coutorture --

Birth of Venus

coutorture — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 07:25:36 -0700

Bringing out the soft side of an American beauty is an exciting prospect for a makeup artist. The temptation to rely on a spectrum of browns when presented with a face like Margaret Pridgen is strong. Her strong cheekbones, flowing curls, and blue blood coloring evoke barn jackets, feisty mares, and open country sides; all of which almost require liberal use of shades from chocolate to hay. With spring clothing that ranged from easy whites to eye catching metallics we knew we had to bring out the inner pale goddess in Margaret. And indeed, with the theme of birth and the sacrifices of spring in our shoot, it seemed only appropriate that we captured the emotion from an original birth. Our summoning of the goddess of beauty brought us an evocation of Botticelli's Birth of Venus. But unlike Botticelli, our Venus was just a little bit more misty thanks to liberal applications of shimmers, some pearlised colors, and naturally the silver clothing.

After cleansing Margaret’s face with hot water and olive oil (our favorite tip for nourishing all skin types, particularly oily ones that are not responding to other treatments) we applied a few dabs of Laura Mercier Secret Camouflage in SC-1 for fair skin on a few trouble spots. Our Venus was on spring break from school in Massachusetts so the stress of finals had led to a few minor blemishes but nothing that secret camouflage couldn’t handle thanks to its two shade system that allowed us to match Margaret’s natural color and undertones. We swabbed her cheekbones, nose, and eye brow arches with MAC Strobe Liquid Lotion. The iridescent pigments gave us just the misty soft focus sheen we wanted. We then applied a light dusting of Therapy Systems Loose Mineral Foundation to even out the color. The final touch on her face was MAC Beauty Powder Blush in Joyous. The silky smooth texture combined with pearly particles gave us just the subtle color required. The pink of Joyous was a natural complement to the shimmer on her cheekbones and the metallics of her garments. We applied it lightly for a sheer look but it can easily be applied in layers for a more dramatic color.

To open her eyes we used Tarte Rest Assured Brightening Wand nude pink liner pencil around her tear ducts and to the inner rim of her eyelids. We then swiped its pink highlighter across her lids and under her eyebrows. We then layered in MAC’s Fascinating Eye Kohl in White (sadly sold out but if you want to experiment on the cheap try Rimmel Soft Kohl in Pure White) and MAC’s Eye Kohl in Mac Eye Kohl in Smolder to get a gray effect. The combination of the eye opener and various kohl gave us a dove gray that we couldn’t find easily anywhere else to match the coloring of the clothing. Finally we used our favorite Maybelline Great Lash in Very Black.

The final touch? Bobbi Brown Lip Color in Salmon. The semi-matte neutral gave Margaret a little polish without distracting from the overall look.

Glow With Caitlin Goetz

coutorture — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:00:03 -0700

A glowing neutral face is an incredible asset for spring. As you experiment with stronger dressing in the spring and summer months, sometimes a face that shows off our natural state is the best accessory. We started Caitlin Goetz with Therapy Systems Loose Mineral Foundation in Nude. Just a few taps from the raised sifter dispenser on our biggest brush and her face was a smooth canvas for the rest of our beauty adventures. Swirl at will girls!

We bravely ventured into bronzer territory right off the fact. We know it can seem daunting this far from summer but we a few well placed swipes of Vincent Longo Sole Mio Duo Bronzer from the light Fun side of the duo shaped Caitlin's cheek bones immediately. We followed with Benefit Georgia as our blush to get a peach perfect combination of blush and bronzer. The apples of her cheeks have color and her cheekbones are just a tad bit more defined with this combination. We suggest sweeping in round circles on the cheeks with Benefit and one or two quick upstrokes on the cheek bones with the Sole Mio bronzer.

Next we moved on to Caitlin's eyes. The tried and true trick of using a wet flatbrush to apply eyeshadow as eyeliner takes a new twist with Bobbi Brown's Eye Shadows. We used Bobbi Brown Eyeshadow in Charcoal to create as slim a line as possible, so slim you can barely see it in fact. Their formulation glides on smoothly and blends far more easily than the competition making an impossible task of creating a barely there eye opening line seem easy. We used Laura Mercier's Flat Eye Liner Brush to achieve the look. For eyeshadow we went withSonia Kashuk Powder Partner Eye Shadows. Nothing is better than a set of complementary shades for eye contouring. Make it cheap and effective and you win us over forever. Which is exactly what Sonia Kashuk has done with her Powder Partners Eye Shadow duos. We used the spring shade Puff Peach on Caitlin to bring out her pink undertones. And the final eye touch was Maybelline Great Lash Mascara in Very Black $5. We aren’t sure we even need to explain why Great Lash was our mascara of choice. The perennial favorite needs no rationale. Easy to apply, long lasting and almost entirely without clumps, it is the mascara of champions.

But the real coup de grace? Caitlin's pillowy perfect pink lips! Leave it to Bobbi to create our new favorite everyday lipstick. Bobbi Brown Creamy Lipstick is just what it claims to be. With creamy, colorful, long lasting and with matte and shimmer options, chances are any girl can find a perfect daytime neutral to suit her tastes in this collection. We used Nectar on Caitlin and loved its subtle sheen so much we stole it for ourselves.

Lovely Lana

coutorture — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:14:57 -0700

Winter white is a lovely hue and so is a deep golden bronze, but what happens when neither is appropriate? The transition from pale winter skin to glowing summer sheens is a trick one for beauty fans in the springtime months. The lovely Lana Kasheva, the star of our Siwy Summer photo shoot, helped demonstrate some of the key makeup products necessary to exist beautifully in the transition between pale winter ice queen and tawny summer beauty without resorting to spring Easter Bunny pastels.

We started with a quick once over with Vincent Longo's Water Canvas Creme-To-Powder Foundation in Soft Amber for that perfect middle ground that is natural skin somewhere between matte and moisture. But the real trick to transitional beauty is our favorite new product Borghese's Splendore. We find most shimmer products have an unfortunate tendency towards disco ball sparkle even with the light application. Splendore actually lives up to its extraordinary claims of imparting a subtle glow while brightens any complexion. And while we are naturally skeptical of beauty copy involving light-diffusing liquid camouflages and other "miracles of marketing" we can genuinely say that Splendore is a girl's secret spring weapon for adding glow without resorting to bronzers, blush or any other extreme color solutions.

We dabbed it over Lana's cheekbones and then blended the remainder over her entire face. With the Splendore we also found we significantly reduced our unfortunate desire to over-apply blush, simply subtly applying one sweep of Benefit's plummy Dallas to each cheek did the trick.

On Lana's eyes we went with the classic MAC's Eye Kohl in Costa Riche to complement her natural brunette. We lined her lower and upper lids with the soft brown to avoid the harshness of darker hues while still giving her that subtle "eye opening" that good eye liner gives. We applied a light dusting of MAC's classic pigmented eye shadow in Daisychain.

Last but certainly not least we gave her a liberal coating of Kiehl's Lipgloss in French Rose from our own stash just because the color was so perfect. Lana was complaining of classic post winter dry lips so the moisturizing formula of the gloss with Mango and Grape Seed, Rose Hips, and Apricot Kernal was just the ticket. And miraculously one coat lasted all the way through the two hours of our Siwy summer shoot. How is that for an endorsement?