Hair and makeup of New York Fashion Week

Though it seems to be the couture shows that bring out the drama and flair in runway beauty, the Spring/Summer 2013 shows in New York gave us some lovely looks to feast our eyes on. Nothing was over-the-top; instead, makeup artists and hairstylists seemed to home in on highlighting natural beauty. If there was a dramatic element to be seen, usually it was focused on a single feature, and the rest flowed gracefully into a more natural domain.

1. Oscar de la Renta's dewy skin and candy-striped bouffants

To be honest, if someone had told me before the show that beautiful, decadent gowns would go hand-in-hand so well with streaked hair, I might have been reticent to think it would look good. But not only did it look good, I couldn't have imagined it any other way. The spark of pink in the hair provides a nice jolt and adds a cheeky touch to the opulent clothes.

(photo c/o Vogue)

(photo c/o Vogue)

2. Nina Skarra's"your-hair-but-better"

Usually, fashion week runway hairstyles fall into one of two groups: the first being the beautiful looks that are completely impractical and/or impossible to recreate on one's own and the second being looks that are...uninspiring, thus not prompting anyone to want to recreate them. Skarra's gentle, cascading waves don't look overdone, prompting me to try these styles out. (Alas, without a professional stylist with me...my waves will probably turn into krinky kinks.) I also like the fact that extensions weren't added to models' hair so as to create one uniform look. Instead, gentle waves were carried out regardless of length or hair type. So democratic.

(photo c/o Getty Images)

(photo c/o Getty Images)

3. Nomia's strong brows

To be honest, I almost always roll my eyes when the new beauty trend of the season turns out to be "strong, defined brows", because I feel that half of the population has strong, defined brows, in which case, the look will always be - regardless of "season" - part of the "in" crowd. But this show stood out to me because it seemed that the goal of creating intentionally uniform, dark brows was to enhance each model's eyes.

(photo c/o Getty Images)

4. Tory Burch's soft fishtail braids

I'll let you in on a secret. Nobody in my family knew how to braid hair, and as a kid I always longed for pretty braids like some of my friends had (looking at you, Jill). I think that I can find some Freudian theory as to why I am still attached to braids even in adulthood. Love 'em. Just recently learned how to braid my bangs and I almost made a cake for myself...I was that excited. And then these hairstylists at Tory Burch come along and make these braids that look sooo easy. Such teases, they are.

(photo c/o WWD)

5. The Row's elegant, yet slightly disheveled chignons

These chignons look like they've been loosened up after a day at the office or after a night of dancing. Either way, they are pretty and seem to indicate relaxed glamour.

(photo c/o Bella Sugar)

6. Marc Jacobs defined brows and Twiggy liner

There I go again with my "strong brow" infatuation. What has this season done to me? But really, the brows work so well with the mod, winged shadow and liner that these models are sporting. Francois Nars, the founder of the Nars cosmetics line, was in charge of the makeup, so it all makes sense as to why it was so perfect.

(photo c/o WWD)

7. Anna Sui's pastel manes

This (and Oscar de la Renta's) show is proof that the trend of My Little Pony-hued hair isn't  slowing down any time soon. Which, personally, I'm quite happy about because I'm obsessed over Kelly Osbourne's lilac 'do (Exhibit A). 

(photo c/o Fashion Rising)

The Bookshelf - Books about makeup and skincare

Being an avid reader, it seriously pains me that there are so few books on the market that are targeted toward the beauty industry. Simply do a quick Amazon search, and you'll find dozens upon dozens of books, movies and publications that revolve around a variety of interests, such as cars, finance, music, painting, cooking, etc. However, perform the same search with keywords like 'makeup', 'skincare', 'fragrance', and so forth, and you'll find somewhat of a barren landscape.
This isn't to say that there aren't serious treasures to be found, simply that those are few and far between and that there isn't always a steady selection of new and updated works to be found on the 'New Nonfiction' shelves at your local bookstore.

There are a few books that are worth reading, as the information that they pass along can be immeasurably helpful to some that are looking for more tutelage in makeup and skincare, and they are also worth browsing for the stunning visuals and interesting facts that they provide.

The ultimate makeup books that will transcend time and space and that have a cult following are Making Faces and Face Forward, both created by the late makeup mastermind Kevyn Aucoin. Aucoin also created his own makeup line, of which I am a diehard fan. Though his expertise is widely available, his is a higher-end luxury line that doesn't skimp on quality. His line used to be carried in Sephora, but was phased out for reasons unknown. Though I lament the fact that I can't easily choose one of his items in-store and simply check out, I am grateful that I was able to see and feel his makeup while I had the chance so I knew that I would love it once I started ordering it online. Another great part about my NYC trip was being able to stop by the Kevyn Aucoin counter in Barneys to check out all of the makeup and talk with the extremely nice counter manager.

Though Aucoin's line is sold through Barneys website, when I ordered from dermstore.com a year or so ago I was given a free year's subscription to Vogue. They really know how to lure a girl to buy.

But back to the books. I've looked at my own copies so many times that the binding has cracked in both of them. I've propped them open so that I could practice the looks on friends, and just drool over the before-and-after pictures. These books are great if: you'd like to learn what each makeup product is/can be used for, the steps to achieving certain looks and for using said products, seeing celebrities transformed into other people, etc.

The first book, Making Faces, is chock-full of vibrant photos and tutorials ranging from how to use certain products to lessons in contouring to makeovers for family members to making celebrities look like other celebrities (for instance, the Marilyn picture is actually Marie Presley).

