The Makeup Mole

Happy New Year Everyone! I hope you all had a lovely and relaxing festive season and start to 2012. It has been harder than anticipated to prise myself away from the pool (or the beach, just to mix it up a bit). The lure of sunshine, sand, swimming and that feeling at the end of the day when you know you’ve had just enough sun has proven too difficult to resist. However the beauty of relaxing is it makes the mind unwind, and of late my thoughts have been turning to getting back to work. Yesterday my kit got a total overhaul and I was able to think about upcoming jobs. There’s also some new products that I am itching to get a lot more use out of in the next couple of months – Here’s a rundown of the products I can’t wait to get back into:

Bobbi Brown Beach Bronze Cream Eyeshadow

I do love Bobbi’s cream eyeshadows, they are some of the best on the market. This has to be my Numero Uno favourite one. It’s a gorgeous gilded bronze-y colour which is magnifique on its own, or thrown into the mix with other browns and coppers for the ultimate, summer-y smoky eye.

Clinique Black Honey Almost Lipstick

I have had this in my kit FOREVER, and it used to be one of my favourite lipsticks back in the day (let’s just say that TLC’s Creep was featuring heavily on my mixed tapes when I used to use this particular number). But it is the strangest thing – it’s a deep wine colour that really does look good on every skin tone! Now due to its iconic status, Clinique have expanded the Black Honey range to include a new Black Honey powder blush. And I think it’s time for Black Honey to come out and play again. (Maybe not the mid-90’s RnB, but you never know).

Tom Ford Illuminating Face Powder

This is a fantastic pressed face powder for those with oilier skin (such as my good self). It is heavy enough to blot down what it needs to take down but without dulling the skin. I’m actually using it in place of foundation most days, as without powder my forehead looks like it’s been laminated (such a good look!) It also has a yellow tone to it, which I”ve always liked to carry in my kit, and I’ve found it’s like a better version of T Le Clerc’s powder in Banane. T Le Clerc might be needing to find a new place to live this month.

Blistex Lip Balm Ultra Protection SPF 30+

This high protection sunscreen lip balm really comes into its own on beach shoots when it’s 30 degrees and keeping the model from frying like a lobster (and her makeup looking pristine) is of paramount importance. This is my favourite lip balm with sunscreen that I’ve found recently, and I’m hoping I’ll get to use it on a few more beach shoots before the end of the season.

Estee Lauder Verite Calming Fluid

This is my current go-to moisturiser as it’s a very light fluid that hydrates the skin beautifully, leaves a gorgeous sheen on the skin and is the perfect base for sunscreen – which is just mandatory at this time of the year. This is from Estee Lauder’s fantastic Verite range for skins with rosacea and a tendency to redness (such as mine), so it helps subtly correct your skintone at a skin care level before you even get to foundation.

Chanel Blazing Gold Single Eyeshadow and Liquid Liner in Or

I’m totally keeping these for a beauty story as I’m really feeling gold at the moment (and shimmery stuff in general). The liner is an opulent liquid gold liner which is perfect for adding a festive sparkle to the inner eye corners or for a more dramatic statement liner, and the gold shadow is a pressed powder eyeshadow and just right for layering over cream gold eyeshadow for statement eyes. Apres-beach or après-ski, tres sexy!

NARS Joyous Red lipstick

This colour didn’t actually grab me when I first tried it, but it’s been growing on me over the holidays. It’s a bright red with an amber tone to it – normally a colour that I don’t gravitate towards (depending on your skin tone) as it can be difficult to wear. But there’s an oddness to this colour that has been haunting me, and I’m desperate to do some editorial that I can bust it out on. One of the things that I love about NARS colours is they do all the standard “beauty” colours – great reds, beiges, peaches etc – but also incredible shades that are outside the mainstream and just not like anything else. Bravo NARS for consistently pushing the beauty boundaries and including so many lovely different types of colours in your range.

Ooooh now I’m all excited and raring to get back to work and get deep back into the makeup mines. There’s more than just gold to discover!

