Fall's Most Fashionable, Versatile Eyeshadow? Ombre Magnetique!

If you're in the mood for a new eyeshadow, I'd argue that the most fashionable of the season is our new Ombre Magnetique shadow.



We used Ombre at three of the Fall 2010 fashion shows we did the makeup for--Victoria Beckham, Chris Benz and L'Wren Scott. Aaron De Mey used the Black Macadam and Urban Silver shades at L'Wren Scott. Aaron laid down a base of the black shade and used the silver to accent the inner corners. When he layered the black and silver, the resulting color looking blue under some lights, medium sparkly grey in other light.



At Victoria Beckham, makeup artist Francelle also did a soft wash of color, this time with the silver shade. At Chris Benz, makeup artist Daniel Martin used a soft wash of Black Macadam layered over espresso brown shadow for an eye that was pretty yet gothy.



The pix above are backstage photos from all three shows. All the models featured are wearing Ombre shadow.



Ombre comes in a pot with a screw top and has a soft, cushy texture, but it's powdery rather than gel like. The end result is a beautiful long-wearing finish. If I were going to buy one, I'd buy the silver, but the black might be the most versatile if you're a major eyeshadow gal. Ombre Magnetique has sold out in some locations, so if you're looking for it, check lancome.com.



If you have questions about Ombre, let me know. Happy to answer what I can or get our makeup artists to answer! If you've tried Ombre Magnetique, let us know what you think.

Behind the Scenes @ Chris Benz Spring 2011!

We once again did the makeup for Chris Benz, whom, as you know, is a young designer we love. Our spokesmodel Elettra introduced us to Chris several seasons ago and we've been working together ever since. I'm sure a few of you snagged the special lipstick we did for Chris last season.



His Spring 2011 collection was inspired by the idea of a young American woman in Paris in the late 60s, riding around on the back of her boyfriend's Vespa and getting into all kinds of mischief. The amazing Daniel Martin did the makeup for us and came up with a great look that used products from our upcoming Ultra Lavande Spring 2011 collection. See the blue/purple nail polish, Violet Groove, above. Daniel also used the new Teint Miracle foundation, Blush Subtil in Mauve Coquette, Artliner and Hypnose Drama mascara. Some of our favorite makeup artists were on Daniel's crew: Oslyn Holder, Ewa Szwed, Michelle Phan and Maki. Pictures of them above!



Chris does a presentation instead of an actual runway show. The models stand on a platform and guests stream in and get a great look at the clothes. You can really get up close and see the detail, unlike during a runway show. The room was packed with celebrities (I spotted Kelly Osbourne and Jessica Szohr. I'll try to find a picture of Jessica. MUA Andrew Sotomayor did her makeup for us.); gorgeous fashion bloggers like Bryanboy and Fashiontoast; our favorite illustrator Danny Roberts and his charming brother David, and tons of fashion editors and retailers. Even Chris's mom was there! (That's her above in shirt with the sequins.)



Well, enjoy the pictures. We'll put more on Facebook as soon as we have a chance. We're dong the L'Wren Scott show tomorrow. Aaron De Mey has made more than a dozen custom eye shadows and we made a special nail polish that L'Wren requested. Check back for details and maybe a little sneak peek in the morning!

Spring Nail Sneak Peek!

Good morning, everyone. Big day here. We're getting ready for Fashion's Night Out, we have a big shoot with Daria and Aaron down in Chelsea and a lot of Fashion Week prep.



We're doing Victoria Beckham's show on Sunday with makeup artist Charlotte Tilbury. We've never worked with Charlotte before, so we're very excited. We're doing Chris Benz's show on Monday with Daniel Martin, with whom we've worked many times and we adore.



The hair and makeup test for Chris's show was held earlier this week. I don't want to reveal too much, but Daniel will be using a lot from our upcoming Spring 2011 collection. The picture above are the two nail colors from the collection. Stay tuned as to which one Chris picked.



We'll be updating our Facebook page and tweeting throughout the day, so check out Facebook and Twitter to see what we're up to today.

Join Us on Fashion's Night Out in NYC!

Do any of you live in or near New York City? If so, we'd love for you to join us for Fashion's Night Out on Friday, Sept. 10th. I'm sure most of you have heard of Fashion's Night Out. It's the brainchild of American Vogue editor Anna Wintour. She wanted the fashion industry to do something to help stimulate the economy, so she came up with this idea for a city-wide shopping party. On FNO 2009, New York City was filled with designers, models, celebrities and lots of excited shoppers. It was a fun night and we did events with Daria, Elettra, Arlenis, Chris Benz, Daniel Martin, Sandy Linter and Andrew Sotomayor. Everyone had a blast.



