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subscribe to beauty blog via RSSA Seductive Chat With The New Guess Girl
September 25, 2010
When the name Guess? comes up in conversation, a few things immediately come to mind: First, the best high-waisted, curve-hugging, early-nineties jeans I’ve ever owned, immediately followed by a montage of nearly three decades’ worth of sexed-up, black-and-white campaign images starring famous models like Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, Eva Herzigova and Laetitia Casta—not to mention the late, bodaciously blond Anna Nicole Smith. This month, California-born catwalker Alyssa Miller joins the Italian brand’s illustrious spokesmodel roster, fronting ad images for its fashion and beauty arms, and starring as the lone face of its new fragrance, Seductive. The raven-haired Miller, who resembles the nineties supes that came before her insofar as she’s been blessed with a glamazon body (and one serious set of brows), was lensed by photographer Vincent Peters in a sultry shoot intended to convey the black currant, orange flower, jasmine and Florentine iris root eau’s coy femininity and, well, irresistibility. (The suggestive visual of Miller at left should get the message across.) Here, the catwalker talks to Style.com about her new gig, how she maintains those enviable arches, and her secret trick for a perfect pout.
So, how does it feel to be in such company in the house that Marciano built?
It’s insane, to be honest. There’s something exciting and special about every single one of those women’s images. I love the Drew Barrymore shots—and Eva in those jeans! Her curves kill me.
I totally forgot about Drew!
I even love the Anna Nicole pictures.
As do I. You are doing both fashion and beauty, which is no small feat. Does the experience representing both differ at all?
I love to do both—and I’ve never gotten more phone calls from friends in L.A. who have seen the ads! That’s part of the fun of it—transforming into the Guess? girl. She’s confident, playful, easygoing and definitely sexy. So the high-fashion thing is great, but it’s nice to do something that’s accessible to everyone, too—like, all my girlfriends wear the fragrance.
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tags: Alyssa Miller, Fragrance, Guess, Seductive
“A New Type of Glamour” Backstage at Versace
September 25, 2010
Picking just one beauty image from yesterday’s Versace show may have been the most difficult thing we did all day. Just about every single model backstage had the most gorgeous skin we’ve seen at the Spring shows yet. Lindsey Wixson ultimately won out because, well, she’s Lindsey Wixson (oh, that face!)—but don’t think for a second that the flawless complexion pictured above is solely due to the model-of-the-moment’s good genes and youth. No, credit must also be given to makeup artist Pat McGrath and her magic bottle of CoverGirl NatureLuxe Silk foundation, which has already wowed us backstage at both Anna Sui and Gucci, and sadly will not be available for purchase until January 2011. On top of this perfectly polished canvas, McGrath blended warm shades pink blush, applying CG’s LashBlast Length mascara in Black on the upper lash line to add dimension to a layer of of its Professional Eye Enhancer eye shadow in Mink, a soft taupe-y beige. “A new type of glamour,” is how hairstylist Guido Palau referred to the overall beauty look, which was a departure from Donatella Versace’s typical directive, which tends to involve dark, sultry eyes and a more-than-occasional dabble into big, voluminous blowouts. “It’s a strong, Helmut Newton sort of woman,” Palau added, slicking back tresses with Redken Hardwear 16 Super Strong gel and fashioning low-slung knots, which he covered with a square piece of black PVC leather and secured with a hair tie. That super-glossy finish came courtesy of a quick smear of Redken’s Glass 01 Smoothing Serum right before models hit the runway.
tags: CoverGirl, Guido Palau, Hair, Makeup, Pat McGrath, Redken, Versace
Flossing With Style
September 24, 2010
In one of the more enjoyable mailings we’ve received recently, these handy items arrived at our offices via UPS this morning. No, you’re not looking at a Style.com magnet or card holder; that, dear readers, is a personalized Flossbox. Yes, Flossbox—a new-to-market credit card-sized spool of dental floss that doubles as a handheld mirror and can be a pretty powerful branding tool to boot. You can upload your own photos or logos to www.flossbox.com, and they’ll print you out your very own model for a wee $3.49! Perhaps even more exciting, Flossbox offers a super-handy way to check and see if an impulsive corn-on-the-cob move went awry, while simultaneously providing a quick and easy way to remedy the situation if in fact it has (you know what we’re talking about). And how chic does our logo look in beauty utility-item form?
