Blogs on More

If there was only room for one makeup item on a desert island list, I think most women would choose their favourite mascara.

But although well-defined eyes are important, I rate having a healthy, youthful glow even higher on the scale of beauty necessities. That’s why my island grab-bag would have a pretty, warming blush thrown in right beside my sun hat.

Dick Page, the wonderfully creative and oft-sought out Artistic Director for Shiseido, takes it a step further, saying he really doesn’t know what all the fuss is about mascara:

“Why does everyone love mascara so much? I couldn’t care less about it. My absolute must-have is blush. You could be at death’s door, and a spot of blush is still going to make you look great.”

Hear, hear.

In the market for a new blush? Try Shiseido Luminizing Satin Face Color blush in Petal (shown), which gives a flattering, warm wash of coral or the brighter, cool-toned Orchid shade of watermelon.

www.shiseido.com

As far as movie stars go, Julia Roberts is as big as it gets. So, it’s safe to say Lancôme have scored a pretty major coup: they’ve just signed the Oscar-winning actress up as their new brand ambassador.

Julia’s proud and excited about her new role. She told Women’s Wear Daily, “It’s kind of like every girl’s dream, really. To be 42 and have three kids and be a working mom, it’s a great moment to be asked to do this and to be able to do it.” 

Aside from her solid acting chops, I think one of the reasons Julia is so popular is because she has a truly accessible beauty (helped, no doubt by her mega-watt smile). She’s a master at making glamour seem effortless.

Her look for the Golden Globes is a great example of this - rosy cheeks, neutral, slightly glossy lip and a dark smudged shadow lining her eyes.

One of the easiest places to go overboard with colour is on the cheeks - a fast track to looking a little too harsh and possibly a lot crazy. Take inspiration from Julia’s light hint of colour on her cheeks (Lancôme’s Colour Design Cream Blush in Petticoat Pink). Her blush looks natural and flushed, rather than streaky or bold.

For those of us who do not wear lipstick often (guilty as charged!), the dramatic impact of a crimson lip seems elusive and out of reach. But, as I discovered when charged by my editor to test-run red lipsticks, mastering the scarlet pucker isn’t as hard as it may seem. Whip it out on Valentine’s Day to add a little holiday-appropriate glamour to any outfit.

Day 1: Go bold or go home
Assembling the red lipsticks in my bathroom, I pick the brightest red of the bunch. Might as well start with a bang, right? Lesson number one: Exfoliating lips is a must with red lipstick. My first attempt at applying looks lumpy, so I take it off, gently exfoliate my lips with a face cloth, dab on some lip balm, and give it another go. Voila! A scarlet lip worthy of Gwen Stefani herself. If you’re finding it hard to stay in the lines, a lip brush is really helpful to keep your lipstick application smooth and on target.

Traveling to work on the subway, all I can see is the reflection of my red lips in the window. I have honestly never worn such bright lipstick in my entire life. Exiting the station, I see one of my friends from another magazine, who ignores me completely. A double-take later, she sees past the lipstick and realizes it’s me. Around the office, I get compliments on my lips. With the exception of some accidental smudging and leaving lipstick rings on my metal water bottle, the red lip is surprisingly easy so far; now if I could just find a less conspicuous colour…

Day 2: Retro red
For my second day I choose an extremely dark red that is nowhere near as bright as my first pick. Lesson number two: Red lipstick instantly emphasizes any redness in your face. Concealer is a must!

While the application process went smoothly, the colour didn’t look as good as the bright red from Day 1. By the time I got to work, I had put my finger on it. Lesson number three: Red lipstick is unforgiving when you pick the wrong shade. I ended up wiping it off after seeing my sallow reflection in the mirror. Back to the drawing board…

Day 3: Berry nice
On day three, I’m discouraged from my little shade mishap and decide to go a different colour route: raspberry. Of all the intense shades I’ve tried, I have to say I like this one the best; raspberry is as deep and dramatic as a red, but much more wearable. Experimenting with berry makes me excited for the pretty pink lips that stormed the Spring/Summer 2010 runways.

Day 4: Pencil it in
For my last day of red lipstick, I shake it up and try an automatic lip crayon. At last, red lip nirvana: versatile enough to be used as a lipstick on bare lips or over lip gloss to give a slight tint, this red looks like a darker version of my natural lip colour, and gets a thumbs up from my boyfriend.

After trying various shades, I’ve finally learned lesson number four: It takes time and effort to find the right red. But when you do, nothing beats the instant glam of a scarlet lip.

A foundation brush is an essential tool in your beauty kit.

Yes, I’m giving “essential” the italic treatment. That’s because having a foundation brush is just as important as a good blush brush or eyebrow taming comb.

It may seem like a frivolous extra step, considering the ease at which you can apply product with your fingers, but trust me on this one, it’s a must-have.

There are two main reasons why I’m on the foundation brush bandwagon: they blend your product on beautifully and you’ll use less of it in the process.

Plus, call me beauty-kooky, but I find the brush sensation on my face quite soothing. And, okay, a brush makes me feel like a “pro”. This is obviously important to me and my ego.

Now onto the point of this story - which brush should you use? Foundation brushes come in two shapes: wide and flat, and round with thicker bristles towards the bottom and thinner ones on top (pictured).

Since I’m such a “pro artiste”, I have - and use - both. The flat one is best for building up your base for a soft but full coverage look, and the round one is great for giving a really light-weight, natural application.

My foundation brushes of choice come from Guerlain and MAC Cosmetics, but I’ve also tested out some great ones from Quo and Sephora.