PS I’m on holidays again next week, but just for a week (such a lady of leisure!) So MM will be back on the 24^th of January.

Arizona Muse

I am so into pink at the moment. Pink eyeshadow, cheeks, and definitely lips. Don’t ask me why – I didn’t get it from the recent show season but perhaps a spot of pink is in the air, as October’s Paris Vogue features this divine pic of Arizona Muse looking, well, Pretty in Pink to say the least.

Maybe because it makes you fresh and amazing, even when you roll out of bed looking half-dead. Maybe because it suits everybody and we associate it with the bloom of youth, and flowers. Or maybe because it’s an excuse to post this video of a film I watched MANY times back in the 80’s, when we all wanted red hair and a pink wardrobe like Molly Ringwald:

So my picks for Best in Show. First let’s be clear, in all my years of makeup I’ve not had a pink moment before. So my pink stocks are low. Dangerously low. Worryingly low. Which I’m in the process of rectifying at the moment, but it’s taking a while. For some reason I’ve always got by without an extensive collection of pink lipsticks – I have a few and I just kind of cook stuff up out of my cream makeup or my pencils. But now I want flirty pinks, 60’s pinks, lady like pinks – hell, even scary nanna pinks can be great if you rock them with the right attitude (and wardrobe). So without further ado, here’s what I have been experimenting with in the pink department:

Chanel Rouge Coco Lipshine in Boy – Boy oh boy is all I can say. This one is going in my kit AND in my handbag as it’s the perfect little nothing mouth – insouciante but done at the same time. That ladylike polish you want from a lipstick when you don’t want to commit to full on colour. Now I know what the fuss about the Chanel Rouge Coco Shines is about. Sheeny, moisturizing, not pearly but gives your mouth a lift. It’s a grey-ish pink as opposed to a full on one, but I happen to love that (so there).

Chantecaille Powder Blush in Laughter. Chantecaille blushes are awesome and I’ve been meaning to blog about them for ages. This one is gorgeous as it has a gold shimmer in it, so the cheek area gets a very subtle iridescence (indisputably flattering). This has been in my personal makeup bag for awhile.

NARS Baby Doll Lip Lacquer – No one understands baby doll pink like NARS – this gloss in a pot has been around for over a decade yet it’s still as fresh and fabulous as when it was launched. Do use if you want your lips to look like sweet, shiny petals.

Chanel Blush in Rose Ecrin – the latest addition to my Chanel wardrobe arsenal, and these make my job hard – as in hard to choose which ones to use. This is the perfect mauvey pink which is surprisingly flattering – and gorgeous for those with blue eyes. It’s quite a sophisticated pink so I think this might be my blush colour for Christmas parties (although I haven’t quite decided yet. I’ve penciled in some time to think about it over the weekend).

Chanel Poudre Tisee in Brompton Road, from the current Knightsbridge collection. Strawberry pink and shimmering pearl powder luminser, mm-hmm, oh no you DIDN’T. Oh yes Chanel did. Kay Montano sent me one from London but it’s too gorgeous to use. I can’t bear to ruin the sweet texture of it and those interlocking C’s. I may have to get drunk to do so. I don’t have to use it to know it’s divine. (Plus now with the magic of the internet I can see swatches from other bloggers and it is heaven in a compact).

Illamasqua Collide Nailpolish – One of the things I love most about Illamasqua is their hot nail colours, and a hot nail is a great look for the summer party season, which is just around the corner. This is an amazing shocking pink.

Bobbi Brown Creamy Lipcolour in Dry Rose – This is one of my favourite lip colours of all time for your lips but better – it looks like nothing special in the tube but when it’s on, well you know about it. I’m a huge fan of Your Lips But Better (wow, I may trademark that) lip colours. Laura Mercier’s Baby Lips is another nice one.