A Sporty Brit Brand Brings Its Beauty Stateside
September 24, 2010
I took the ferry to Nantucket for a friend’s wedding recently and found myself a bit unprepared for the chilly island temperatures. In search of a scarf or something woolly to wrap around myself, I popped into Jack Wills, a quirky British apparel shop that recently opened in a former hardware store there. The brand first debuted in the seaside town of Salcombe in Devon, England, a decade or so ago, selling a laid-back mix of modern and rakish gear intended for the university crowd. Besides the Nantucket location, they can also now be found on Martha’s Vineyard (in a revamped speakeasy, no less) and, beginning this fall, on Boston’s posh Newbury Street. Wills’ stock of hoodies, broken-in tees, and distressed button-downs for guys and girls can best be described as J.Crew-meets-Abercrombie & Fitch (back when it was cool)-meets-the undone street edge of London. And much like J.Crew’s recent foray into beauty (the U.S. retailer began stocking a few choice shades of Essie nail polish at its stores last summer), Wills is also venturing into lacquers. Its new Northbridge Nail Varnish collection features punk shades of vermillion, poppy green, rust orange, and one very amazing dark violet, which I’m definitely lusting for. Sadly, the entire range is back-ordered in the States since it’s sold out in Britain, according to the sales clerk. But happily, it can be purchased online—and at only $8 a pop! Order multiples while supplies last.
tags: Essie, J. Crew, Jack Wills, Nails, Northbridge Nail Varnish
Louche And Lovely Backstage At Etro
September 24, 2010
Miuccia Prada may have bucked Spring’s seventies trend yesterday with a nod to the high glamour of the thirties, but it was back to business as usual today at Etro, a house that’s all about the opulence and excess that defined the disco era. (Let it be known that an understudy crew of B-list models was hired just to do the rehearsal run-through last night before the show this morning. How’s that for excessive?)
“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. Hair stylist Eugene Souleiman—officially today’s busiest coif master, with turns at Moschino, Antonio Marras, and Etro—was going for an “expensive seventies vibe” with middle parts that he sculpted using a round brush, his blow-dryer, and a dollop of Wella’s Crystal Styler, which he spread over strands for blow-outs that bounced down the runway.
tags: Charlotte Tilbury, Etro, Eugene Souleiman, Hair, MAC Cosmetics, Makeup
A Chaste Antiager Grows In The Mediterranean
September 24, 2010
MYRTLE / (mur-tuhl) / n. / 1. / Also known as Myrtus communis, a dense evergreen shrub with white flowers that grows in great abundance in Corsica; / 2. / A durable plant that can reportedly live up to 300 years; / 3. Deep green leaves woven into wedding wreaths as a symbol of purity and beauty; / 4. / An essential oil that stimulates the production of the skin’s longevity proteins and increases its collagen and elastin levels; e.g., “Look to myrtle for wedded bliss and firm skin.”
Try it: L’Occitane Divine Extract Ultimate Anti-Aging Serum with Myrtle Extracts, $105, at www.usa.loccitane.com.
tags: Divine Extract Ultimate Anti-Aging Serum, L'Occitane, Myrtle, Skincare
Cecilia Dean Makes Like Marc
September 24, 2010
We have quietly been stalking Cecilia Dean for a few years now, seeing as how a) both of our names have Celia in them—albeit spelled slightly differently—and b) the editor of Visionaire is everything we want in a style icon. She boasts a laid-back, I-ride-my-bike-in-stilettos attitude, a killer fashion sense, and a typically pared-down beauty routine that makes us feel like going foundation-free is a perfectly acceptable way to show up to a gala. At last night’s eighth annual Brazil Foundation Gala, Dean also made a case for runway hair in the real world. Feast your eyes on Guido Palau’s decadent, seventies-cum-thirties, “Grace Coddington frizz” from Marc Jacobs’ Spring show, worn in seamless perfection with a Jacobs-designed Louis Vuitton gown. A brick red lip and a wash of silver shadow on her lids (Dean is a fan of L’Oréal’s Color Appeal Mono Chrome Shine for all of her highlighting needs) finished off the look, which was decidedly less glam than the glossy green eye, bleached brows, and wine-stained pout François Nars sent down the runway at Marc—and way more wearable for it. Would you try this at home?
