Beauty Essentials Spring 2011

“We’re doing seventies but with a chic, contemporary twist,” makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury told us backstage, where she was channeling “dramatic luxury” with a palette of rich peach and lavender. To ensure skin had a honeyed hue, Tilbury dusted MAC’s Mineralize Powder over cheekbones and up into temples to bronze and contour, while placing touches of champagne pigment onto the high planes of the face for added polish. Eschewing brushes, Tilbury used her fingers to blend MAC’s Paint Stick in French Violet around eyes in a retro oval shape, which she contrasted with peachy cheeks and a creamy wash of terra-cotta slicked across lips, courtesy of MAC’s Cremesheen Lipstick in Shy Girl.

ETRO backstage beauty spring 2011

You could not ask for a more beautiful retrospective than the sleek, polished look makeup artist Pat McGrath and coif master Luigi Murenu churned out for the occasion. Coating models’ hair with John Frieda Frizz Ease Serum. McGrath focused her attention on dewy skin, using CoverGirl’s as-yet-unreleased NatureLuxe Silk foundation (which she debuted backstage at Anna Sui) and a glossy eye, courtesy of a slick of Elizabeth Arden’s Eight Hour Cream on top of metallic brown eye shadow. Finishing touches came in the form of CoverGirl’s LashBlast Fusion mascara and MAC Lacquer in Shirelle, a cherry red varnish applied to fingers and pedicured toes, which peeped out of crushed velvet and gold python strappy stilettos.                                                                                   GUCCI backstage beauty spring 2011

To keep the lips the focal point, the face painter lined lids with a neutral shade of Chanel’s Le Crayon Yeux in Brun, a few slashings of its Inimitable Intense Mascara, and a dusting of its Joues Contraste Powder Blush in Rose Pétale on cheeks for a healthy flush. Hairstylist Sam McKnight kept with the graphic theme by adding long extensions to most models’ manes and blunt-cutting them on site for linear fluidity. A few spritzes of L’Oréal’s Elnett hair spray added a touch of texture to tresses, so with every step of those please-oh-please-let-those-be-produced wedges, hair swung in uniform motion.

FENDI backstage beauty spring 2011

The hairstylist decided to re-create Grace Kelly look like on her wedding day. Pulling hair into high ponytails before weaving it through “rats” (mesh doughnuts used to give hair fullness and height) and spritzing with his T3 Control Heat-Seeking Hair Spray to hold. Working a “fab eye” into the royal coming-out party, finger-blending the bright green shade from Revlon’s ColorStay 12 Hour Eyeshadow Quad in Silver Fox with its Matte Eyeshadow in Venetian Blue. One thing did hark back to the designer’s classic, ladylike aesthetic, though; a de la Renta princess is tattoo-free.

Oscar De La Renta backstage beauty spring-2011


With all of the seventies-era, free-flowing, middle-parted tresses on the Spring runways, we’re leaning toward losing our asymmetrical bob and regrowing our locks past the shoulders.  “Pull a few pieces out around the face for softness,” Palau recommends, to give the whole thing a more natural effect. It remains to be seen how our “to cut, or not to cut” dilemma will resolve itself, and until we sort it out, we’ll continue to neglect making an appointment with our stylist for a much-overdue trim. What about you?

hair cuts spring 2011

Braids were sort of a big deal at the Spring 2010 shows, showing up in long, over-the-shoulder incarnations (Alexander Wang, Miu Miu), milkmaid crowns (Oscar de la Renta), and half-up, half-down fishtails (Doo.Ri) for most of the season.

“The color came from the black-white-green French garden that was re-created in the Grand Palais,” Philips, Chanel’s global creative director of makeup, told us. Hence the luminous, emerald-tinged onyx shade from the brand’s Les 4 Ombres Quadra Eye Shadow in Regard Perle that he dragged up to the brow bone and underneath the lower lash line. The resulting “glow” was meant to mimic the black, gray, and white pearls in the presentation’s bounty of costume jewelry.

                                                         CHANEL details spring 2011

NARS’ new Vintage Nail Polishes, which include five totally obsession-forming discontinued shades that have been reissued for a limited time by popular demand. Mash, which bowed in ‘96 in tribute to the Korean War film and TV series of the same name, is an appropriate shade of metallic army green. King Kong, Zulu, and Midnight Express, three other ‘96 releases with cinematic roots, offer copper, dark forest green, and deep navy options, respectively. And Full Metal Jacket, a lacquered homage to Kubrick’s Vietnam classic, is a pewter chrome that originally hit shelves in ‘98.

Guido Palau is a hair genius. For Spring 2011 alone, he has been responsible for the season-defining seventies frizz at Marc Jacobs, the gelled-up finger waves at Prada, and the platinum blond craze, which he ignited at Balenciaga and which will likely persevere through much of next year. But after our fair share of seasons charting Palau’s backstage triumphs, we noticed something: When the coif master likes something, he keeps with it.
At Lanvin, Palau referenced “scuba” when slicking back what appeared to be water-saturated low ponytails (turns out Redken’s Hardwear 16 Super Strong gel can impressively simulate deep-sea diving). With only three days of shows left, it’s unclear if we’ll see yet another incarnation of the “damp” look, but all signs point to yes.

                                                          Guido Palau wet hair spring 2011

The thirties-style finger waves that Guido Palau perfected backstage at Prada for the amfAR Milano fête, eschewing the coif master’s low-slung chignons for a single ballerina bun in back. Makeup artist Pat McGrath’s theatrical chrome eye and androgynous brows from the show were noticeably missing—purposely, we presume—but Heidi Klum’s side-parted, hand-sculpted ridges were a dead ringer for Miuccia Prada’s Josephine Baker-inspired beauty look. When in Rome—or Milan, as the case may be. Would you wear it?

Not so long ago, we lived for barrettes. In seventh grade, it was plastic baby clips in the mold of ducks, birds, and other similarly infantile shapes, and then it was barrettes of the multicolored, mini-sized Goody variety, which have since been discontinued and which we buy in bulk should we happen upon them at an outdated pharmacy.