Julie Roberts looked absolutely radiant at the premiere of her new film, Eat, Pray, Love, which is her first major role since signing on with Lancôme* as a celebrity spokesmodel for them.
Her long-time makeup artist, Genevieve, created a beautiful look using plums and pinks to bring out Julia’s natural beauty. Here’s what she used:
Face
Lancôme* Teint Miracle foundation (launching next month)
Laura Mercier Secret Concealer
Laura Mercier Secret Brightening Powder (a MakeupMole favourite!)
The new brand on my radar? Aesop. I can’t believe that I hadn’t discovered them before, given that they are Australian, quirky, utilize the best of the natural world with modern science (I wish more of life could be like that), AND their packaging comes complete with quotes from Serge Gainsbourg, Miles Davis, Winston Churchill and Carl Jung. What’s not to love?
Regular readers of MM know that I don’t often blog about skincare – not because I don’t like it but for me it has to be high performance, worth the price and make the skin look amazing, letting me focus on what I love most – makeup. It’s a pretty big call for most skincare, therefore it doesn’t make it into my kit and I keep on with my good old trusted and true Kiehl’s and Crealine. However of late this is changing, and I’ve found a few new things I like – which goes to show there’s always something new and fabulous around the corner!
So back to Aesop. I have been using the Perfect Facial Moisturiser, the Fabulous Facial Oil, and the B & Tea Balancing toner, and I love them all. The Perfect Facial Moisturiser isn’t greasy, which I like, and has Vitamin C in a base of hydrating oils including jojoba, rosehip and shea butter. It’s the perfect base for makeup so I use it in the morning.
The B & Tea toner is quite a departure for me as I haven’t used toners for years since a product who shall remain nameless was left on a cotton ball when I was fourteen and stripped my antique dresser BONE WHITE, which made me rather wonder what on God’s good green earth it was doing to my sensitive teenage skin. So it was with some trepidation I gave it a go, and found it to be refreshingly pore cleansing without being painful. I don’t use this one every day, just when I feel like I need it if my skin gets a bit congested (when I *ahem* haven’t been following my skincare regime as assiduously as I should). It is alcohol free, with Provitamin B5 and antioxidant Green Tea, and Sodium Gluconate to assist with cell turnover.
And the Fabulous Facial Oil? Well this guy is also wonderful as a base for makeup as it moisturizes the skin’s surface without being too greasy. It contains juniper berry, ylang ylang and jasmine petals to hydrate and detoxify patchy skin, but leaving the skin matte. It’s a favourite of one of my favourite makeup artists, Lucia Pieroni, so I couldn’t resist giving it a whirl. I also love their distinctive brown glass apothecary style packaging – it looks so chic in your bathroom!
Aesop was launched in Melbourne in 1987 by Dennis Paphitis, with the idea of using plant based ingredients with effective man-made ones. As wellness and the interest in natural products combined with anti-aging science has grown, Aesop has shown itself to be a brand with both intellect and personality. The company’s reference points are life itself – “how we should be living, eating, exercising and caring for ourselves” says Dennis. An unusually broad remit for a skincare brand but one you can see in their newsletters and marketing where they focus on films, music, the arts and wonderful quotes.
They have recently opened their second store in Paris at Rue St Honoré, in addition to the many stores they have all over the world, from Switzerland to London and Hong Kong. Indeed, arguably the world’s coolest shop, Colette, (and my favourite Parisian department store, Bon Marche!) stocks their products.
PS Have just given Aesop an A+ for including a recommendation on their website for The Magnificent Ambersons, Orson Welles darkly genius movie about an American family, and one of my favourite movies of all time. Love LOVE this brand! Brains and beauty, my favourite.
PPS Because I can’t resist the opportunity to talk about Orson, other great Orson Welles movies are obviously the cinematic classic Citizen Kane but also The Third Man, a fabulous mystery set in post-war Vienna.
Thursday’s fashion parade for Myer’s Spring/Summer collections was all glitter and mayhem backstage, with 22 makeup artists, 75 models, 7 manicurists and a veritable fleet of hairdressers all working their creative magic to make the girls look breathtaking.
New makeup kid on the block, Illamasqua, just arrived from the UK and selling like the proverbial hotcakes at Myer, was sponsoring the show so we were using all of their products to create the looks. We were also fortunate enough to have the Illamasqua creative director, Alex Box, here to direct the show, which is a rare treat.