tags: Brazil Foundation Gala, Cecilia Dean, Guido Palau, Hair, Makeup, Marc Jacobs
Beyoncé Adds Skin Art To Her Growing Beauty Empire
September 24, 2010
Remember during NYFW when we were obsessed with the Temptu-created, Hope Gangloff-designed temporary tattoos backstage at Wayne? Well, while we were chatting up the skin artists backstage, they name-dropped a few high-profile fake-ink jobs they’d worked on in the past: De Niro in Cape Fear being one of them, and Beyoncé in those new sixties-pinup-girl-meets-futuristic-biker-chick House of Deréon ads—in which B sports a blond beehive and a host of chain-link tats—being the other. We should have put two and two together then, but our brain was clouded with thoughts of making it to the next show on time, whether or not our purple lipstick had smeared all over our face, and when, oh when, might there be time to grab a coffee, so somehow we missed the potential news byte. But with a clear, fully caffeinated head, we read the announcement today that House of Deréon and Temptu have teamed up to produce transfer sheets of the clothing company’s signature fleur icon, rocker bolts and chains, jewel baubles, and spider designs this fall. They bow at Sephora in November, and while they strike us as a mass-version of Chanel’s pearls and chains from Spring 2010, we will still likely partake of them, because apparently, our 12-year-old lust for fake tattoos still burns strong. You too? [WWD]
tags: Beyonce, Chanel, House of Deréon, Makeup, Temptu, Wayne
Backstage At Prada, All That Jazz And More
September 24, 2010
The small head, deep side parts, and finger waves that took to the runway at Prada yesterday were, as you likely presumed, inspired by the one and only Josephine Baker. “The thirties jazz scene” compelled hairstylist Guido Palau to break out his trusty bottle of Redken Super Strong 16 Hardware Gel, curl sections of models’ tresses around the hair line with the tail of his comb, and create two small-and-tight buns in the back to add some “innocence” to the otherwise sophisticated look. A healthy spritzing of Redken’s Vinyl Glam 02 Mega Shine Spray provided that high-impact finish that glistened on the catwalk, which was also helped along by face painter Pat McGrath’s theatrical chrome-silver eye. McGrath swept the opaque powder shadow across lids from the lash line to a makeshift, androgynous brow, which she etched onto foreheads using a series of MAC Cosmetics’ brow pencils for an angular, masculine element—which was perfectly fitting, seeing as how Miuccia Prada slipped a few menswear elements into her bright colored, boldly striped collection.
tags: Guido Palau, Hair, Makeup, Pat McGrath, Prada
Smythson Rolls Out A New Beauty Organizer
September 23, 2010
I have a way of stalking expensive goods before buying them. I make multiple shop visits and sometimes hover around an item for months before inevitably breaking down. Smythson of Bond Street’s new Mini Make-Up Brush Roll is my latest object of desire. The croc-print leather kit, produced as part of the British stationery house’s new Damson collection for fall, includes brushes for powder, blush, and eye shadow, a combination lash-brow comb, plus a sleek tweezer—all of which have been specially crafted and neatly tucked into separate compartments. Semiprecious stones inspired the rich plum color of the exterior, and the leather has been given an ultra-glossy finish to add an extra sheen (sigh). During the weeks I’ve been contemplating the $450 price tag, I’ve convinced myself that this kit is the perfect size to toss in my everyday handbag and travel tote for touch-ups on the go (it’s an investment piece, you see). While the company doesn’t appear to sell replacement brushes, I’ve also researched the best way to keep the delicate hairs in mint condition, too (a gentle hand-washing with baby shampoo every two weeks)—thus further rationalizing the purchase. It will be mine; oh yes, it will.
