught up ahead of the red carpet, Meredith opened up about everything beauty and beyond. Here is Meredith in her own words…
This is probably the greatest makeup hack I’ve learned in recent times.
“Today when I was getting my makeup done, the makeup artist used a powder puff to blend my concealer, which I’ve never seen anyone do, and I would never think to do. I would only use it for powder. I was like, ‘wait, can I try and do it myself’. Then I looked in the mirror and I was blending it out with the powder puff and it was so good. The powder puff doesn’t absorb any of the product and it just blends it in really smoothly. And the concealer had such a nice smooth finish. So if anybody wants an undereye that’s not creased and just super smooth, I would suggest trying to blend it out with a powder puff.”
This British Fashion Awards red carpet look is probably one of my favourite eye looks I’ve ever done.
“Today I did a shimmery eye paired with a really glowy base. The necklace I’m wearing is a very big statement piece from Chopard, so I wanted to compliment the necklace. We used the Charlotte Tilbury ‘The Beautyverse’ Palette, and we did the silver shade all over the lid. Then we did a really sharp black liner. It’s probably one of my favourite eye looks that we’ve done. It’s so gorgeous.”
If I only have five minutes, I’m not skipping my foundation or my lips.
“My base usually consists of the Charlotte Tilbury Flawless Filter and the Kosas Revealer Concealer because it’s a nice soft combination. The Flawless Filter isn’t a full [coverage] foundation, it’s more of a glowy base. Then after I have those on, I’ll go in with the LYS Cream Bronzing stick. I love that product – it’s so good and it blends like butter.”
“My lip is probably my favourite part of my glam routine. I feel like it completes my look and really takes it to the next level. I’ll use the Charlotte Tilbury Iconic Nude Lip Cheat lip liner – it’s my favourite one. I have six of them because I feel like I just leave them in my purses and I’m always reaching for them. Then on top of that, I’ll use my Morphe X Meredith gloss – it’s my perfect lip combo.”
Play with glitter, you won’t regret it.
“I think sparkles or glitter can take any look to holiday glitzy glam. If you’re in a rush and you’re invited to a holiday party last minute, literally just swiping glitter onto the eyelid can make it that much more glam. The Charlotte Tilbury palette we used today for my eye look is so beautiful and it’s such high quality pigments as well. That palette is perfect for the holidays because the shimmers and glitter are great.”
I switched up my lip technique to make it sharper.
“I recently found this lip liner technique, which was super helpful to me because I love a good lip liner. Lip liner can be difficult for some people because everybody has a different lip shape. The technique was lining your lips at the corner of your mouth first and you follow right outside the natural lip line up to your cupid bow, then you accentuate your cupid bow. I would usually start at my Cupid’s bow and follow down, but I found with this technique I get a much more natural, defined look and my corners are sharper.”
It’s this kind of honest, relatable advice that helped to uplift Meredith in the first place. And, just to be sure, I tried her ‘powder puff concealer’ trick myself and can confirm, I’m sold. I just wish I’d tried it sooner.
For more from Glamour UK Beauty Writer Shei Mamona, follow her on Instagram @sheimamona.