15 posts tagged "Kérastase"
Talking Surf Hair And Sunscreen With Carolyn Murphy
As August transitions into September and models return from their respective vacations (“I’ve been in Hawaii!” a glowing Alana Zimmer told us backstage at Richard Chai), a lot of girls are sporting gorgeous, naturally bronzed complexions at the Spring shows. But there was one summer tan that stood out from the crowd as we scanned the room at Jason Wu yesterday, our eyes coming to a firm stop on Carolyn Murphy. “Jason and I are actually friends,” Murphy said of Wu, who asked her to open his presentation yesterday. “I don’t really like to walk in shows,” the nineties supe admitted, “but I adore him. I really, really love his work and there’s a personal admiration there.” As Odile Gilbert coiffed Murphy’s almost corn-silk-streaked strands into a sleek braided updo, conversation turned to surfing. “I did look in the mirror the other day and think, ‘Oh my God—I’m too tan and too blond,” the longtime Estée Lauder face joked—the happy aftereffect of two months spent riding waves in Montauk, where Murphy has a fail-safe for keeping her hair and skin healthy while exposing herself to the elements. “The trick for me is to wet my hair first [before I get in the ocean]. Then I put a conditioner on it, like coconut oil or olive oil”—or Kérastase Chronologiste Essential Restorative Concentrate, if Gilbert has anything to say about it. “That’s the one we have to give to you,” the super stylist chimed in as she finished the show look. For sun protection, Murphy swears by SPF 50 or higher, like Coppertone’s Water Babies, but recognizes getting a little color is unavoidable. “I’m not going to wear one of those visors with a string around my chin. It’s just not gonna happen.”
So, is this the beginning of Murphy’s catwalk comeback? “Maybe,” she says coyly, pointing out that Wu will definitely be her only stop in New York—both on the runway and in the front row. “I kind of feel like being selective is a little more chic,” she says about show-hopping. “I’ve paid my dues after 20 years in the business.”
Carolyn Murphy—And The Five-Step Red Lip—Backstage At Jason Wu
There was no mistaking Jason Wu’s intentions backstage for Spring, where models like Ming Xi, Cara Delevingne and Karlie Kloss were letting their nails and toes dry with two glistening black coats of OPI Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees, lips a perfect shade of cherry red, hair slicked into a masculine/feminine quiff. “It’s Helmut Newton,” hairstylist Odile Gilbert confirmed of the “expensive, elegant, but not vulgar” updos Wu asked her to create for the occasion. It would make sense, then, that the designer would get one of the famed photographer’s regular subjects to open his show.
“She’s special,” Gilbert joked as she tended to supermodel Carolyn Murphy’s blonder-than-usual strands. (“I’ve been surfing,” the Montauk regular confirmed of her freshly sunlit locks.) Prepping hair with Kérastase Elixir Ultime to impart a smooth texture while treating damage, Gilbert created a deep side part, slicking one side back and weaving what she called an “African braid” up the back with the bulk of the lengths, keeping her plait very close to the scalp. The other side offered up a feminine contrast to the masculine severity via a single glossy wave, which Gilbert secured with a halo of Kérastase Double-Force Hairspray. “The shine makes it modern,” she surmised of the finished product.
Makeup artist Diane Kendal continued the Helmut homage with a really strong crimson mouth and equally fierce brows. Starting with a freshly cleansed complexion courtesy of a steamed mask of Sunday Riley Good Genes treatment mixed with its Ceramic Slip cleanser plus a massage of Riley’s hydrating Juno Serum, Kendal created “fresh, dewy” skin that was deliberately contoured—a staple of Newton’s many nineties-era muses. Dusting MAC Sculpt & Shape powder in Taupe beneath cheekbones, Kendal dotted the apples with its Blush in Poised, adding highlights with MAC Iridescent Powder in Silver Dusk on top. Eyes were treated to a similar dose of Sculpt & Shape Powder in Taupe through the crease, which Kendal applied after a wash of its Pigment in Golden Yellow. An elongated stroke of black crème liner on the top lash line added definition to multiple swipes of MAC Haute and Naughty Mascara in Too Black before brows were beefed up to “boyish” proportions.
As for that lip, it was a work in progress with not one, not two, but five different steps. Kendal coated the entire pout with MAC Lip Pencil in Cherry, using its Lip Pencil in Vino, a darker wine stain, just around the outline. Then came a dose of MAC Lipstick in Lady at Play, a pink hue, which she topped with its Lipmix in Process Magenta, only in the center, and a sprinkling of its Pigment in Neo-Orange. Do try this at home.
Kérastase Goes Long
After letting my angled bob grow out a few years ago, I’m happy to report that my hair is now long. Like, really long. So long, in fact, that people feel the need to comment on its length every chance they get. And while most of these verbalized observations are uttered in compliment, some of them have an undertone of wistfulness, as if to say, “Your hair is long. I liked it better when it was short.”
