Celebrating with my CityLine family

Here's a sneak peak behind the scenes from our #CityLineHoliday celebration. 

Thank you for an incredible year together. 

Victoria Secret Makeover

Cityline audience member Victoria gets transformed into a model with hair by Kevin Hughes of Moroccan Oil on Fashion Friday.

The Low Down on Liner

I continue to see woman use too much eyeliner, and then wonder why their eye makeup never looks quite right or makes them look tired when they’re not. Most eyeliner pencils are quite soft so they can deliver colour without unnecessary pressure or discomfort. Sometimes the pencil can be so soft that it’s difficult to use with precision. (Or maybe a pencil sharpener is the perfect gift for you!)

Going over the lash line repeatedly with eyeliner only adds more product and is often the culprit for the mess. A little trick is to use the DDB Chisel-Tip Angle Brush, to pick up and transfer the eyeliner. Rub the tip back and forth over the tip of the pencil and then apply the liner along the base of your lashes. This gives you more control and you can build onto it by adding more--without the line becoming too wide and wonky.

To begin, position and tuck the longest point of the brush at the outer end of your eye and--in overlapping dashes--work into and along the lash roots. Holding the brush perpendicular or slightly angled upwards allows you to see what you’re doing. Taper and fade out the liner as you reach the inside edge of the iris. The outer end of the eyeliner can be thickened to elongate the eye, or lifted up and out for a winged effect. The results are more flattering than rimming the pencil all around your eyes, especially in the inside corner where some liners can make the eye look dark, tired--and even mean. The right tools and a little technique can help eyes look rested, bright, and ready to take on the day, or night!.

New Books You'll Love!

I love books. Especially ones about makeup. This time of year, some of the most glamorous books come out. Gorgeous, glossy, and gigantic; they can be as big as a coffee table itself! Here are two new books I’m giving to friends who love beauty and art:


Face Paint

Face Paint: The Story of Makeup by Lisa Eldridge

Published by Abrams, New York

This is a welcome historical tome about the science and art of makeup past-to-present. Eldridge explores the primitive and often poisonous practices of Egyptian (and Victorian) times, right up to my favourite period: Hollywood’s golden-era icons. Why do women continue to emulate these fabulous faces? Read and learn! Face Paint touches on the social impact of makeup and how one of the oldest global social practices has become a multi-billion dollar phenomenon. For me, Eldridge’s book is a wonderful, updated version of Richard Corson’s 1972 classic, Fashions in Makeup--though Eldridge’s take is lighter on text and heavier on lavish, detailed images. 


Art & Makeup by Lan Nguyen-Grealis

Laurence King Publishing

This book is not about au naturel style! In this luscious volume, award-winning makeup artist, Nguyen-Grealis, documents how makeup can be used unconventionally and in other art forms. With the worlds of art and cinema in mind, Art & Makeup is a beguiling showcase/gallery of this artist’s work. It includes images, references, and how-to techniques inspired by Picasso and Warhol, The Great Gatsby and Mad Men. Nguyen-Grealis reaches way back to pay homage to daring darlings Cleopatra and Marie Antoinette. The photography is stunning.

Ask Dino- Lip-Plumping

Dear Dino,
Do any of those lip-plumping products actually work?
Barbara, PEI

Dear Babs,
They do work because they have irritants like cinnamon and camphor which cause the lips to swell. I’m not a fan of products that irritate the lips for effect! A shimmery or glistening pale lip-gloss is a healthier choice. And please stay away from those “snake sucker” lip puckering gadgets too.

Ask Dino- Vampire Lips to Luscious Lips

Dear Dino,
I have tried these long last, two-step lipsticks without much success. They are too drying and makes my lips look puckery and leathery. I like the idea of putting lipstick on once and forgetting about it for the day but all my girlfriends say I look like a vampire. Help!
Buffy, T.O.