This year, we've scaled it back a bit. To be honest, we were a bit spread thin last year! We tried to race from event to event, but it was impossible because of all the traffic--both cars and foot traffic! So this year we're doing two very special events. The first one is "tango lessons and touch-ups" at Bloomingdale's 59th Street. Our spokesmodels Elettra and Arlenis will be on hand at 6 p.m. to say hi to everyone and we'll have some amazing professional tango dancers doing mini-exhibitions every 30 minutes. If you'd like a quick tango lesson or a touch-up featuring products from our French Coquettes Fall 2010 collection, stop by and say hi.



We were thrilled when we opened September Vogue and saw that they chose "tango and touch-ups" as the #1 beauty event for FNO. (See the article above!) The Bloomingdale's event goes from 6 to 8 p.m.



Then at 7 p.m. over at Sephora Fifth Avenue (between 48th and 49th streets), our video makeup artist Michelle Phan will be making her very first personal appearance. She'll be doing a special video live in the front window. Then she and Vogue beauty editor Christina Han will be meeting and greeting customers from 8 to 9 p.m. If you have a question about how to make your own video or how to become a beauty editor, come over and chat with us. I'll be there too.



If you can't make it, don't worry. We'll have lots of photos to share after the event.



If you live in the U.S., enjoy the holiday weekend! The rest of you, have a great weekend too!

Where to Find and How to Apply The Chris & Tell Lipstick...There Are a Few Left!

A lot of people are asking me where they can find Chris & Tell, our Chris Benz L'Absolu Rouge lipstick, especially since J. Crew just featured it as one of Jenna's spring must-haves in the current catalog. The lipstick is a U.S. and a Saks Fifth Avenue exclusive, as most of you know. It sold out on lancome-usa.com and the Lancome boutiques sold out too, although I heard a rumor they might be getting more. It's sold out at several Saks counters, but Madeline the Intern (who just launched her own blog!) found a few locations that still have pieces in case you don't have time to search for yourself:



--The Stamford Town Center Mall in Connecticut--203-323-3100 x327

--The Dallas Galleria in Texas--972-716-5190

--The Palm Beach Esplanade Mall in Florida--561-833-2551 x365

--The South Orange County Mall in Mission Viejo, California--949-347-5100 x364



If you'd like us to post more locations where Chris & Tell is available, let us know. I know it's a drag for some of you that it's so hard to find, but at least we mean it when we tell you something is limited edition. Not like other companies that tell you it's limited, whip up a frenzy, then produce thousands more. Ahem.



Oh, if you live in or near New York City, we're having a personal appearance with Chris at the Saks Fifth Avenue in midtown on Feb. 18th from 5 to 7 p.m. We were able to secure a few dozen lipsticks for sale for that day. If you're around, please stop by and say hi. The whole PR team will be there. If you've already bought a Chris & Tell, bring it and have Chris sign the box. A big thanks to our friend Marta from Talking Makeup (Marta, I hope we see you during Fashion Week!) who posted the video above, which features the insanely talented mua Daniel Martin, who helped create Chris & Tell. You can see how he applies, blots with tissue, dusts with transluscent powder over the tissue and applies again. You can wear it that way, apply it straight from the tube, or smudge on lightly with your finger. It's a very versatile shade for a bright peachy coral!



There aren't any Chris & Tells on eBay at the moment, although two sold last night for some ridiculous price. But there is a cute bright pink Chris Benz cardigan on sale for the "buy it now" price of $30. Somebody should snatch that up before I do. And Kim Kardashian has a gorgeous purple Chris Benz dress there as part of a Red Cross charity auction. Bidding starts at $59.



Happy hunting.

Spring Color Has Arrived!! Ô My Rose is Here So Let's Do a Giveaway!

It's 20 degrees outside, but we're thinking spring! Our lovely spring color collection, called Ô My Rose, has just gone on sale on lancome-usa.com. (Check your local lancome.com site if you're one of our international readers!) Created by Aaron De Mey, our artistic director for makeup, Ô My Rose focuses on corals, peaches and teals. I have a feeling the teal Ink Artliner and the mosaic Pop N' Cheeks blush will be the best sellers. They're great products. This is the third collection we've had Ink Artliner in and I'm really really hoping we make it a permanent product.