I’ve assisted Alex in London and Paris for a long time so I was heading up the Ready to Wear section of the parade whilst she was looking after the Avant Garde Gold section. Dressed in the season’s hottest trend of nude dresses the models literally looked like they’d swum out of a golden, glittery sea. Genius hairdresser Brad Ngata did an amazing job on the hair, which was either loose, gorgeous and sexy hair for the Ready to Wear models, or for the golden girls slicked back with gold leaf through it.
We were lucky to get some of Sydney’s top makeup artists to work on the show as many of them are fans of Alex’s editorial work, so backstage it was lovely to see some of our major makeup stars working side by side.
Illamasqua very kindly gave every artist a full set of Illamasqua brushes so we were all getting into those, particularly the Contour and Buffing Brushes. I love the feel as they are made of synthetic fibres so they are cruelty free, super soft and easy to clean. This was big makeup so we put those bad boys to work!
Both the looks were heavily contoured so we used cream foundation to perfect their skin, and then spent quite a bit of time buffing in contouring and highlighting powders (key to both looks was the layering of products). Here is a breakdown for Alex Box’s Gold Avant Garde Goddesses.
Illamasqua Avant Garde Gold
All products are by Illamasqua
Face
Flatten brows against the skin using soap and a toothbrush to create an exaggerated bushy shape
Illamasqua Satin Primer all over face
Using Illamasqua cream foundation about two shades darker than their natural skintone, start bronzing the skin with the Foundation brush.
Contour the skin using Illamasqua Rumour powder blush (a grey tone) then work into the same area with Disobey Powder blush, a biscuit colour, using the Blush Brush 2 over the brow, up into the temples, under the chin and down in to the neck. The combination of colours is what brings dimension to the face.
Using Illamasqua Bronzer duo in Glint/Burnish, dust the dark side of the bronzing duo over the same contoured area again.
Use the lighter side of the Bronze duo Glint/Burnish, fill in the areas of the face that weren’t covered with the contour/bronzer to start bringing radiance to the centre of the face.
Using Create blush, go over the chin, forehead, neck, ears and cheek area using wide, sweeping motions and a Blush Brush 1 brush, but avoiding the nose.
Take Marvel pigment and a Blush Brush 1 brush to go over the whole face, but adding more gold through the centre of the face. Work gradually to build the colour.
Eyes
Illamasqua Wolf Powder shadow is used first to get the shape of the eye, creating a strong contour shape up into the crease and over the lid. Take the Wolf shadow quite high on the crease, and use an Eyeshadow Brush to smudge underneath eye to make a dramatic round shaped eye.
Using Gimp shadow, a matte black, go over the whole lid and up into the crease, with the Eyeshadow Brush, and under the eye as well. Make sure it is stronger on the outer 2/3rds and up into the crease area for extra drama. Soften the outer edges with a Blend Brush 1 underneath so it blends in with the gold on the cheeks.
Line waterline with black Sophie pencil and smudge all around eye. Blend in well with the Gimp shadow.
Spatter Solstice Liquid Metal (Gold) on inner eye corners and tear ducts using fingers and a Lip Brush. It should cover the inner 1/3 of the eye, and look quite organic. Take under the inner eye corner as well with the Lip Brush.
Gold Marvel pigment goes over this, with the same Lip Brush.
Harness mascara (black) top and bottom lashes
No 13 lash is applied to top lashes.
Use Gimp shadow with Eyeshadow brush along the upper lashline to make sure there are no gaps in the black
Illamasqua Android pigment goes on the outer corner of the lid, just up to where it meets the gold on the inner corners, with Eyeshadow Brush
Solstice Liquid Metal is painted all over neck, body and ears with Foundation brush.
Spatter large craft glitter in gold randomly over hairline and neck and shoulders
Lips
Gold highlight lip using Solstice Liquid Metal on cupid’s bow and Lipliner Brush.
Add Brilliant clear gloss with Marvel pigment in it with fingers in the centre of lips.
I couldn’t resist this lovely new video from London-based makeup artist Lisa Eldridge, called Four Shades of Bronze. It’s shot on location of a Glamour beauty shoot she did on bronzing for different skintones, and it’s ace.
It very clearly explains all about bronzer across a broad range of skintones, which is a tricky subject for many women – bronzer is one of those areas where one size definitely doesn’t fit all, yet in the traditional media it seems that there are only about five bronzers you ever hear about, leading you to buy one of them at a makeup counter then get home and wonder why it makes you look more dirtbag than radiantly sunkissed.
I really like Lisa’s videos as I think they are clear, easy to follow and she and I have a very similar approach to makeup. She puts up a new one about once a week (God knows how with her very hectic editorial and celeb schedule, but she does, so hats off!) and it’s well worth checking back on her site if great makeup vids are your thing.
Makeup by Genevieve Herr