 

 

 

The second book, Face Forward, is similar to the first book, but there are more step-by-step, photo-accompanied instructions on how makeovers were carried out from start to finish on everyday people. The fact that Aucoin took people that didn't look like supermodels and showed how anyone could make themselves look better with just a touch of makeup, made me a believer. Too often we see products being hawked by 20-year-old poreless models or YouTube makeup tutorials performed on women with flawless complexions, that these how-tos were a great reprieve.

 

 

 Run and grab these books. More than 600 positive Amazon reviews can't be wrong...



Bobbi Brown has several books out on the market; I believe five at last count. I like Bobbi's mentality of "less is more" when it comes to makeup and her positive reinforcement that everyone has qualities that are unique and that deserve to be played up, despite the notion that only the cookie cutter beauty found in the media is what is pretty and acceptable.

Bobbi's books, unlike Kevyn's, focus a lot on powerful statements/mantras about how girls and women shouldn't listen to beauty "rules" and how each person has his or her own look that should be treasured and not covered up. Bobbi's Teenage Beauty book gives good points, but it can be hard to understand exactly how to apply makeup as she doesn't always break things down into easy-to-follow steps with corresponding pictures. Instead, the reader must rely on intuition to understand how to enact a look that is featured in the book.

The Makeup Manual was, to me, an improvement from Teenage Beauty simply because it had more easy-to-understand application processes laid out as well as an exhaustive section on how to break into the industry of makeup artistry. Bobbi does a great job of describing her own path in becoming a makeup artist, and it gives a can-do feeling to see a makeup superstar writing about when she was a no-name beginner.

The DERMAdoctor Skinstruction Manual was written by dermatologist Dr. Audrey Kunin, and is a guide to learning about cause of and treatments for an assortment of common skin ailments that bother the general American public. The table of contents makes it easy to search for and locate different issues that the book addresses. Once an issue has been located, a few pages of reading will give you the lowdown on the hows, whys and whats of the skin ailment. Dr. Kunin gives informative advice that doesn't get bogged down by medical terminology, and instead gives readers pertinent information for trying to solve the issue at hand.

Though I don't have a picture for it as it's a novel, Free Gift With Purchase is a book written by Jean Godfrey-June, Lucky magazine's Beauty Director, that details behind-the-scenes happenings during her tenure in magazines, both at Elle and at Lucky. The book is great because Jean writes with an almost self-debasing wit, as she describes things that she has done and seen that make readers not in the magazine indstry wince in disbelief. Two thumbs up to this little gem.

Fall/Winter 2012 - Runway makeup

No surprise that hair and makeup featured in runway shows varies from show to show and from season to season. When trends and themes change, the beauty portion is soon to follow, or vice versa. Some makeup artists can be given free reign by designers to determine what beauty look would befit the show's motif, while other makeup professionals are given with designers' predetermined and well-defined visions of how the beauty portion of the show should look in order to impart one unified theme.
Sometimes, however, the beauty and the fashion elements of a show directly contrast and compete with each other for an audience's attention, and the unifying message is hard to decipher.

The great thing about the fashion industry is its unofficial motto of 'anything goes', which makes it a joy to see the concoctions that creative professionals come up with when collaborating together.
For example, makeup artist Stephanie Marais, told style.com that the makeup he did for Haider Ackermann's show was applied with the intent to invoke a sense of apparitions and irrealism. In order to communicate this theme, he wanted models' faces to have pale, ghostly casts to them. To capture such a look, he applied white clay masks to the models' skin and wiped - not cleaned - excess residue from the surface so as to leave a chalky dusting on the faces.

 (image c/o style.com)

The 'anything goes' mentality of runway beauty allows for high drama and theatrics as well as more subdued looks that can easily be translated to everyday makeup. With fashion, one can indulge predilections for both fantasy and reality; having the cake and eating it too. I love seeing an outrageous, exuberant, beautiful beauty look come down a runway and then challenge myself to restyle it so that elements of what made it great could still be seen for everyday wear.

After browsing through all of the runway looks, here are some of my favorite beauty moments from the fall/winter 2012 runway.


No. 1 -Multicolored lids at Roberto Cavalli

Created using a palette of Mardi Gras-esque emerald, purple and gold hues, the metallic luminescence of the colors made the models look lit from within. Pat McGrath, as usual, created a stunning tableau.

 

(images c/o style.com)

No. 2 -  Sky blue eyes at Anna Sui

Ms. Pat McGrath once more utilized the power of pigment at Anna Sui where but a single color was used in order to create an upswept, modern, matte blue cat eye. 

(image c/o harpersbazaar.com)

No. 3 - Blue mascara at Stella McCartney

The long azure-tinged lashes at Stella McCartney straddled the line between being understated and being dramatic. With a single punch of color amidst bare, dewy complexions, the lashes stood out. Perhaps the neatest thing about the single color that was used on all models was how universally complementary it was to the various skin tones and eye colors of the models. I'm so besotted with how easily the blue made every face look bright and clean that I've been searching online for blue mascaras for the past hour in an attempt to recreate Pat's handiwork.

(image c/o vogue.com)

No. 4 - Bejeweled eyebrows at Chanel

Peter Philips, Chanel's global makeup creative director, is the person responsible for creating the geometric, studded brows set amidst the perfect skin of the models at the brand's recent show. Philips revealed to Vogue UK that he created the glitzy look when Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld presented him with a sketch of how  the models were to look in the show. The sketch showed a girl with minerals lined up on her face and so Philips created the bedazzled brows for his own interpretation of the image. I'd say it turned out quite well. So well, in fact, that I asked my managers if I could wear the look to work tomorrow, so inspired was I (For the record, I can wear this look to work)

(image c/o style.com)                                                     (image c/o vogue.co.uk)