15 posts tagged "Kérastase"
“Future Girls on Earth, Not Star Wars,” Backstage at Theyskens’ Theory
Last season, the beauty look at Olivier Theyskens’ Theory show was very much a reflection of him at the time. The designer had just sheared off his shoulder-length hair in favor of a chin-grazing crop, and hairstylist Odile Gilbert subsequently gave models the same cut via pastel-colored wigs. For Fall, Theyskens’ beauty team, which includes James Kaliardos on makeup and Jin Soon Choi on nails, was thinking more about Theyskens—and his woman—in the future.
“I’m a big futurist,” Kaliardos said backstage. “I like to think of a time when we can go to bed and get injected with vitamins and wake up feeling better—and looking like we have perfect skin,” he continued of the kind of makeup he was striving to achieve. Starting with a base of MAC Mineralize Charged Water Moisture Gel to fully hydrate the complexion, Kaliardos mixed its Prep + Prime Beauty Balm with its Face and Body Foundation in White for an ethereal glow. Contouring cheeks with is Sculpting Cream in Coffee Walnut—”So the girls look like they have overhead light on them at all times,” he joked—Kaliardos employed pink and peach pigments from MAC’s Concealer Palette to create a “plump-y, fleshy-y” effect. Lips were taken down with MAC Lip Erase before Kaliardos applied a few dabs of its Lipstick in Au Natural. Nails got a similarly clean, perfected treatment with one coat of Choi’s new eponymous lacquer in Tulle, a sheer cream, finished with two layers of glossy top coat.
Odile Gilbert was thinking similarly futuristic thoughts when she prepped strands with Kérastase Resistance Ciment Thermique Heat-Activated Reconstructor Milk and constructed severe center parts that segued into a “veil” of precisely straight flatironed locks. “We’re creating headbands with their own hair,” she said of front sections that had been tucked behind the ears and gathered into a ponytail at the nape of the neck before being covered with lengths. “It’s a future young girl on Earth,” she emphasized; “not Star Wars.“
All That Glitters Is Blue, Backstage At Thakoon
Blue eye makeup was a big hit on the Spring runways and it has already had a few standout showings for Fall too—with good reason, according to Diane Kendal. “Midnight blue gives off a winter feel,” the makeup artist explained backstage at Thakoon, where she was layering NARS Single Eyeshadow in Outremer, a deep indigo, with its new-for-Fall Eye Paint in Ubangi, a similar shade of cobalt that was given a shimmering blue accent with its Duo Eyeshadow in Marie Galante. “The collection has fur stoles, but it’s inspired by summer clothes,” Kendal said, referencing the dragonflies and dandelion prints that adorned the designer’s pieces. “We wanted to reflect that with the makeup.” To wit, she implemented a warm-weather beauty staple that has long gotten the youth vote: glitter. “I’m using three of them,” Kendal effused, applying a liquid set to hold the deep bronze flecks that were diffused toward the outer corner of the eye, while gold sparkles were dusted across the center of lids, and a pink shade was tapered inward. Nails were flecked with clear silver sparkles, courtesy of a single coat of Priti NYC’s Bristol Fairy. To finish the face, Kendal chose to skip lip color—as well as lash lacquer. “Sometimes when you put on mascara it can look old,” she surmised.
Odile Gilbert instituted her own fun and flirty element into an otherwise simple series of chignons via a graphic, micro fringe glued halfway across the hairline. “It’s like you have a little hat on the side of the head,” she said, coating roots with Kérastase Paris Resistance Ciment Thermique to create a sleek finish, as she tightly pulled hair back away from the face, revealing a gem-encrusted ear cuff worn by ten of the shows more elite catwalkers, including Aline Weber, Bo Don, and Xiao Wen.
Seeing Blue, Backstage At Jason Wu
As makeup artist Diane Kendal worked feverishly to perfect the forty-plus girls who walked in Jason Wu’s Fall show, the compliments were coming from all corners of the room. “It’s a beautiful blue,” model Hanne Gaby Odiele remarked of Kendal’s eye color of choice as Wu himself and his stylist Kate Young came over to admire her handiwork. “It’s amazing,” Wu beamed. “It’s the perfect shade.” Color matching was the easy part for Kendal, as Wu had given her a piece of fabric from his dark cobalt finale dress to work from; the application, however, took some finessing.
“I applied it in the crease and then blended it,” Kendal explained of the inky blue pigment she swept across a blonde-again Jessica Stam’s eyes, a preview of the first piece of Wu’s debut cosmetics collection for Lancôme, due out this Fall. Using its Le Crayon Khol in Purple Dusk close to the lash line for definition, Kendal added a shimmering lilac pigment to the center of lids to create a multidimensional effect before dragging the mixture underneath and out toward the temple. Lashes were treated to multiple strokes of Lancôme’s Hypnose Drama mascara in Excessive Black, while skin was kept clean and slightly defined with a subtle peachy-bronze contour.
