Spring Beauty | Style & Inspiration

Sand, flesh, taupe—whatever you want to call it, the nail color that cropped up on many a fingertip at the Spring 2011 collections. Along with go-to barely-there shades like NARS Candy Darling and Butter London’s Yummy Mummy, Deborah Lippmann’s Naked - look so tender. And Essie’s Sand Tropez is a warm limestone that will no doubt prove to be an easy transition for all you greige devotees. I looove this nude colours for Spring 2011.

 

The limited collection includes:

- Soho de Chanel Palette

- Quadra Eye Shadow Palette

- Le Vernis Nail Lacquers

- Rouge Coco Lip Color

- Rouge Allure Lacquer

The 'Soho Story' will be available online at September 7th and in the Soho boutique at September 10th Visit Chanel.com

As pointed out by our intrepid runway reporter, Tim Blanks, Karl Lagerfeld was in the mood for light at his Chanel Spring Couture presentation this afternoon, mandating gossamer fabrics, shimmering beads, and dresses with noticeable flow. The inspiration he gave the house’s global creative director of makeup, Peter Philips, followed suit. “It’s a real treat,” he said of the peachy highlighter-cum-eye shadow that was created specifically for the show.

Backstage at Elie Saab’s Spring Couture presentation today, it all started with Grace Kelly. “She was never too overdone, and Elie wanted the girls to look very young and fresh,” hair guru Orlando Pita said of the “wholesome” side-slung chignons he created by prepping strands with his signature T3 Plump before drying, side-parting, and fashioning a loose braid behind the ear, which he tucked into itself. “It’s supposed to look effortless,” he added. That’s not necessarily a word we’d use to describe the late Princess of Monaco’s always put-together appearance, but MAC senior vice president Gordon Espinet clarified, “It wasn’t about making the girls look like her; it was more about making them look fabulous without a lot of fuss.

 Guido Palau’s middle-parted “inverted roll,” which he introduced at YSL back in October and revisited in a new, braided incarnation at Valentino Couture last week, would become the frontrunner for hairstyle of the season. The look—which starts with a center part and involves coating strands with a gel, like Redken’s Hardwear 16 Super Strong gel mixed with its Glass 01 serum, before a meticulous rolling and tucking process ensues—has also popped up in the pages of Numéro #120 and the March edition of Vogue Nippon, courtesy of Bumble and Bumble’s Laurent Philippon and hairstylist Franco Gobbi, respectively.


















Look at Jennifer Lopez's gorgeous shiny hair, she inked with L’Oréal to become the face of its newly-launched EverSleek Frizz Taming Créme Serum. For those who have long gone to extreme measures in the name of smooth hair—pressing it beneath burning irons, subjecting it to harsh chemical straighteners, and sometimes even succumbing to toxic keratin treatments—this latest innovation is a much mellower alternative. This Serum it's about $6 a bottle. Don’t be fooled by the expensive glam squads that she’s got; she’s still Jenny from the block. :)

The concept of the “magic pen” isn’t new, as anyone familiar with Yves Saint Laurent’s legendary Touche Eclat highlighting product is well aware. But seeing as there’s always room for more in our beauty tool box, we’d like to take a moment to welcome Clarins’ Instant Smooth Line Correcting Concentrate to the party. Swipe it across the T-zone and along the sides of the nose to lessen redness and fill in enlarged pores; or mix it with your go-to eye cream to prolong its benefits and diminish the appearance of fine lines.

Lovers of Marc Jacobs Daisy, prepare to be dazzled. Last summer, the designer debuted a limited-edition pop-art flacon of his FIFI Award-winning violet leaf, wild strawberry, jasmine, and vanilla eau, and now, he’s developed something special for spring: Daisy is so Fresh.







 

 Cate Blanchett wore a masculine tailored tuxedo look (black jacket, white shirt, and white pants) paired with—get this—a glossy, warm fuchsia lip. In any other instance and on any other woman, the call here would be a red mouth—even a mandarin in these days of orange lip love.  MAC lipstick in Cockney from its new Stylishly Yours collection is a good, more magenta bet for duplication, or try Maybelline’s Color Sensational Lipstick in Coral Crush. What do you think of her off-kilter color selection?

In September, barrettes where seen at Paris Fashion Week. They made a strong showing at Cynthia Rowley, Carolina Herrera, Prabal Gurung, and Badgley Mischka, but it was their cameo at Rodarte that gave us the strongest heart palpitations. There, slid into texturized, deep side parts, 1960’s schoolgirl style, were handmade clips courtesy of Kate and Laura Mulleavy. Fast-forward to last week, and every major online fashion outlet there is was noting how Gisele Bündchen rocked the look with a head-to-toe Prada ensemble on the February cover of Vogue China.