Revlon Mock Snob Top Speed nail colour – my favourite colour of the season! Speaking of crazy nanna colours, this is just the one. It looks like a polish colour from 1963, a shrimp cocktail peachy pink that would look perfect poolside in a Frank Lloyd Wright home overlooking LA. Imagine Betty Draper in Season 4 of Mad Men (her nails, not the brittle vindictive crazy).

NARS Schiap lipstick – the best fuchsia around. Exactly the colour of Schiaparelli’s Shocking Pink – she invented it, don’t you know. I love this lipstick quite matte without gloss and a simple, elegant eye for tout le soirees de Noel.

But I’m still on the look out for more pink divinity – if you guys have any pink favourites, please comment below!

chanel.com

illamasqua.com

revlon.com

bobbibrowncosmetics.com | bobbibrown.com.au

esteelauder.com | esteelauder.com.au

NARS and Chantecaille are available at Mecca Cosmetica in Australia and Space NK in the UK.

Makeup by Kay Montano

Amber Heard is quite the up and coming Hollywood star – I first saw her when she reduced Jeremy Clarkson to a giggling mess on Top Gear. A hot girl! Who loves muscle cars! Then she was in every magazine as the new Guess model, shot as a modern Marilyn Monroe in Bus Stop by the iconic photographer, Ellen Von Unwerth. And THEN I saw her last week at the premiere of her new movie, The Rum Diary, after international celebrity makeup artist Kay Montano had done her makeup and suddenly she’s gone from gorgeous starlet to blockbuster Hollywood star. Even Johnny Depp, her co-star in the new film, remarked at the premiere “I’ve never seen Amber look more beautiful”.

After I saw the pictures of Amber on the red carpet, I had to find out from Kay what she used.

Foundation

• Chanel Perfection Lumiere in 20 Clair
• Chanel Bronze Universal bronzer

Highlighter

• Chanel Lumiere Sculptee Highlighting Powder

Powder

• Chanel Poudre Universal Libre in Clair

Blush

• Chanel Blush Duo Tweed Effect in Tweed Rose

Eyes

• Chanel Ombre d’Illusion in Mirifique smudged softly all around the eye
• Chanel Ecriture de Chanel Liquid Eyeliner on upper and lower lashlines
• Chanel Inimitable Extreme mascara in Noir

Lips

• Chanel Levres Scintillants in Maline

This is an interview that Kay did with Vogue.co.uk about Amber’s look:

What was the general look you were going for with Amber?
She says herself “you can get the girl out of Texas, but you can’t get Texas out of the girl” so with this in mind, and because I’ve worked with her enough to gain her trust, she said, “so long as you let me have some individual false eyelashes and some highlight on my eyes and skin, do what you want”.
To give her a London premiere version of Hollywood ‘by way of Texas’, I went for a ‘dewy-skinned, slightly rock, movie star’ look.

Working with someone as beautiful as Amber must make your job easier?
Indescribably so!

How hands-on was Amber with her make-up look – did she have a clear idea of what she wanted or did you suggest the look?
She has a highly sophisticated understanding of make-up and hair and knows exactly how to articulate it. Because she’s become a regular (we first met on a Teen Vogue shoot with Bruce Weber), she’s got to know and trust my taste so it was a collaboration.

I haven’t posted about mascara for ages, and I’ll tell you why – I can’t wear it anymore. There, I said it. From being a mascara wearer all my life (or from where life really begins, when makeup-wearing does, at say, fourteen), I have gone to a nude-eyed egg face. I comfort myself with pictures of Tilda Swinton’s bare-eyed alien beauty and tell myself it’s something along those lines, but I don’t know if it is. To compensate, I wear lots of gorgeous blush and have whole-heartedly embraced a red lip when I go out. As Gwyneth Paltrow famously said, “Every woman needs a kick-ass red lipstick”.

Why no more mazzy in the House of Mole? My eyes have rebelled, and they hurt when I wear it. No more contacts, no more eye makeup for me. Which was sad for awhile but now I find it strangely liberating. And of course I still get to layer it on at work, so that does compensate. As a consequence I’ve not been inspired to blog about mascara or much eye makeup lately, but I was cleaning my kit yesterday and thought it was high time I told you about my latest staple mascara – Sublime de Chanel.