Not to be outdone, Odile Gilbert devised a similarly statement hair look. “I want the designer to be like, ‘Wow,’ ” she said of the “chic and elegant” updo that had no less than eight interwoven sections, she estimated. Prepping hair with Kérastase Resistance Ciment Thermique Heat-Activated Reconstructor Milk and its shine-inducing Elixir Ultime Moringa Immortel, Gilbert crafted precise center parts to add a dose of sophistication before dividing a large front panel from ear to ear and parceling out long plackets of hair. “I go like this,” she said while acting out the crisscrossing motion by which she layered strands over each other before gathering them into a tucked-under chignon that served as a veritable pincushion to secure the style. Two long silver barrettes, slid into place on an angle, increased the “wow” factor.
More Dungeons & Dragons, Less Kim Kardashian, Backstage At Rodarte
“A modern-medieval face” is what the tip sheet James Kaliardos was passing around to his team backstage at Rodarte said, but there was more to it than that, of course. “The collection feels Dungeons & Dragons to me, not Joan of Arc,” Kaliardos elaborated, referencing the austerity of old religious paintings and “getting rid of the Kim Kardashian look—forever.”
That meant skipping those familiar, heavily bronzed contours and focusing instead on a paled-out complexion that was treated with NARS Skin Optimal Brightening Concentrate and a light-handed application of its Sheer Glow Foundation just in the center of the face, “because once it gets on the cheeks, it actually looks like foundation,” according to Kaliardos. There wasn’t much visible product on the face at all, really, save for NARS’ Triple X Lip Gloss, which was swathed onto mouths and eyelids and applied through girls’ brows as well, including show-opener Jessica Stam’s. “Can you fix me,” Stam beseeched Kaliardos, who added a little fullness, too, at the model’s request.
Odile Gilbert was working off the proportions of Kate and Laura Mulleavy’s designs. “When they showed me the clothes, I thought [the girls] needed something long,” Gilbert said, referring to the hair, which she made “strict and straight” to accommodate a dragon earring cuff clipped onto models’ left ears. “It’s like the girls are shaved,” she explained, slicking strands with Kérastase Ciment Thermique for a pre-blow-dry polish, and dividing them into three sections: two in back—one hanging straight down over the other—and one in front, which was combed all the way over to one side and coated with its Elixir Ultime for added shine.
The finishing touch came from the most conceptual neutral nail we’ve seen this week. “It took 200 man-hours,” CND manicurist Michelle Huynh said of the three-dimensional polish-on-polish basketweave tips that showcased a blended base of its varnishes in Desert Suede and Frosting Cream. Nude, it turns out, doesn’t necessarily mean boring.
Gatsby Goes Graphic, Backstage At Thakoon
Last season, we sat in on the creative process as Thakoon Panichgul and his crack team of beauty experts—that’s Odile Gilbert on hair and Diane Kendal on makeup—trouble-shot a few different looks before arriving at a keeper for the Fall show. This time around, success was immediate. “We got it on the first take,” a jubilant Gilbert confirmed backstage of the “strict, graphic” hair that stemmed from Panichgul’s Spring “garden, flowers, and birdcages” reference points.
“He brings to me, and I bring to him,” Gilbert continued of the idea sharing that helped her arrive at the collection’s dual-textured style. Starting with a generous application of Kérastase Elixir Ultime Imperial to get a glossy, conditioned quality, Gilbert center-parted hair, smoothing front panels behind ears and using a three-branch iron to create defined waves through the lengths. “When we love, we don’t count,” she said, translating a French-ism while slipping a haphazard number of black bobby pins across the back of the head in a half-circle pattern and gathering ends into a low-lying elastic.
“Fantasy” was the Thakoon directive that Kendal picked up on, a theme that was helped along by mood board images of Mia Farrow in The Great Gatsby. “That’s where the 1930s eyebrow came from,” she explained; ditto the sunken eyes and rosy flush. Dusting NARS’ new-for-spring Light-Reflecting Setting Powder over a freshly cleaned and spot-treated base, Kendal blended NARS’ forthcoming raspberry-hued Blush in Seduction onto models’ cheeks, lining lids with its Larger Than Life Long-Wear Eyeliner in Santa Monica Blvd and blending its Eyeshadow in Bali and Blondie across lids. As for those brows, it was important to Kendal that models’ natural arches were visible, “so your eye is drawn to the dark line,” which she drew on top of natural brows with NARS Eyebrow Pencils in either Jodphur or Mambo. “We wanted that eccentric quality,” she explained of why she chose not to bleach brows or glue them down—a quality the models certainly appreciated.