How to get the fall flush- From beauty counter blog: Beauty Insider

While we typically associate blush with Spring—when an onslaught of rosy pigments tend to hit shelves to help the pale masses ease their way out of winter and into the summer sun—the great cheek accentuator is making an uncharacteristic splash for Fall. As one of the trends we’ve noticed backstage this season, blush has come in a whole range of shades and, perhaps more interestingly, placements, providing an updated take on an age-old staple.

Most recently, models sported “a gorgeous rosy cheek” at Versace, where Pat McGrath finger blended Olay’s Simply Ageless moisture-rich formula from the apples of models’ cheeks toward their temples, only a day after making it the star product backstage at Prada. There, in accordance with Mrs. Prada’s “innocent glamor” directive, McGrath placed the rosy pigment on cheeks, lids and lips for a uniform flush.

Before the fashion pack headed across the pond, rouge went rogue on countless occasions in New York, too. At Marc Jacobs, François Nars dabbed his Cream Blush in Lokoune low and haphazardly to resemble “a grandmother who’s a bit eccentric.” The placement wasn’t all that dissimilar to Tom Pecheux’s at Ralph Lauren where the face painter intentionally went low to “get rid of the sporty look. This keeps it from being too girly,” he said of the layers of MAC Cosmetics blush in Fleur Power, a bright pink, and Esée Lauder Silky Powder Blush in Radiant Peach, a warm apricot, that he blended just above the outer corners of the mouth before painting on a bright red pout.

Perhaps our favorite flush thus far came at the hands of Gucci Westman. “I wanted you to really feel it-like it’s authentic,” the Revlon global artistic director said at Oscar de la Renta where she swirled the brand’s ColorBurst Lipsticks in Fuchsia and Candy Pink in a “big apple” on models’ cheeks. The best part? Her inspiration: Westman could not get the image of Björk on the Jean Paul Gaultier runway circa Fall 1994 out of her head when the raven-haired Icelandic beauty rocked a similar look. Love.
Photo: Clockwise from top left, Luca Cannonieri / GoRunway.com at Marc Jacobs; Luca Cannonieri / GoRunway.com at Oscar de la Renta; Luca Cannonieri / GoRunway.com at Ralph Lauren; Luca Cannonieri / GoRunway.com at Versace; Luca Cannonieri / GoRunway.com at Prada
tags: Francosi Nars, Gucci Westman, Makeup, Marc Jacobs, Olay, Oscar De La Renta, Pat McGrath, Prada, Ralph Lauren, Revlon, Tom Pecheux, Versace

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“Sick Smirks” Backstage At Antonio Marras
February 26, 2011 3:14 pm

Antonio Marras’ fascination with proportions and recycled fabrics inspired the twisted forties makeup that made a lasting impression at his show yesterday. With the collection taking its cues from the designer’s mother in the late 1940’s, a giant mood board featuring Mama Marras in her prime was erected backstage, complete with collage cutouts of lips and eyes, which were taped on top of the images’ own features. It was a bizarre and slightly jarring sight, which wasn’t lost on makeup artist Lisa Butler, who chose to focus her energy on re-creating a similarly disproportionate, enlarged mouth. “I didn’t want to get stuck in the forties with the makeup so I immediately avoided plum shades. I took a classic shade and twisted it,” she said. She constructed a two-toned pout by painting a slick of MAC Lipstick in Runaway Red—a matte crimson due out for fall—on both top and bottom lips and adding a coat of its Lip Pencil in Genuine Orange on the bottom only. The tonal experiment also had an off-kilter shape. “It’s got a joker element,” Butler pointed out with pride. “We’ve tipped up the corners of the lips, which gives an impression of a sick smirk, almost like we’ve drawn on a smile—it’s just a bit weird!” And how. But in a season that has offered up more straightforward red lipstick applications than we have room to mention here, weird is where it’s at.
—Christina Bentley
Photo: Yannis Vlamos / GoRunway.com
tags: Antonio Marras, Lisa Butler, MAC Cosmetics, Makeup

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Made In The Shade(S), Backstage At Moschino
February 25, 2011 8:24 pm

Moschino’s Fall runway may have had all the quirky twists you’d expect to see from the Italian fashion house (Coco Rocha sported a chicken hat, after all) but behind the scenes there was a well thought-out tribute to retro glamour, with nods to “high society, Mr. [Irving] Penn, and fifties makeup,” famed face painter Tom Pecheux revealed backstage. This meant yet another graphic eye sighting in Milan, but this one had a clever twist. “We stole the shape of this dark eye from the sunglasses in the collection, so it looks like every girl is wearing them on the catwalk whether she is or not,” Pecheux said as he layered MAC Single Matte eye shadow in Carbon on top of a base of its Technakohl liner in Graphblack drawn to resemble an elongated ovoid shape. To correspond with the collection’s masculine attitude, which was helped along by the appearance of a few German-style military caps, Pecheux applied a blend of MAC powder blush in Pink Swoon and Well Dressed in what he described as a “boyish” way, so low underneath the cheek bones to avoid “a pretty look.” Lips were erased with concealer to finish the face and to keep the focus on the eyes.
Hairstylist Odile Gilbert rolled models’ tresses into tight and tall conical French twists to mirror the exaggerated and elongated lids. “It’s a super-classic French twist that’s tight on the sides,” Gilbert disclosed while coating strands with Elnett hairspray, backcombing for height and texture, and pinning to secure.
—Christina Bentley
Photo: Luca Cannonieri / GoRunway.com
tags: Elnett, Hair, Makeup, Moschino, Odile Gilbert, Tom Pecheux