Dear Buffy,
It sounds like you weren’t doing the second step of a two- step product and that’s why your lips look the way they do. It’s very important to use the balm/gloss after the colour sets to add moisture back to your lips and lend shine. The colour is delivered to the lips via alcohol, which evaporates after application leaving the colour to stain the lips. See the importance of the second step? But I have good news for you. Revlon has a new one-step long-lasting lipstick that is wonderful called “ColorStay Ultimate Liquid Lipstick”. You can use it lightly like a stain or layer it on for a very rich colour. It sets itself and keeps lips looking lovely. My favourite shades are: Perfect Peony, Miracle Mauve and Supreme Sienna. Let me know what you think.

Ask Dino- Layering SPF

Dear Dino, If I wear a moisturizer with an SPF 15 and a foundation with an SPF 30, does that mean I’m getting a total of 45 SPF protection? Sandra, Bowmanville, ONT.

Dear Sandra,
I love this question because it’s one I get often. The answer is no, sort of. Layering sunscreens doesn’t add up to higher protection. You will get more than a SPF 15 but less than SPF 45. It’s better to use a higher protection product if you want more protection. SPF 30 is the new recommended strength for daily low sun exposure situations while a higher one of no more than SPF 50 is needed for high sun exposure and outdoor activities. 

Remember, without sunscreen protection it’s “rays today, raisins tomorrow.”

 

On Beauty Duty @ The 15th Annual Children’s Aid Foundation Women’s Golf Classic

In association with Pamela Kennedy Communications, Smashbox Cosmetics and Dino Dilio Beauty, my team of makeup artists from George Brown College participated in the 15th Annual Children’s Aid Foundation Women’s Golf Classic at The Eagels Nest Golf Cub in Markham. Congratulations to Andrea, Jessica, Kia, Natalia, Nicole, Samia, and Yin Yin for lovely makeup artistry and shout outs to Sahar and Shadi who were on digit duty. The event raised $265,000.00. Visit The Children's Aid Foundation  to learn more and to donate.


Cityline Cancer Survival Show

It was my honour to be apart of the Cityline Cancer Survival Show with Bill Rowley and Janice Meredith. Working with mother and daughter Kathy and Rachel was a pleasure and very inspirational. Congratulations Mary, JC and the incredible Cityline team for a sensational and sensitive celebration.

Quick Beauty Fixes with Facial Masques

Dino-Dilio-Beauty-Bites-Masks.jpg

As seen on Cityline with Dino Dilio

When you’re run down, sleep deprived, stressed out and exhausted - your skin takes a beating and shows it! Here are some quick beauty fixes that rescue and revive your skin with improved versions of our favourites and some easier to use hybrid facial masques.

The new generation of masques can do everything for skin. Detox, purify, firm, brighten, plump and lift your skin and mood - providing immediate relief and results. They are a real time saver when you have to look great – fast.

The Formulas and Types

Body Shop Bouncy Sleeping Mask

Body Shop Bouncy Sleeping Mask

Cream Based

These are rich and creamy designed to super moisturize, hydrate and nourish dry skin. 

Example: Body Shop Bouncy Sleeping Mask – a smoothing, refreshing and replenishing night cream-gel you sleep in. Rinses off the next morning to reveal fresh and soft bouncy skin.

Body Shop Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask 

Body Shop Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask 

Clay Based

For oily and troubled skin to detoxify deep cleanse and control excess oil and clarify the complexion. Negatively charged ions act like magnets to draw out dirt and impurities from the pores. Wet mixture dries hard. Needs to be rinsed off with warm water.

Example: Body Shop Seaweed Ionic Clay Mask 

Skyn Iceland Hydro Cool Firming Eye Gel Pads

These pads are super concentrated, saturated gel pack of intensive treatment, works instantly to help reduce lines and wrinkles, de-puff and minimize the under-eye puffiness, guards against future damage. Gels are applied and left on for 10 minutes. Cools and comforts under the eyes while infusing the area with concentrated doses of soothing and hydrating ingredients. Can be used over top of makeup. Also make versions for forehead and side of mouth lines.

