The Best of Beauty 09
Continuing in the same unravelling vein that the financial markets did, hair and makeup became more undone as the year went by – soft curls made way for texture (ie controlled frizz) and carefully crafted, eighties inspired eye makeup became rock n roll smudged black eyes that required no precision whatsoever.
Which is why I often felt, when assessing the celebrities trotting down the various red carpets for events, that the stiff up-do sprayed into place like a helmut looked seriously out of date. I mean come on, why torture your locks with that when you could be smashing in the sexy down-do?
The attention grabbing debate raged on – eyes vs lips? Do you go for kapow – stand out eyes with metallics, smokey or golds or do you put the emphasis on your smackers? Old mate Smokey Eye was still seen lurking around in the shadows yet he’s becoming a shadow of his former self – rather than a strict ‘this is how you must do the smokey look’ set of rules we get to smudge it up a bit. Which is great because really – how many of us have a swagger of brushes at our disposal, a steady arm and an eye for fine detail? (half opened I might add too). So really the best of beauty this year was that it became easier to do. Ha! One of my favourite looks was often seen on the face of Kate ‘nothing tastes as good as skinny feels Moss, who wore the full heavy black eye well. Kind of cat like. I tried it on myself. It isn’t as easy as it looks. So, that kinda blew my previous theory didn’t it?
When it came to painting the lips red became a secondary option to the more fashion-forward black, completely nude or bright pink or orange (or both!).
Nails were just as wild with Chanel championing the frog-like Jade, OPI dulling our tips with Matte and lavender, coral, black and metallics still holding strong on rotation. The next colour to get is grey – Essie have done one inspired by the coat of a Chincilla.
But hey at least in the hair department things moved into a genre I know well – frizz. Backstage at fashion week all I heard from hair stylists was ‘texture’. Texture, texture, texture which when you consider the fact that they’re talking about hair, it raises a very pertinent question – what the heck is that?
I got shown how to create texture at ANZFW by a ghd session stylist from Sydney. She actually showed me how to make my hair frizzy. I nearly laughed her out of town – anyone that has seen my hair without a blow dry, without products and without my trusty ghds KNOWS that my hair is all about texture AKA frizz. But anyway, I digress. The point is that this is bloody handy now that those of us down here in Nu Ziland are in summer. Which for those of us north of the Bombay Hills (Auckland not India) means humidity. Humid equals frizz. Lots. Oh yeah.
For those of you who have well behaved hair that needs to be shown how to get texture – might I let you in on a little product secret? Get yourself some beach hair try Kevin Murphy Hair Resort, Garnier Texturising Spray or ghd Sea Spray. When used near roots they give you lift and when used on ends they make them fat, fluffy. Or you could just not wash your hair after a swim in the sea.
Hair styles also became very one-sided and plaits became rock n roll. But not prissy, school girl, neat as pin plaits – chunky, textured, messy plaits that were strictly to one side.
Of course all of this would have looked silly without a good complexion. Smooth faces have become passe – what is now sought after is volume. Which means either putting on a couple of kilos and not worrying about it, or plumping your face humectant products, or injecting it with Juvederm. I heard this first from Dr Teresa Cattin at FaceWorks and then went to a Lancome launch for a new face cream (launching next year) that promises to plump up volume. So forget smooth – think full (but don’t completely throw out the botox because it still holds its place).
Every year we are inundated with cosmetic wizardry and this year, despite the GFR there were still plenty of savvy products to whet the appetite. Particular trends are those that have some kind innovative function like the vibrating mascara that in NZ became a war between two major companies with one usurping the other to get on the counter first. Lancome Oscillation and Estee Lauder’s Turbo Lash were both very good and we’ll see more of this vibrating technology in the future. Garnier released the Caffeine Roll On Eye which is a rollerball eye cream that works on two levels to reduce puffiness. It’s awesome – totally refreshes eyes.
Skin serums were also a hit – Estee Lauder re-released its famous Advanced Night Repair (ANR) and Lancome’s Genofique – both sold well despite their hefty price tag. Elizabeth Arden and Allergan’s Prevage finally released a version with an SPF 30 and Environ underwent new packaging.
One of the most sought after makeup items – foundation – certainly had its day in the sun. M.A.C released Studio Sculpt Foundation – a must in the kit for senior artist Amber D and Maybelline New York Dream Liquid Mousse proved that you don’t have to wear big numbers to be a good face paint.
Mineral makeup proved it was not ready to sit on the fence with just about every cosmetic house offering their version. I do like the originals – Jane Iredale and id Bare Escentuals – but I also like the ‘modern’ take. Elizabeth Arden’s Pure Finish Mineral Makeup and M.A.C’s Mineralize were oh-so-good.
Of course as summer approached, so too do an influx of tinted moisturisers – a range of products I’d never bothered with but now find invaluable. I have Invisible Zinc light, Dermalogica Light, M.A.C Studio Tint Light on rotation. These items will definitely be in my holiday makeup bag.
Other goodies I can’t keep my mitts off? The M.A.C greasepaint sticks certainly made life easier, M.A.C Feline Kohl pencil is my FAVE, the Bobbi Brown Nude collection had fans twittering all over the place – what a gorgeous collection of wearable colours. I became a huge fan of gold eyes thanks to the Lancome Declaring Indigo palette. Another product I’m a huge fan of is Lanolips – it’s not quite in New Zealand yet but worth getting an Aussie sister to send over (or buy from adorebeauty.com.au).
I THINK, think, that just about sums up a year in beauty. Holy heck – did I get everything? Eek – I fear not… there’s probably something I forgot.
What was your favourite beauty look and/or product from the year?
Tamsin xo
