13 posts tagged "Alex Box"
“Wearable, Felt” Makeup And Nails That Are Anything but Nude, Backstage At Gareth Pugh
There was a lot going on backstage at Gareth Pugh‘s Spring show. After walking through the incense and smoke-filled venue, we arrived to find makeup artist Alex Box cooing over her nine-week-old baby. “He likes the attention,” she said of Marlo Ray, who was getting plenty of it from models like Nadja Bender, who came over to marvel at Box’s beautiful little boy. “It’s the best thing I’ve ever done. I feel I’ve been melted and someone’s poured me back into me,” the proud mother effused. No wonder there was a noted change in the beauty look here.
“I thought I’d do something for people to wear for a change,” the woman responsible for Pugh’s Spring 2010 gray-tinged, “goddesses from the grave” faces and Spring 2012′s plastic-film eyebrow moment deadpanned. The molten red “structural, but felt” lids courtesy of a blend of MAC Eyeshadows in Coppering, Cranberry, All That Glitters, Honey Lust, and Basic Red that was given definition with a line of its Lip Pencil in Cherry along the inner rims may not count as “wearable” for some people, nor will the drip of special-effect liquid tears Box added right before girls went out onto the runway for an “emotional” element likely find its way into many people’s daily routines. But this might be as close as we’re going to get with Pugh and Box—the latter of whom’s red lip, a combination of MAC Lip Pencil in Auburn and its Lipmix in Red, ranks right up there with some of the most impressive mouths we’ve seen this season.
But that’s not all we have to report. In a season that’s been filled with nude nails and less successful nail art moments, Marian Newman managed to turn out one of the coolest polish protocols we’ve seen. You asked for it on Instagram, so without further adieu, the method behind Newman’s “blood and tears” manicure madness: Start with a thick “blob” of MAC Nail Lacquer in Rogue Marie at the cuticle line and paint a quarter of the way up the base of the nail. Then add its crimson varnish in Shirelle toward the top, blending the two colors with upward brushstrokes for an ombré effect. Top with a glossy coat of MAC’s Overlacquer and congratulate yourself on pulling off our favorite nail moment yet.
Illamasqua’s Theatrical Release
We’re personally advocating for fall’s nude nail, but there are certain lacquer labels that will always appeal to our innate desire for colorful statement-making. Illamasqua, which burst onto the scene three years ago with polishes in the purest shades of neon (its Radium, a lime green shimmer, skirted the line between too-chartreuse-to-wear and exactly on point) and not one but two shades of black, is just such a brand. We wait for each season’s offering with fingers crossed, hoping for something new and noteworthy to slick onto our tips. Illamasqua color creator Alex Box didn’t disappoint this month, releasing her Theatre of the Nameless collection—which includes four opulent varnishes with limited-edition rubberized black caps—in homage to those dens of iniquity in 1920′s Berlin where exotic dancers and anarchists rubbed elbows. Kink is a satin-finish dark jade that has a muted quality unlike the line’s previously released hunter green shade, Rampage; Vice is a dark magenta-cum-cerise; Faux Pas is a dusty, creamy lilac; and Taint is a taupey-brown, which could double as a fantastic rich nude for those of you hoping to keep it neutral.
Illamasqua Does Toxic Beauty
Since its launch stateside in 2009, Illamasqua has made a name for itself as the go-to brand for off-the-wall makeup, whether you’re in the market for a real-deal white foundation or a matte-black lipstick. There are, of course, more wearable offerings scattered somewhere in between (creative director Alex Box’s signature Box Red Lipstick is a real winner, as are her lip glosses and illuminators), but that’s beside the point. “If you hit the mark with everyone, you’re beige,” Box joked of the company’s off-kilter appeal when we caught up with her a few months ago to preview her spring launch, Toxic Nature, which debuts in April. The range features a predictable assemblage of crazy fun and classically beautiful colors in one pretty package with standouts that include mint green and lavender multipurpose Cream Pigments as well as a new shade of Box’s popular Precision Ink Gel Liner in Glister, a glimmering nude. (“It will revolutionize people’s makeup bags,” Box divulged of the corrector, highlighter, eyeliner, and lip liner in one that also happens to be the perfect tool with which to draw “cyber freckles”—a.k.a. faux sun spots à la the Chloé Fall show—as she demonstrated on our own visage). Our favorite piece of the puzzle, though, is the nail varnishes, which include four new shades packaged with the pre-existing Gamma, a neon orange. As we ease into Fall’s idea of embracing statement-making neutral lacquers over the more garish bold and fluorescent hues that have dominated the nail market of late, Purity, an opaque peach, is really calling to us. A thin line of the shimmering acid lime, Radium, across the tips should help ease the transition.
