22 posts tagged "Benefit Cosmetics"
Mirror, Mirror: Reflecting On The Makeup In Snow White And The Huntsman
The best fairy tales often expose our darkest fears, and if there ever was a cautionary tale against being obsessed with youth, beauty, and staring in the mirror a bit too much, Snow White would be it. The classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale about the fairest of them has been given an update with Snow White and the Huntsman, which opens this weekend and features a few new twists and turns along the way: the evil Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron) dispatches a swarthy hunter (Chris Hemsworth) to capture Snow White (Kristen Stewart). But instead of axing the young girl, the hunter becomes her mentor, teaching her to wield swords and shields to vanquish the queen—all the while maintaining ethereal, dewy skin and red lips in the dark forest. Some of the most envy-inspiring looks were supplied with products from Benefit, which released a limited-edition Rare Beauty makeup kit containing the same primers and stains head makeup artist Sharon Martin used on set. Here, Style.com caught up with Martin to talk about innocent complexions, wickedly evil dark eyes, and adding just enough grit to the classic narrative.
How did you research the makeup for the film?
I started my research after reading the script. I consulted old fairy-tale illustrations, and at the time, there was an exhibition on the “Cult of Beauty” at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, which was also very interesting. I was inspired by the fact that we wanted to make a dark, gritty fairy tale.
You worked with over 50 makeup artists to execute the looks for hundreds of cast members. What was a typical day like on set?
A typical day would start at 5 a.m. with the background being made to look right for the particular scenes we were shooting. The makeup might be applying broken veins or dirt under nails, coloring in teeth or applying facial hair, so that the characters looked as if they belonged to the world we were creating.
Ew. There were fair maidens too, though, of course…
Yes. At the same time, we also created pretty maidens with beautiful, glowing skin, which is where Benefit products came in handy. I wanted a very soft beauty that would appear to come from within.
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Benefit, On The Big Screen
Benefit has made a name for itself as the beauty brand that serves up stellar, complexion-enhancing face-savers—and a little dose of humor, free of charge. The idea of blending cosmetics and comedy stems from founders Jean and Jane Ford’s own lighthearted approach to a life that has taken them from small-time Indiana to the fast-paced world of New York modeling, and then finally to San Francisco, where they’ve built Benefit into a global business over the last 30-plus years. And with a cult-favorite cheek and lip stain cleverly called Benetint, which was originally made for a San Fran-based stripper who wanted her nipples to look more red, and a velvety complexion balm known simply as Dr. Feelgood, it’s unsurprising that the film version of the Fords’ road to success would be anything but normal.
“It’s like a seventies variety show,” Geremy Jasper said of Glamouriety, a new movie that he directed with Georgie Greville in partnership with Legs, Milk Studios’ motion and creative division that premiered in Tribeca last night. “It’s sort of like Sonny and Cher,” Greville chimed in of the project that combines animation, skits, and original musical numbers, composed by Jasper. “[Jean and Jane] opened up their eccentric and colorful past and they let us walk down memory lane with them,” he said, describing the plotline, which features vignettes about the creation of Benetint via a “Streisand-esque” ballad—”My mom is the voice of the old stripper!” Jasper effused—and a live-action short about Ralph, a cross-dressing farmer that used to send away for Benefit cosmetics through the Fords’ mail-order catalog.
“Ralph is my favorite,” Jean divulged before the tape rolled, adding that she was also particularly proud of Hervé Lopez’ animation. “All of them are real stories, and they are only really three or four of the massive amount of stories that we have,” she said of the sketches. So why not do a book? “Words may not be able to capture the spontaneity and the spirit of the brand,” Jane surmised before revealing that she’s not ruling it out. The material is there; “when a person works retail, every minute is a potential story.”
Glamouriety will be premiering in Shanghai, Seoul, and Paris before it makes its online debut at www.benefitcosmetics.com later this year.
Benefit Goes Higher Brow
I swore undying devotion to my long-standing brow groomer, Jimena Garcia, years ago. The in-house specialist at Tenoverten has one of the best, innate senses of shape I’ve ever encountered and an incomparable ability to remove a single hair from my arches and change the entire shape of my face, in the best possible way. She further blew my mind on one of my first visits when she applied a little bit of highlighter to my brow bones following a grooming appointment. I’ve been hooked on the stuff ever since. A single swipe of peachy pigment can instantly open up even the tired-est of eyes—particularly when it boasts a hint of shimmer, which likely compelled Benefit to upgrade its cult-favorite High Brow pencil. While the brand’s original soft, matte-pink stick worked wonders on fairer complexions, I always found it a bit too chalky for my olive-toned skin. Its successor, however, the High Brow Glow, is formulated with a glimmering champagne effect that subtly lifts lids, without any trace of a perceptible pastel finish. A blended stroke plus a few lashes of clear brow gel are a boon to even the best professional service.
The Oxygen Network
Oxygen facials peaked on spa menus a few years back, promising to make skin dewy and plump with mists of the refreshing, pure molecule. Despite hype and devotion from celebs (read: Madonna), dermatologists were skeptical of the lasting benefits. Now it seems oxygen is poised for a comeback—this time in the form of elixirs, creams, and even makeup infused with that atmospheric element. But the question remains: Do these O2 fixes improve your skin’s health in the long run? We tested out the latest offerings, asked the pros for their opinion, and discovered some surprising results.
The Product: Philosophy Oxygen Boost Daily Energizing Oxygen Elixir, $50, www.philosophy.com.
The Claim: A companion product to the brand’s popular Oxygen Peel (which is meant to mimic the results of an oxygen facial at home), this lightweight lotion contains a veil of oxygen that aims to clarify, detoxify, and energize the skin.
The Expert’s Take: “Overall, I think the Philosophy oxygen collection is good, but I’m still skeptical of oxygen as an ingredient that does anything beneficial for the skin,” says Washington, D.C.-based dermatologist Elizabeth. “I don’t think it’s harmful in any way, just useless.”
The Experience: We can’t say for certain if it was the O2 or the blend of botanicals in this formula, but the lotion went on with a perfect velvety texture and gave our skin an amazingly moist, morning-dew-on-petals effect. Hard science aside, we’re sold.
Benefit Stands By The Power Of Powder
Benefit’s Box-O-Powders are the stuff of legend. Since launching Hoola, a matte pressed bronzer that was the first of the series, back in 2001, the San Francisco-based beauty giant has slowly rolled out a collection of seven similarly packaged complexion enhancers, including celebrity favorite Dandelion—a pink-tinged finishing powder—and CORALista—which is so popular, a stack of all the animal-print boxes of rose-hued pigments sold in a single day would be as tall as Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Cristo Redentor statue. True story! This coming Monday, Benefit will introduce the latest member of the Box-O-Powder family in a one-day-only flash sale on Benefitcosmetics.com, Sephora.com, Ulta.com and Bloomingdales.com. Hervana, as the new four-colored orchid blossom blush is called, comes housed in a package adorned with heavenly images of clouds and halos that is meant to pass along good karma with every swipe of its finely milled contents. Multitasking makeup, at its best.