Our Crazy PS1 Weekend! Art! Fashion! Makeup!

As mentioned, the Lancome team spent the weekend at PS1, the Long Island City museum, doing makeup for Move! This event paired top performance artists and designers for a series of performances and installations. The delightful and talented Alice Lane led the makeup team, which included some of our favorite artists such as Oslyn Holder, Kim White and Andrew Sotomayor.



The weekend was intense and crazy. Each day began at 9 a.m. when the team had to paint three very handsome Calvin Klein models with silver body paint and then coat them with silver leaf. This in itself was performance art. It took almost three hours the first day. Andrew, it turns out, is a master body painter!



I'll try to write more later. Thanks to everyone who stopped by to visit us, including our fave new blogger, Emily Weiss of Into the Gloss. (Check out her great post.) In the meantime, enjoy the pictures!!

CAPTIONS:

1. One of the silver Calvin Klein models. These guys were sooo patient.

2. Visitors to the Cheryl room

3. One of the spoken word performers from the Alexander Wang collaboration

4. Doing makeup in the Cheryl room

5. One of the Rodarte performers

6. Applying the silver leaf

7. The Terence Koh/Calvin Klein performance

8. Terence Koh (center) with Alice Lane (right)

9. The silver Calvin Klein models

10. Move! curators Cecilia Dean and David Coleman

11. Lancome lipsticks and crushed eye eyeshadows. (Don't they look pretty crushed up?)

12. A Rodarte performer gets his opal face mask

13. Me & Alice Lane

14. Cynthia Rowley's installation. Happy not to be one of those models! Yes, that's real paint being poured on her head.

15. Cheryl's dance party

PHOTOS BY COLIN LANE

Alexander Wang Spring 2011

Loving Alexander Wang's Spring 2011 collection, well - some of it! Feminine, breezy, light and airy, and the color palette ... fresh and clean, just beautiful. The "construction" theme went a little overboard for my amateurish taste.  The rose gold metallic splashes here and there on some of the designs just didn't do it for me, and the color blotches gone haywire seemed a bit - overdone (can I say that?) ... but hey, I'm a minimalist purist with conservative style in its simplest form, so forgive me.

“I wanted to explore a purity and honesty,” said Wang, preshow. “As you can see, there’s not one hint of black.”

loooooving the shoes!

So far this NYFW we're seeing designers are returning to the feeling of light-ness, and what a welcome relief. Wang certainly appreciates this idea in his new collection, though it gets skewed with a few of the "color gone paint-ball" designs and sloppiness of some of the exaggerated pieces for the sake of his construction motif.

One nuance for Wang that can't be missed in this collection? Construction!

The collection includes overalls and wide-leg carpenter pants, denim jackets accented with copper paint. His flyaway silk trench had utilitarian crisscross straps at the back. The foil details throughout? Apparently a reference to duct tape (see image at top). His models came accessorized with swipes of white paint in their hair to add to the overall "under construction" vibe. 

In the continuation of last year's deconstruction theme, he showed layering and ultra-relaxed silhouettes. As reported by WWD, Wang also introduced his first-ever in-house prints — childlike scribbles and doodles done by his staff and interns on a 5-foot-by-5-foot sheet of paper in the studio and reproduced on fabrics in washed-out hues. “There are inside jokes [written] that even I don’t know,” he said.

source/images: WWD, Style.com

Look at Those Lashes! Meet the New Lancome Spokesbaby & His Yummy Mummy!

Can you believe those lashes?? Those belong to Baby A., the newest Lancôme spokesbaby! (Is he gorgeous, or what?) His mom, Vanessa, is a member of the Lancôme PR team and she just got back from maternity leave this week. She's rocking the Alexander Wang braid today (and some Coral Rush Juicy Tube gloss). As you can see, we're still having fun with the PhotoBooth feature on our new laptop.

Speaking of the Alexander Wang braid, if you read fashion magazines, you've seen it everywhere. It was the hairstyle for Alexander's spring 2010 show (bottom pic) and everyone went wild for it. If you have hair that's long enough (lucky you!), go for it. It's such a fresh, pretty look.

It's hard to fake hair like Vanessa's without the headache of extensions. But you can fake great lashes like Baby A.'s! If you love to try new mascaras, you need to investigate Hypnose Drama. I think I've mentioned this already, but HD has gotten a lot of love from the bloggers! Makeup and Beauty Blog gave it an A; Beauty Girl Musings has the most amazing before-and-after photos of her HD-intensified lashes, and Clumps of Mascara, my favorite online mascara snob, is already on her second tube. It creates the drama two ways: the super-rich formula and the brush that you can flip. Apply with the curve facing out, then flip the brush over and separate your lashes with the curve facing in.

By the way, thank you to everyone who's reviewed it. (Even those who didn't love it. Mascara, after all, is a very personal choice because everyone's lashes are different. But we do value the feedback!)