Eye Candy, Backstage At Gareth Pugh
Seeing as how Alex Box has already proved that her face-painting skills will not be confined to two dimensions, the makeup artist’s avant-garde experiment backstage at Gareth Pugh seemed perfectly par for the course. “Religious iconography” is how Box described the inspiration for the gold and blue laser-cut eye patches that she made for the occasion using a “bespoke retro-reflective fabric that turns pure white when hit with a bright light”—like, say, a barrage of flashbulbs. With statement-making lids playing such a large part in the overall look, Box’s handiwork called for little else save for MAC Clear Brow Set to groom arches and its clear Lip Glass, which she applied to the tops of cheeks for a shiny highlight.
What it did mandate, however, were killer nails, courtesy of Minx. Working off of a waxy blue fabric supplied by Pugh’s stylist, Katie Shillingford, Minx co-founders Janice Jordan and Dawn Lynch-Goodwin collaborated with U.K.-based nail artist Marian Newman on a custom design for the show. Adhesive overlays featuring a blue canvas with gold foil framing around the base and on either side of the nail added that extra bit of inventive artiness that has become synonymous with Pugh’s presentations, finished off with similar gilding placed underneath fingertips. So far, the Paris shows have put the brakes on the manicure mania that has swept New York and London for the past two seasons. Here’s hoping this gets things rolling.
The 411: Alex Box
Makeup artist Alex Box is a bit of an anomaly. Equal parts face painter and fine artist (Box holds a degree from the Chelsea College of Art & Design), she’s often called upon to make models look otherworldly, creepy, and almost inhuman—anything but pretty. Whether she’s working with prosthetics, stencils, plain pigment and brushes, or 3-D laser-cut eyelashes, there’s little the frequently top-hat-clad Box can’t do—which is presumably what has attracted designers like Peter Jensen and Gareth Pugh to her special brand of beauty. As a frequent fixture in Vogue, Numéro, W, Another Magazine, Dazed & Confused, and i-D, Box brought her skill set to the masses almost three years ago with Illamasqua, a color collection designed for your “alter ego.” “If you hit the mark with everyone, you’re beige,” Box says of some of the range’s more off-the-wall offerings, which span from porcelain white foundation, green lipstick, and neon orange nail lacquers to more wearable complexion enhancers, her fan-favorite Precision Ink eye liners, and her versatile red lipstick in Box. “I wear it every day without fail,” she says of the blue-tinged bullet. Here, Box shares her beauty must-haves and her favorite London destinations for getting primped out and geared up during LFW and beyond.
The Pro: Alex Box, creative director of Illamasqua.
The Clutch-Sized Essential: Illamasqua Lipstick in Box
“I’ve always wanted to do a lipstick, since I was 12—and it was like trying to reinvent the wheel! I’ve gone through all of the classic reds, but there wasn’t anything blue enough for me, or it was too shiny or too matte. I unashamedly totally made this for myself.”
Illamasqua Lipstick in Box, $22, www.sephora.com
The Quick Color Job: Také at Windle & Moodie
“I don’t cut my hair, but his passion for getting my color right is really lovely. I’ve had this blond streak for three years. Every time I see my mum, she says, “Still with the streaks?”
Windle é Moodie, 41 Shorts Gardens, London, WC2H 9AP, +44 20-7497-2393.
The Behind-the-Makeup Skincare Regimen: Daily Diligence
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you my whole routine—it’s so long it makes me sound like a mentalist. It actually takes me longer [to wash my face] than it does to put on my makeup. I use a ton of Dermalogica, and I’m religious about Natura Bissé. They do this product called Inhibit that’s almost like a natural Botox.”
Natura Bissé Inhibit-Tensolift, $850, www.bergdorfgoodman.com.