Hydro Cool Firming Eye Gels

Hydro Cool Firming Eye Gels

HydroCool Firming Face Gels

HydroCool Firming Face Gels

Sheet Masques

Sheet Masques are a cloth like film or material saturated with active ingredients. The masque is laid over clean skin and removed. Some kinds harden and lift away while others just disintegrate into the skin.

Example: Masque Bar by LookBeauty at Shoppers Drug Mart

Masque Bar by LookBeauty at Shoppers Drug Mart

Masque Bar by LookBeauty at Shoppers Drug Mart

Peel Off Gel Masques 

Balea Ultra Firming Face Mask

Balea Ultra Firming Face Mask

These masques are very light in texture, apply as a wet gel and then dry to a peel away film that lifts off impurities and dead skin cells.

Example:  Life Brand Hydrating Facial Sheet Hyaluronic Acid & Konjac. Also available for other skin types and conditions.

Masque Tips

  • Masques must be applied to thoroughly cleaned skin
  • Exfoliating before is another good idea to clear the surface of the skin and allow the masque to penetrate the skin
  • Apply masques with fingertips or a foundation brush
  • Use a wet face cloth to help remove thicker, clay-based masques

Recommendations available at Shoppers Drug Mart, Murale and The Body Shop

Glow Magazine | Beauty Report September 2014

Glow Magazine | September 2014 Issue, Beauty Report - Keep Lips Au Naturel

Glow Magazine | September 2014 Issue, Beauty Report - Keep Lips Au Naturel

Keep the Lips Au Naturel

To get a natural nude lip, use a light layer of foundation over the perimeter of your month to highlight and prime. Apply a nude lipstick to the centre of your lips and work outward with your finger. If you have a slim lip shape, build them up first with a nude pencil.

- Dino Dilio

To view the article online click here | To view a PDF of the article click here

The Star | At home with his 'Diana Ross' decor

A mechanic's set of tool drawers anchors celebrity makeup artist Dino Dilio's kitchen desk

A mechanic's set of tool drawers anchors celebrity makeup artist Dino Dilio's kitchen desk

Original article from The Toronto Star | By: Rita Zekas Special to the Star, Published on Fri May 02 2014

Original article from The Toronto Star Click Here

I am so not ready for my closeup.

I am bare-faced — not even a smidge of concealer — as I step into celebrity makeup artist Dino Dilio’s mid-town apartment. It feels like the dressing room of a Hollywood diva: specifically Diana Ross.

The back wall of his living room/makeup studio is complete with a bulb-ringed professional mirror; racks of makeup and accessories; and framed posters of Ross and The Supremes, with a sprinkling of Josephine Baker and female impersonator Craig Russell.

His apartment in the Yonge-Church corridor is one-bedroom, one bath, living room-cum-studio and is just over 700 square feet. “It was built in the mid ’50s, the first luxury apartment in Toronto,” says Dilio, who lives there with his cats Max and Sam.

He has been here over 20 years. “It is close to the subway, there is a lineup of taxis at the ready. I don’t need a car,” Dilio explains.

His celeb client list includes everyone from actress Kim Cattrall to Barbara Amiel Black, wife of disgraced former media baron Conrad Black. He has worked with singer-actress Diahann Carroll, Hollywood movie actress Rachel McAdams, home décor mogul and model India Hicks, actor Kevin Spacey, CBC broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi, Sex and the City author Candace Bushnell, and even Robin Leach, Mr. Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

Dilio has been Cityline’s makeup artist and expert for 23 years. He’s served as national makeup artist for Revlon Canada, Murale, Shoppers Drug Mart and Hudson’s Bay. He’s the former creative director and senior makeup artist and manager for the city’s seminal Mira Linder Spa. He is author of the makeup manual Let’s Face It. He has his own line of cosmetics called DDB using the same manufacturer as Chanel, Bobbi Brown and NARS. And he currently teaches makeup artistry at George Brown.

Dilio is blasé about celebs. “Half the time I didn’t know even who I was doing,” he swears. “I put powder on Justin Bieber’s nose and I didn’t know who he was. Same with Charlotte Church and Chantal Kreviazuk.”