Pop N' Cheeks in Coral Flirt, as I've mentioned, was used in the Chris Benz show. MUA Daniel Martin used it on all the models and it looked pretty on every skin tone. (And Chris, to his credit, had a diverse model lineup, thank goodness. Nothing's more boring than a show with white models only.) I don't have the blush yet--we sent all of them to the beauty editors--but I'm dying to get my hands on one.

Lancome-usa.com has the entire U.S. collection (um, obviously). If you'd like to see the international collection, just check out the portfolio on Flickr. We also have the behind the scenes pictures from the Ô My Rose shoot with Aaron and Elettra on Flickr. Speaking of which, if you'd like to use any of these photos for your blog, website, Facebook, etc., we'd be thrilled.

Tell us what you think about the collection and about color collections in general. Love them? Tired of them? Want to see something different, such as...? Let us know. We'll pick one post at random to win the Ink Artliner, liner brush and Pop N' Cheeks. Please post by Sunday. And enter yesterday's Extreme Beauty giveaway if you haven't already!

Have a great weekend.

It's 2010! New Year, New Giveaway Winners!

Wow! I just read everyone's comments from the last two posts and I'm blown away. The team and I will work very hard to bring you what you've asked for. Thank you for taking the time to comment.

The winner of the "people who inspired me most" giveaway is E. Walsh. Murfreesboro, you won the VIP train case, but please email me at thelancomeblog@gmail.com. I need your address. Congratulations to you both!! It's always nice to start the new year as a winner. : )

Speaking of winners, the Temptalia Editor's Choice Awards for 2009 have been announced. I'm happy to report that Bi-Facil won for best high-end makeup remover--second year in a row! If you're not familiar with Temptalia, it's a terrific blog for serious makeup fans. It leans a bit towards one certain brand, but we won't hold that against them! In addition to the awards, Temptalia has picked several pretty lipsticks for the upcoming spring season, including Lancôme's Voile de Rose. (That's Temptalia's VDR lip pic above.)

Speaking of lipsticks, Chris Benz's Chris & Tell was featured in The New York Times Style Section this weekend. Very exciting! We'll be checking in with makeup artist Daniel Martin, who helped create the lipstick, on the different ways to wear the peachy-coral color. I'm dying to start wearing Chris & Tell, but it's definitely a spring wardrobe kind of color. Not zero degrees and freezing kind of color.

Stay tuned!

Congrats to CFDA Winner Sophie Theallet!

We were thrilled to hear late last night that designer Sophie Theallet (pronounced tea-ah-lay) won the Sixth Annual CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. This terrific initiative helps up-and-coming designers by providing business mentors, editorial exposure and financial support. Sophie's been one of Lancôme's favorites ever since the very sweet and talented mua Daniel Martin introduced us to her.

Sophie might laugh at the term up-and-comer, as she's hardly a fashion bébé. She's paid her dues, working alongside Jean Paul Gaultier and Azzedine Alaia, and she even had her own line Motu Tane before launching her signature line.

Make sure to check out her collections on Style.com! Congratulations again, Sophie. Well deserved!!

PHOTOS FROM VOGUE.COM AND STYLE.COM

A Little Sumthin for Them, A Little Sumthin for You (It's a Giveaway Alert, My Beauties!)

Does it drive you crazy when stores start promoting the holidays before Halloween even begins? I don't want to see Christmas ornaments and candy corn or tinsel and turkey at the same time. But then there are lots of organized people who don't mind because they like to get their shopping done early.

Whether you're an organized holiday shopper or not, you'll enjoy our Lancome.com holiday gift guide. Why? Because it features options at lots of different price points and four of our favorite people: designer Chris Benz, mua Daniel Martin, spokesmodel Arlenis and sweet sweet Evelyn Iocolano, who created the Lollipop Theater Network charity. Each picked a few Lancome products that would make perfects gifts for their friends, family and other loved ones.

Make sure to take a look. You might get some cute ideas for stocking stuffers or little gifts or even, to quote fashion blogger Bryan Boy, a little sumthin sumthin for yourself. Let's do a fun giveaway. Tell us what gift you'd like to get right now and we'll pick one post at random to win all the gifts on Arlenis, Chris, Daniel or Evelyn's page. (Just tell us which page is your fave.) Please post by Sunday night. Good luck!