Recently in Runway Category

I am the first to admit I cringed when I first heard the Olsen twins were designing a line called "The Row".  The inaugural collection greatly surprised me, and I am now a proud owner of many The Row pieces.  Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen had their Fashion Week debut this week on New York's west side-- the line has earned a following for its simple yet sophisticated structured pieces and the new collection continued beautifully on that theme.

The Look: Strong Brows-Glowing Complexion-Nude Lips
Lancôme's creative director for makeup Aaron De Mey sought an exaggerated yet natural makeup look that focused on strong, defined brows and a dewy complexion. The neutral color palette meant that skincare played an important role. To prep, Aaron used Lancôme Eau Fraiche Douceur Micellar Cleansing Water and followed it with Lancôme Genifique Youth Activating Concentrate massaged generously into the skin; this duo gave each model a luminous complexion. Lancôme Le Crayon Poudre filled and defined the brows--a focal point of this look. To finish, Aaron dabbed Lancôme Effeacernes Concealer on the lips, a trick that removed the natural lip color and kept the focus squarely on the brows.

Everyone backstage and front of house was obsessed with the braided black Louboutin sandals made exclusively for the show. (And the models were clearly happy to get a break from all the skyscraper heels!) Mary-Kate and Ashley chose a deep wine colored polish -Lancôme Le Vernis in Untamed Plum - for the toes, but kept the fingernails clean and shiny with a coat of clear nail polish.

I love the nude face but will probably add a bit more color on the cheeks when I attempt this.  What about you?

Ah, the genius that is Peter Philips. Chanel's global creative director for makeup continues to amaze, creating these whimsical trompe l'oeil "skin art" tattoos that the models sported on the Chanel spring runway. Now they're coming to a Chanel boutique near you! "For the show, I wanted to play with the Chanel symbols; pearls, chains and wheat, as well as blossoms and small swallows that announce the arrival of spring," said Philips of Karl Lagerfeld's country chic-themed show. "I focused on a natural makeup look with chic beige tones and a slight touch of rebellion: the tattoos!" These are not your ordinary mom-and-pop shop press-ons, mind you. You can create an entire Chanel necklace on your skin or a "quilted" leather bracelet to accessorize your gown or cocktail dress for a special look that's guaranteed to dazzle. The skin art, which is temporary and easily removed, arrives in stores in late February and comes in a package of five sheets, for a total of 55 designs. The number of designs on the sheet depends on the individual sheet.

$75.00 at Chanel boutiques nationwide 800-550-0005

Images from Style.com

There were some craaaazy lip colors this season on the runway. Henry Holland was the most over-the-top. Among the colors he showed were deep purple lips! I'm not sure what's worse -- purple lips coordinated with a purple outfit or purple lips clashing with a beige one!? All I can say for sure if this is one trend I hope stays on the runway and off the streets!

Would you sport purple lips?  

One of my favorites, Vera Wang, did not disappoint for Spring 2010.  Vera found inspiration in Paul Poiret, the French designer some say was the first to "drape" his designs, a new approach that signaled a departure from rigid tailoring. With this in mind, Lucia Pieroni, Color Creator for Clé de Peau Beauté, created her own new approach, developing a boy-like, simple face for each model, that worked perfectly with the clothing and bold jewelry.

"I wanted the models to appear cool and very natural, so I created a super sheer base on the face with eye accents only, of taupe and silver." Lucia says. "I wanted them to look healthy, but a bit supernatural." Beginning with the new Luminizing Enhancer Base ($42,) Lucia created a luminous complexion and evened out skin tone, prior to applying the Refining Fluid Foundation ($118) to provide an even, flawless and radiant finish on skin. Next, Lucia accented, and extended, the brows utilizing Eyebrow Pencil in #104/Grey ($55) to give a fuller, still polished effect. To brighten eyes, she used new Satin Eye Color in #11/silver ($45,) with a touch of shade #111/taupe to add definition at the outer corners. Additionally, Lucia decided to forego the mascara and eyeliner, but utilize Satin Eye Color #104/golden to highlight the browbone and the top of the cheek to add an ethereal glow. Lastly, lips were colored to understated perfection, complementing the face without drawing attention. Lucia used new Extra Rich Lipstick in T4 ($65,) a nude shade inspired by tea roses.  Buy Cle De Peau here.