My first reaction when seeing the new Toleriane Eye Make-up Remover from La Roche Posay ($21.50 for 30 units):

“Holy non-environmentally friendly wasteful packaging batman!”

My second reaction? That I need to tone down the geek speak by about 99%.

But after my initial hesitation, I decided to give them a try. Specially formulated with water from the La Roche Posay warm springs in France, (as is the entire Toleriane line), this is a pretty standout makeup remover for women with contact lenses or eyes that are easily irritated.  Many of us with more sensitive eyes just assume that a burning or stinging sensation when removing makeup is normal, when really it may be as simple as changing the remover.

To get back to the packaging, the major plus to this style of individual-use vials is that they’re so airport-ready they should be sponsored by your local passport office.

Each vial gives about two uses  - unless you’re at the Tammy Faye level of mascara wear, in which case you’ve got bigger issues to deal with.

www.larocheposay.com

I’m like a magpie when it comes to pretty, shiny things. Thus, my appreciation for the fun collaboration between the popular nail polish brand OPI and Dell Computers.

Sure, seeing this has created a need I didn’t know I had: matching my nails to my emails, but never mind that. I obviously need to buy at least four or five of these so I can fully express myself creatively through polish and posing at coffee shops.

www.dell.ca

Chanel’s just upped the stakes on the retail-as-experience set up.

The famous luxury French label has launched a small but perfectly formed boutique space inside the Holt Renfrew Bloor Street store -  a mini-mecca for all things Chanel: perfume, makeup and skin care.

A rather sexy Olfactory Bar is the standout here. It houses all the Chanel perfumes and the Les Exclusifs Fragrace Collection (based on the life and stories of Coco Chanel),

Interestingly, there’s no typical spritzer meets paper greeting when you arrive, instead, ceramic blotters dipped in fragrance pots are used, which offer a much better - and truer - example of the perfume’s scent. Bonus: it means you’re not walking around in a cloud of fragrance, which can quickly get overwhelming.

If you’re in the area, I recommend popping by to take a seat at the consultation bar for a little “choose your own adventure” fragrance journey. Experts are at hand to help you discover the different scent families. You’d be surprised at the result you get when you literally stop to smell the roses.

When it comes to new-product perkiness, most beauty editors I know sit up straight and pay attention when Viktor & Rolf decide to release a new perfume.

The quirky, charming duo are fashion designers from Amsterdam that have a great way of infusing fun and sophistication into their completely surreal style.

Their very successful 2005 perfume, Flowerbomb, came in a grenade shaped bottle that “exploded” into a thousand flowers. Sounds cheese ball, but everyone loved it.

I’ve got their newest fragrance, Eau Mega, on my desk right now - it’s a big, bold, statement of a perfume (and a bottle), and it’s made to inspire the same in the woman who wears it.

One squeeze of the “megamizer” (yup, “megamizer), and you’re greeted with a fresh, green hit of violet leaf, green basil and pear. It settles onto the skin with a floral mix of sambac jasmine and peony. It’s editorially incorrect to use a cliche for originals such as V&R, but this perfume truly is a modern twist on a classic floral theme.

The pair describe the woman that wears Eau Mega as someone with “the allure, charm, beauty and confidence of those who have nothing to prove.”

I like the sound of that.

www.viktorandrolf.com

Fall isn’t just the season for justifying the price of those gorgeous boots you “needed”, it’s also the time when germaphobes (like me) really come into their own.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m a bit of a hand-washing dynamo. And as soon as the weather turns colder, I’m single-handedly responsible for putting most disinfectant company owner’s kids through college. That said, I’m not quite ready to purchase a full-body bubble to protect myself from H1N1. Perhaps by the end of the month. [Jenn’s note: By the way, don’t miss Karen von Hahn’s piece on what swine flu is really like. We recommend sending that link to any wayward youth who think they don’t have to worry about it!]

With all of our focus tuned into keeping germs and general yuckiness as far away from ourselves as possible, the launch of a line of cosmetic sanitizers is rather timely.

Canadian company BeautySoClean calls itself the “hand sanitizer of makeup”, and offers products you can spray onto powder or cream-based products like blushes, concealers and pressed powders that remove bacteria. They also offer brush cleansers and sanitizing wipes for lipsticks and eye pencils.

If you like to browse beauty counters, carrying a sanitizer is a great way to get the valuable “try-before-you-buy” experience and keep any real or imagined germs at bay.

I’m off to spray everything I own. You never know.

www.beautysoclean.com

It’s rare that a beauty trend comes along that is truly flattering on all women - but this fall the makeup gods have been generous. Rather than providing one sole focus, ie “the smoky eye”, this season it’s about a colour:

Grey.

Grey nails, grey eyes, even grey lips. (Not recommending that one, though. That’s a catwalk fashion-as-art exclusive me thinks.)

Here’s why grey works so well on the eyes - it’s less severe than black but maintains a certain level of edgy cool that brown just doesn’t have.  All eye colours and complexions can dabble too - whether you go for a slate grey eye liner to softly define the eyes during the day or take on a full blown granite-hued smoky eye, it’s a near-guarantee that it will flatter. If you have dark eyes, go for a darker tone - light grey can end up looking a little blue otherwise.

I love grey nail polish, and find it fascinating how one colour can look so different on different women. On teens it looks rock ‘n’ roll, on professional women it looks city-girl chic and on everyone else it just looks surprisingly classic and pretty. Case in point: our model Erin Fuentes in the September 2009 issue wore grey nails and grey eyes beautifully.

This is a trend that has trickled down from the runway to every makeup line in all price ranges - and it’s worth giving it a shot if you’re in the mood for something new this fall.