I can only imagine that these instances are the result of the same problem that plagues every woman who lets her hair grow well past her shoulders: straggly split ends and inexplicable dullness. Unless you get regular trims, which I do not, you run the risk of lengths that look haggard: lifeless, frayed, and other, similarly distasteful adjectives. It’s a common issue that prompted Kérastase to take action. The model-favorite brand that has already tackled cases of texture, volume, color, and thinning hair with its myriad specialty products has focused its energies on length with its new Cristalliste collection. Marketed toward a younger demographic, which typically prefers to keep its hair long and lovely—and which, for the record, I am disturbingly not a part of, statistically speaking, but no matter—the four-piece range is designed to keep strands clean and light at the roots and smooth, illuminated, and free-flowing through the extended ends. Working off the idea that the cuticle of long hair tends to be unevenly sealed so that it doesn’t reflect light optimally, there are two new Bain Cristal shampoos—one for long/fine hair and one for long/thick hair—the Lait Cristal, an aloe vera and essential fatty acid-rich conditioner that helps restore the hair shaft’s natural lipid structure; and the Luminous Perfecting Essence, a leave-in serum that enhances shine without an oily residue.
After a trial run, I’ve determined that my particular brand of long hair, which is a bit dry and unruly, needs a little extra moisture in the form of Kérastase’s Masquintense from its Nutritive line. But lathering with the new Bain Cristal shampoo first can’t be beat for getting a sparkle that doesn’t weigh my hair down—which is essential while it veers ever closer toward my mid-back. I may go short again come fall, but for now, my long locks need all the help they can get.
Down Under Stunners, Backstage At Rodarte
Before setting up his station with bottles of NARS Sheer Glow Foundation and a multitude of its bronzer and blush compacts backstage at Rodarte, James Kaliardos broke out the skincare. “Everyone’s skin is just disastrous right now,” the face painter proclaimed, soaking cotton pads with NARS’ new Makeup Cleansing Water and then slathering on “pretty much everything” from the brand’s skincare line to remedy models’ dry complexions—the unhappy result of four full days of shows. Once Kaliardos did start in with the makeup, though, there was no stopping him.
“These girls are in the Australian Outback and they’ve been caught in a dust storm,” he said, explaining Laura and Kate Mulleavy’s inspiration for their Fall collection, which manifested itself as a blend of bronze and pink pigments that Kaliardos applied with a heavy hand onto cheeks and lids. “I didn’t want it to be all bronzer and J. Lo,” he insisted; instead, the makeup artist opted for “Faye Dunaway cheeks,” which he sculpted by brushing on layer after layer of NARS Bronzer in Laguna. The shimmering insta-tan also made an appearance on lids, where it was brushed through the brows in the shape of an “arc.” Next Kaliardos dusted NARS Blush in Gaiety, a pure pink, from the crease toward the outer corners of eyes and then dotted its Blush in Madly onto the apples of cheeks, “geisha-style.” To open the eyes a bit, he pressed the white shade from NARS’ Eyeshadow Duo in Vent Glace into the inner corners. Lips were painted an opaque pink with its Velvet Matte Lip Pencil in Bolero. If the makeup looked heavy, that was intentional. “More!” Kaliardos instructed his team. “Stronger!”
Hairstylist Odile Gilbert worked off a similar directive, re-creating a down under dust storm effect by varying the texture in her side-parted faux bobs. Prepping hair with Kérastase Mousse Volumactive, Gilbert created a shorter, curly side of the style, which she adorned with a series of gold pins, some of which had stars on them, and a longer, smoother side that went sans accessories. So how did Gilbert determine which girls got gold stars? “They decided,” she said of the designers. “They decide everything. They know what they want.”
Behind The Makeup: 3.1 Phillip Lim Fall 2012
Behind the makeup is a new video series in which Style.com takes you beyond backstage for an insider’s look at the unique creative relationship between designer, makeup artist and hairstylist at the idea conception phase. As you may have suspected, the glossy chignons and bold red lips that debut at the shows often see a series of incarnations before they hit the runway.
There’s detail oriented, and then there’s Phillip Lim. “I’m really hands-on,” Lim admitted last weekend when he summoned longtime collaborators, Nars brand ambassador Francelle Daly and hair stylist Odile Gilbert to his studio to talk beauty for his Fall collection. The meeting of the minds was truly something to behold: Lim took Daly and Gilbert through his designs piece by piece, shared his “neo-noir” inspiration with them presenting a Roy Lichtenstein photo as a starting off point for the makeup, and then sent them on their way to “search for magic,” as Gilbert eloquently put it. And the magic came…slowly. At fist, there was too much red in the “superhero” eyes Daly drew onto lids using NARS Lip Liner in Jungle Red and its Eyeliner Stylo in Nuits Blanches, which she dotted with a “special effect” in the form of its Triple X Gloss for an illustration-caliber shine. And the hair? Well, the hair vacillated between too soft and too sleek, until Lim actually took out a pen and a marker and drew the shape he was after. “I don’t speak the language [of beauty] so sometimes the only way to get there is to paint a picture,” he explained. When everything was said and done, Daly had used almost an entire tube of NARS Larger Than Life Volumizing Mascara, which she had slicked onto custom-cut fake lashes, and Gilbert won Lim over with a texturized updo that she prepped with Kérastase Mousse Substantive and then fashioned into a curled under faux bob on one side with a long, straight section hanging down in the back—for the short term at least. When we arrived backstage at Lim’s show yesterday, he asked her to change the look one last time. “I had to do all 42 girls, in 45 minutes,” Gilbert exclaimed after the presentation. Magic, indeed. Above, watch the process unfold in real time.