HAIR: Bumble and bumble hairstylist Jimmy Paul created three different looks that had one thing in common -- texture and lots of volume. Soft, fuzzy locks were either up in messy French twists, half up and half down or pulled back tight into chignons. The Sixties-inspired dos also had a lot of height. To finish the retro look, Paul used Bumble and bumble Surf Spray as well as the brand's Thickening Spray.

I guess I should toss my bronzers and head for my Japanese rice powder make up if Marc Jacobs is any indication of Spring 2010 make up trends. The theatrical and ghost white faces were fascinating if not a bit frightening. Makeup artist François Nars gave models' faces a pale, almost ghostlike appearance using Nars' sheer matte foundation in Siberia, over which a loose powder (Snow) was applied. Eyes were insanely intense and lined with Black Moon. As if that were not enough, the make up artists drew more black lines across the outer corners of the eyes with a liquid liner pen (Souxie and the Banshees anyone?). It was all topped off with Pandora, a white shimmer-and-black eye shadow duo (Pandora) and blood red lips. "It's very powdery, white, pale -- nothing that looks like makeup," said Nars. "The idea was Gothic, romantic, like ballet dancers coming off stage."  Crazy as it looks, I am kinda digging the return of 80's Goth make up.  If you saw me in 10th grade you'd understand.  All products at Nars Cosmetics. 

 

I have known Bobbi Brown for over a year now but this was my first opportunity to watch her at work.  A dedicated pro like no other make up artist I've watched backstage, Bobbi approves of each face before allowing them on the runway!  I caught a shot of her taking one model out to the actual stage so she can see how the light will look on the finished face-- I've never seen anyone do that, either.  It makes perfect sense though, what you see backstage may not be the case on the runway.  For Spring 2010, Bobbi tells me it's all about the individual woman and not a cookie cutter beauty (yay for self esteem!).  At Rachel Roy, she followed that mantra by enhancing each mode's natural beauty with soft dewy make up.  Try the Honey Glaze long wear eye palette to achieve the look yourself.  It's a duo of long wear cream shadows in shimmering pearl beige and dove grey, complimented with two ink gel eyeliners-- chocolate for day and black topaz for nights (makes it easy to travel with!).  It's $55 and comes with a complimentary travel size Perfectly defined mascara (my friend Melinda and I use this for the gym and it doesn't flake, ever!)  At Bobbibrowncosmetics.com

Photos from Style.com

The makeup look at Narciso Rodriguez was created by Shiseido's Artistic Director Dick Page who kept the models skin clean with hardly any foundation on their faces (Shiseido's S1 Accentuating Color Stick was used on the cheekbones for that slight dewy-feel). Similar to the natural-looking look he created at Marc by Marc Jacobs, Page used nothing more than a touch of lip balm on the lips, keeping the focus on the models eyes. As you can see from the pictures above it's really the rimmed eyes that stand-out. To create the look Page mixed Shiseido's Smoothing Eyeliner Pencil in black with Aquaphor and then applied it, using a brush, to the upper and lower lash lines. What do you think about the look Dick Page created?

Photos from Style.com

Bowl cuts, pale lips and mascara only on half of the models lashes -- oh my! This season Phillip Lim was so taken by Tao Okamoto's signature mushroom-like bob and her "plain face" that he called her his beauty inspiration. Lim had all the models in his show wearing a Okamoto-esque wig (Okamoto was Lim's opening model and the only one without a wig), and muted-mod makeup. NARS's lead makeup artist, Ayako, created the look which involved false lashes placed on the outer half of the bottom lash line. Then matte charcoal shadow was used with a wet eyeliner brush to draw lashes beneath and shimmering pink and gold shadows covered the lids. As for the lips, they were muted with NARS concealer and sheer matte foundation was used on the skin. To give a touch of shimmer to the matte skin, NARS Single Eyeshadow in Bombshell was brushed from the apple of the cheeks up to the temples for shimmer without pigmentation. How do you feel about this Okamoto-inspired look?

I was bummed to miss Bobbi over Fashion Week, I was arriving in NYC as she was taking off for a family vacation in Colorado. When I asked her how she could be gone over Fashion Week she replied "It's President's Day-- holiday family time!". This is why she is my hero! Check out Bobbi in action at the Rachel Roy show last week.