Beauty Bites

 Ralph Lauren decided to overhaul his usual backstage beauty game and give the crimson pigment a go yesterday. In New York, mouths have more often than not been painted with a mix of clear balm and concealer to put the spotlight on an uptick in graphic, smoky eyes. The only pout colors to speak of have been a recurring shade of rosy brown (Rodarte, Carolina Herrera) and classic red, which had its strongest showing at Diane von Furstenberg.

 Natural brows suited Wella global creative director Eugene Souleiman’s masculine, “dirty” hair just fine. “It’s not a pretty woman,” he said of the Narciso girl for Fall. “She’s more striking, handsome. She’s strong and assertive.” This mandated a “raw” coif, which Souleiman prepped with plenty of Wella Ocean Spritz texturizer, gathering hair into a ponytail and quite simply tying it in a knot. Rubbing a pomade in between his palms, Souleiman “squashed” the sides of the head for a sleek finish. “We’re celebrating imperfections,” he surmised of the look, a revelry that also included uncharacteristic castings. Shiseido artistic director Dick Page is sporting a purple-tinged black eye at the moment, but his own shiner was not in fact the inspiration behind the similarly hued makeup backstage at Narciso Rodriguez. “We just started playing around,” Page said of the greasy, multi-dimensional lids he constructed for the occasion.

The first thing you noticed about the Oscar de la Renta girl for Fall was her penchant for towering fur hats. The second? A proclivity for blush. “I wanted you to really feel it—like it’s authentic,” Revlon global artistic director Gucci Westman said of the brand’s ColorBurst Lipsticks in Fuchsia and Candy Pink that she blended into a “big apple” on models’ cheeks.

 Phillip Lim’s Fall collection was inspired by that rare breed of stylish New Yorker who straps on her most impractical shoe and puts stiletto to bike pedal—and hairstylist Odile Gilbert was not about to divert from the plan. Sculpting what she referred to as “shogun bumps,” her Asian-influenced half-up/half-downs were both chic and bike-helmet-friendly (note to self for future riding expeditions). Prepping hair with a Kérastase Double Force Controle Ultime hair spray for structure, Gilbert brushed back tresses, coating them with a mix of its Elixir Ultime and its new-for-summer Chroma Crystal serum before dividing them into two sections. The top was pulled only a quarter of the way through an elastic to look like a samurai knot, while the under layer was treated to a deep wave courtesy of a three-pronged curling iron.

 “It’s a bit Native American,” hairstylist Paul Hanlon confirmed of the models’ smooth-in-the-front, ratted-on-the-ends strands. To get the look, he fashioned middle parts and prepped tresses with Frédéric Fekkai’s Coiff Strong Hold Volume Mousse, spraying on its Sheer Hold Hairspray and adding heat over a mesh cloth for shine. “We also looked at pictures of Cher and Sissy Spacek—you know, hair that’s cool and easy.” The back was a different story altogether as Hanlon concocted what he referred to as “a ratty dreadlock” by starting a loose three-sectioned braid halfway down models’ backs, adding an elastic, and scrunching it into a matte, frizzy knot.

As anyone who watched the commercials during the Golden Globe Awards is well aware, Gwen Stefani recently signed on as the newest member of L’Oréal’s celebrity spokesperson roster (they’ve got J. Lo and Beyoncé, too, for those of you counting). Stefani fronts ads for the beauty giant’s Infallible Le Rouge lipstick collection, a good match considering her appreciation for a glossy, vibrant red pout. Her other beauty statement, of course, is the platinum blond ‘do she’s been dyeing since well before No Doubt lit up the garage rock scene back in the early nineties.