His wish list? “Diana Ross,” he says without pause. “She is from that old school. I got booked to do Tina Turner but she likes to do her own makeup to become ‘herself.’ It is part of the process of becoming that person who hits the stage.”

Dilio comes from the give-’em-the-old-razzle-dazzle school of home décor, which he describes as “exciting and elegant. Women feel comfy and at ease here — and so do men.”

But to be at ease in his apartment, they must also love disco.

“I made the disco ball chandelier. When the sun comes down, the whole room looks like a disco. I found the chandelier at a lawn sale and pulled it apart. I changed the plastic bits into crystal.”

Disco balls hang from his terrace railings and one sits in an ashtray on the black lacquered side table, which is bordered by two Ghost chairs.

Disco balls are a favourite of Dilio, who made a chandelier from this lawn-sale model.

Disco balls are a favourite of Dilio, who made a chandelier from this lawn-sale model.

Dilio gutted the kitchen and living-room areas. “I did everything, put in a parquet floor, stripped, stained and urethaned.” He painted the walls a shade of stone because “I needed something neutral to not change the skin tones and to make the art pop more.”

Club chairs make a comfortable corner  of the living room, highlighted by one of Dilio’s disco balls. 

Club chairs make a comfortable corner  of the living room, highlighted by one of Dilio’s disco balls. 

The living room coffee table doubles for both dining and makeup consultation. “A client comes over for a consultation with her makeup and I usually tell her to get rid of it. Get a better foundation, simplify. People are product junkies. You don’t need 17; use seven.”

His demographic is women aged 55 to 80. “They aren’t served properly in department stores or Sephora,” he says. “They don’t have the experience there to apply makeup to the mature face.”

But he has. Dilio has been doing makeup for more than 30 years, starting in his native Montreal.

“I watched the Avon lady come over and make up my mom and grandmother. When they were asleep, I’d play with that makeup and put it on myself. I hid it because it would upset my dad,” he says. “A friend of my mom’s was a former model and she was getting ready for the evening and I volunteered to do her makeup. She was impressed. I was 17.”

Dilio eventually found what he calls a “rinky dink” school to teach him modelling and makeup courses in the evenings. It was problematic because some of the nights conflicted with his TV viewing.

“Dynasty was on,” he laughs. “I told them ‘I can’t go tonight because I get more education watching Dynasty.’ And 30 years later I’m doing one of the stars (Diahann Carroll.)”

We move to the kitchen, which also serves as his office. His desk is fashioned from a mechanic’s set of red tool drawers, opposite the fridge with its Vegas showgirl magnet complete with feathers and pasties.

A Mastercraft work bench, topped by a chalkboard for quotes and recipes, extends the counter space in Dilio’s kitchen.

A Mastercraft work bench, topped by a chalkboard for quotes and recipes, extends the counter space in Dilio’s kitchen.

The counter with the butcher block top is a Mastercraft work bench from Canadian Tire. A blackboard hangs over it with the Andy Warhol quote, “Good business is the best kind of art.” “Every week I write a new quote,” Dilio says. “When I cook, I put the menu on it.”

On a ledge over the counter is what he calls his “tchotchke corner” that features goodies like a talking moustache and pet monkey. Above it all hangs a montage of rubber duckies à la Warhol whose colours match the striped rug in front of the sink. There is a caricature of Dilio with Diana Ross by illustrator Maurice Vellekoop. The white wall tiles are original, as are the heated subway floor tiles in the bathroom.

A caricature of Dilio with Diana Ross by Canadian illustrator Maurice Vellekoop.

A caricature of Dilio with Diana Ross by Canadian illustrator Maurice Vellekoop.

“When I moved in, the kitchen had a pantry,” Dilio recalls. “I ripped it all out. It is a corner apartment and I opened it up so I got a cross breeze.”

“I’m going to die here; I love it.” he vows. Unless he meets someone to take him away from all this.

“I have a dream to have a little house but I’ll keep this place as a pied à terre,” he muses.

And the shrine to Diana Ross will travel between both.