I use HD the same way as Karen (Ms. Makeup and Beauty Blog). I wipe the brush on a paper towel before applying. I know this won't be a popular tip because people think they are wasting product, but I see professional makeup artists do this on shoots all the time. It just gives you more control. And besides, when is the last time you finished a mascara down to the very bottom? You know you're supposed to replace every three months for hygiene reasons, right? (Or so says Consumer Reports!)

The best way to tell if your mascara is past its prime? Smell it!

So this weekend, take time to smell the roses and your mascara.

Have a great one. xoxo

BOTTOM BRAID PHOTO FROM STYLE.COM

Behind the Scenes at the Arlenis-Latina Party. And Happy B'Day, Fab Over 40!

So Monday night we had a party to celebrate that Arlenis is this month's Latina cover girl. It's a gorgeous cover and I'm so happy it's a makeup-y cover rather than a fashion-y cover, if you know what I mean. The party was held at our boutique on the Upper West Side of New York (many people are surprised to learn we have a boutique there! It's at 69th and Columbus. Visit!) and dozens of people dropped by to say hi and congratulate Arlenis.



Among those in attendance were Latina editor in chief Mimi Valdes (rocking a great haircut and cool lace stockings), Latina beauty director Angelique Serrano, photographer Marc Baptiste, MTV's Julissa Bermudez, singer Kat DeLuna and Beauty Logic blogger Mildred Almodovar. (Several of Arlenis's fellow Domincanas, if you're keeping track!) The music, the Champagne and the little truffled grilled cheese sandwiches were great and the guests were gorgeous and fun.



We had some all-star makeup artists there too. Lancome's Beauty at Every Age Expert Sandy Linter, Ross Burton, Scott Barnes and Renee Garnes, who did Arlenis's makeup for the cover. Ewa Szwed, one of the best makeup artists at our boutique, did Arlenis's makeup and used the following products:



--Color Fever Shine lipstick in Bronze Heat

--Le Lipstique Sheer Plum lip liner

--Color Fever Plumper in Puckered

--Hypnose Drama mascara (everyone's favorite these days)

--Blush Subtil in Shimmer Violet Sunrise for contour

--Blush Subtil in Rouge Glow on the apples of the cheeks

--Color Design Cream Blush in Model Mocha as highlight

--Le Vernis in Untamed Plum on nails



Ewa also mentioned that two of Arlenis's favorite products are La Base Pro primer and Nutrix Royal body lotion. I'll ask Arlenis why next time I see her.



Arlenis's dress was by Alexander Wang!



For more pictures, check out the Lancome Paris Facebook page. If you're not a Facebook fan, please become one!



As for birthday wishes, today is the second-year anniversary of one of our favorite blogs, Fabulous Over Forty. Congratulations to Kari on all her hard work and for doing so many great posts. Well done, Kari!



It's snowing out--again--so time to bundle up and head home!

Alexander Wang Spring 2010 RTW

From the looks of it, lots of fashion and beauty lovers out here were expecting big things from golden child Alexander Wang this show. Has he delivered? Welllllll......

All I can say is this collection is definitely for the young at heart, and probably the young at age, chronologically. Loaded with bare mid-driffs, sandal toe knee-high socks and with a palette of mostly grays, blacks and whites with a few deep reds peppered in the middle, this spring 2010 collection has, yet again, left me uninspired. Sure, it's going to be a hit with the younger crowd, and I will say that his technique in these pieces is exquisite, especially in the leather detailing.

But is it me, guys and girls, or is this season's showing just not what it's been in the past? The excitement is still in the air, can see it on all the shows, video clippings and promotions, but the wears themselves are just ... huh ... nothing, no word comes to mind, just flat.

Having confessed that, I do need to point out that there are some redeemable pieces in Wang's collection. The animal print shoes at right are an example, the detailing on he tawny leather jacket at top is stunning, and some of the sweaters with their see-thru panels create a unique point of view for the season.



Backstage efforts through hair and makeup can be widely appreciated. Long, braided hair paid tribute to classic American style, while texture and asymmetrical fringe infused a bit of sexiness into the overall look. “I wanted the girls to look very American, slightly Brooke Shields from the Seventies but still a bit sporty and a bit rock ’n’ roll,” said hairstylist Guido Palau, who was working for Redken. For texture, Palau applied Redken’s Thickening Lotion to slightly damp hair. “Because the style is quite sweet, you want to muck it up a little bit and give it some sexiness and rawness,” he explained.

And speaking of Brooke Shields, as had been forecasted the brows were the facial focus and highlight. Brows were drawn in using a pencil with strokes that feathered up and out. “He (Wang) wanted the girls to look really strong and beautiful,” said makeup artist Diane Kendal working on behalf of MAC Cosmetics. “It was about achieving a look without using too much makeup. The eyebrow is a good way of doing that and still giving a boldness to the face.” The rest of the eye was left bare, except the tops, where a clear lip gloss was applied for shine. The look for skin was clean. MAC’s cream blush in Lilicent was applied to the apple of the cheeks for a peachy glow, and the brand’s Select Cover-Up Concealer was used only where needed.

images: NY Fashion, WWD