This is the one I reach for when you just want perfect lashes. Not major false fringes or uber natural, but perfectly lifted, curled, and darkened. Classy lashes. Left Bank lashes. The types of lashes one might take to the Spanish Steps in Rome, or the Guggenheim in New York. Every girl needs a mascara for those days don’t they? This one delivers as it has dense, inky pigment which doesn’t flake or smear – no crumbling under hot lights or one too many cocktails! So it’s perfect for real life, it just does what you want it to do. And even though I can’t test it on myself anymore, I’ve used it often enough on jobs to keep on pulling it out, time after time. J’Adore.

chanel.com

Chanel are at it again with another adorbs video, this time for their nail polish (which makes up the bulk of my nail kit as the colours are so divine).

www.chanel.com

Makeup by Florrie White

Alexa Chung is a bit of an MM fave as she’s lovely, cool, has the wardrobe that everybody wants and she’s rather gorgeous as well. Here’s a beautiful shoot she did in Paris recently as a Chanel Cruise exclusive for the Australian edition of Harper’s Bazaar, shot by Angelo Pennetta. Known for her lovely cat eyes and signature flicked eyeliner it was a bit of an exciting day since she agreed to wear a bright lip. I think she looks phenomenal!

I have a breakdown from her regular makeup artist, the wonderful London-based Florrie White who reveals what she used on an impeccable summer day on the lovely Alexa:

Skincare

• Decleor Sun Expert – it was so hot in the magnificent Parisian garden. Alexa did not complain while I hid in the shade guzzling cold water!

Foundation

• None – she has perfect skin and I love her freckles.

Concealer

• Chanel Long Lasting Concealer only under her eyes.

 Powder

• Due to the heat and the clean skin I just used Givenchy’s Mister Matte to control any shine.

Blush

• MAC Cream Blush in Cheery and Cherche

Eyes

• MAC Eye Pencil in Smolder
• Lancome Hypnose Mascara
• Chanel Ilusion d’Ombre Emerveille, Epatant, Illusoire, Mirifique used individually and/or mixed together, blended and changed around throughout the shoot.

Lips

• MAC Pro Lip Mix in Orange

Nails

• Dior Vernis Underground 824

Here’s a gorgeous behind-the-scenes video showing Florrie at work:

Makeup by Kay Montano using Illusions D’Ombres De Chanel Autumn Collection

Kay recently shot the beautiful actress Freida Pinto for the cover of Instyle magazine, and Kay told me this about what she used to enhance her already naturally gorgeous good looks:

“Freida has truly perfect skin, a perfect pout & Bambi eyes – she’s a make-up artist’s dream! I wanted to make the most of her natural beauty by emphasising, not recreating any of her features.

I used the most sparing amount of foundation, leaving most of her face transparent & clear with a minimal amount of translucent powder on her ‘T’ zone only.

I kept her skin dewy looking with L’Oreal Hydrafresh moisturiser and L’Oreal True Match Liquid foundation in C2 Rose Vanilla so that when I added the Chanel Rose Ecrin blush her skin had a genuine looking glow.

I lined Frieda’s upper eyes with Chanel’s eye pencil in Brown & smudged in with my fingertips. Then, using a round, short haired brush, I applied the new Chanel Illusion D’Ombre in Ebloui over the lash line & blended until smoky. This product has the most extraordinary texture, unlike anything I’ve ever seen before but the real beauty of it is how easy it is to use, smoky eyes are made easy at last!

New Chanel eyelash curlers arrived at the studio so I got those out straight away followed by lashings of Chanel Inimitable Obscure Mascara in Black.
Freida’s pout needs no definition so I kept the emphasis on the eyes by using a subtle slick of Chanel’s Glossimer For Lips in Braise.”

Check out the Behind the Scenes video of the Instyle shoot: