Elettra Wiedemann's Model Behavior

Lancôme is very lucky to have amazing spokesmodels. Kate Winslet just launched her own charity to help those with autism. Arlenis Sosa started a charity in her native Domincan Republic to help those with diabetes and breast cancer. Julia Roberts was honored last night by Glamour Magazine for her work on behalf of children and the environment.



And then there's Elettra Wiedemann, who you've seen in all the ads for our new fragrance, Trésor in Love. Elettra's been quite busy the past several months with her charity, One Frickin Day. (The idea being that anyone can make a difference, not just the Bill Gates of the world. You can donate one day's salary, or one day's worth of time, hence One Frickin Day.)



Currently, OFD is collaborating with Partners In Health (PIH) and Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF) to buy solar panels for clinics in Haiti and Rwanda that have extremely limited or zero access to electricity or electric grids. Imagine getting emergency surgery or giving birth at a hospital with no electricity? Sadly, it's a reality for many people around the globe.



How can you help? Elettra, OFD co-founder James Marshall (her charming fiancé) and their friend, stylist Nick Steele, have organized an amazing fundraiser called Model Behavior. They enlisted all their fashionable friends to donate dresses, fashion show tickets and more. You can win a poem handwritten by Bono; dresses worn on various red carpets by Elettra, Christy Turlington, Shalom Harlow, Cindy Crawford, Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum, Karlie Kloss and Chanel Iman (see a few of the dresses above); tickets to Prabal Gurung's next fashion show, and a shopping party at Cynthia Rowley's store.



Our favorite? A makeover at the Lancôme boutique on New York's Upper West Side, with makeup by our fave mua Andrew Sotomayor and supervised by Elettra!



The auction is open now through Dec. 7th at charitybuzz.com. If the prices are too steep for your budget, you can make a donation on the OFD website for as much or as little as you can afford. Check out the auction regardless. Daydreaming is always free!

Fashion's Night Out 2010 with Arlenis, Elettra and Michelle Phan!

We had an absolute blast on Fashion's Night Out in New York City this past Friday Night. As I mentioned, we had a "tango and touch-ups" party at Bloomingdale's 59th Street to celebrate the launch of our French Coquettes Fall 2010 collection. Our spokesmodels Arlenis and Elettra made an appearance and we had professional tango dancers on hand to give lessons to any willing party.



We had a great turnout and even Arlenis and Elettra took a spin on the dance floor.



Then we ran to Sephora where Michelle Phan was appearing. Michelle did a live blog session then met with anyone who wanted to say hi or take a photo. We must have met hundreds of people that night. We're sorry to anyone we had to rush during the photo session! Michelle didn't want anyone to leave disappointed and our time was up so our only option was to move quick quick quick.



If you stopped by, thank you! It was a fun night. The city indeed felt like one big party. And it was for a good cause. If people stop shopping, people lose jobs.



Enjoy the photos. I just posted additional pictures on our Lancome Paris Facebook page. Stop by and take a look.



Check back tomorrow for pictures from backstage at the Chris Benz Spring 2011 presentation.

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!

Getting Ready for Our Eat Pray Love Screening!

Tonight, we're hosting a makeup artist screening of "Eat Pray Love." We're really excited as we've invited 50 of our favorite makeup artists. We're having a little cocktail party first and then we'll watch the movie. I think our spokesmodel Elettra Wiedemann is coming, so it will be nice to see her.



My friend and makeup artist Andrew Sotomayor is here, doing my makeup as I type. (Does everyone remember Andrew's cross-hatching tip with the white eyeliner?) Andrew has really long arms and great concentration ability, so he can do my makeup while I blog and take care of Lancome biz. Andrew used the Lancome Colour Dose eye cream tubes to give me a sheer pastel wash on my eyelids. Does anyone remember that product? Lancome launched those years ago, when I was an editor, and they were so much fun. Maybe it's time to bring them back.



Andrew has a blog that you should check out if you love makeup and want to follow the career of a young, hardworking and very talented makeup artist in New York City.



A lot of people ask me how to become a makeup artist, so I asked Andrew how he started. "I was supposed to be a makeup artist at a Lancome counter for one summer before I started college," said Andrew. "I ended up doing it all through college. I loved how different working with makeup was from my academic career." Andrew worked with graduate student photographers by doing the makeup for their photo shoots, and he bit by bit built his portfolio. "I learned to be an artist by trial and error and working on as many people as I possibly could. Everyday people, not just models."



Andrew has some very exciting things coming this fall that we're not allowed to talk about, but check back here in a few weeks and we'll share the news. Currently, he's part of the "Project Runway" makeup team, so tune in to see his work.



Okay, we're off to the screening. Check back tomorrow for an interview with Richard Dean, Julia Roberts' makeup artist on the "Eat Pray Love" set.

Shouldn't This Be the "Twilight" Makeup?

How gorgeous is this makeup? French Coquettes is the name of our Fall 2010 color collection, created by our artistic director for makeup Aaron De Mey. The models, as most of you hopefully know, are our spokesmodels Daria Werbowy and Elettra Wiedemann.



We posted this photo on Facebook today and the reaction was really enthusiastic. A few people mentioned that Elettra resembles Alice Cullen from the "Twilight" series. I had never seen a "Twilight" movie until recently when I watched the second one. (Actually, I only watched an hour because my boyfriend was like, "You are not going to make me watch this, are you?")



I could not get past the terrible hair and makeup. Does anyone else agree? Why were the vampires so pasty? Ashley Greene is so beautiful and her hair, makeup and wardrobe were not all that. Is it better in the first or third movies?



Needless to say, the bad makeup doesn't seem to have hurt the trilogy one bit! But I'm curious what everyone thinks.

A Bottle of "Trésor In Love" Goes To...? And Beauty Bye-Bye Alert: Color Design Blush :(

Let's start with the bad news. Color Design Cream Blush is being discontinued. As a big fan of CD blush in Petticoat Pink, I'm very sad. I know there are tons of fans for this shade, and for the Freeze Frame highlighter shade. Especially among makeup artists. And our MUA Alex Sanchez did such a beautiful job with the Model Mocha shade layered under powder blush in the Arlenis "Chic Cheeks" video they did together (above, but watch on YouTube! The right side of the video is cut off for some reason on the blog...). The CD blush and our foundation brush are two of my favorite beauty duos. They were like magic together. Sigh.



So if you love CD blush and you're near a Lancôme counter, stock up! You've been warned. The good news? When we discontinue something, it usually means something even better is on the way, so stay tuned.



I know a lot of you live in fear of your favorite products being discontinued because you've said so in the blog comments. The lancome-usa.com website has a handy tool called "Beauty Bye-Bye" that tips you off to things that are limited edition and almost sold out, or discontinued. Another thing to look for on any product page is a sentence that says "last call item." I hope that's helpful.



Much better news? The winner of our Trésor in Love giveaway is...Mel! Congrats, Mel. You'll be smelling sweet in no time. Please check your email. Thanks to everyone who commented. I'm happy to so many of you like theTrésor in Love ad. It's really charming, thanks to Miss Elettra. And Toussled Kitten, hope your neck is better!

Fall in Love with Tresor in Love! (Giveaway Alert!!)

We had a photo shoot yesterday in the 8th arrondisement, in a building with windows overlooking the Arc de Triomphe. It was a gorgeous view, very beautiful, very Parisian, made all the better by the leafy green trees and bright blue sky. I snuck out to visit the Sephora nearby on the Champs-Elysee, the huge Parisian thoroughfare packed with tourists, chain shops, cafes and a giant Louis Vuitton store. The Sephora is ENORMOUS, even compared to the big Times Square Sephoras near my office.



There was so much fragrance, makeup, skincare and haircare that the average beauty junkie would just combust trying to take it all in. One of the new fragrances on display is Tresor in Love, our latest scent and a sibling to the legendary Tresor. T.I.L. takes the iconic fragrance and transforms it into a fruity floral. If you like that category of fragrance, you'll be interested in knowing it's Lancome's first fruity floral. (Previous Lancome scents have all fallen into the floral, oriental, chypre and/or citrus categories.)



The fragrance has been a big hit in Europe and will launch in the U.S. in early fall. We filmed the TV commercial and print campaign with Mario Testino and our spokesmodel Elettra a few months ago while she was on break from school. The print ad was shot in a studio in New York and the commercial was shot in a beautiful private home in the heart of Paris that used to belong to Karl Lagerfeld. There were dozens of extras, all good looking and all dressed in black, white and grey. Elettra looked like a young Audrey Hepburn in a white cocktail dress by a famous Italian designer and insanely high YSL heels. The poor thing had to stand for take after take in those shoes.



Let's give away a bottle of Tresor in Love. Just leave a comment saying what fragrance you're wearing today. Is it your signature scent? Do you rotate fragrances? Layer fragrances? Let us know. If you're wearing nothing, you can say that too! Please post by Wednesday night. We'll pick one post at random.



Good luck! We're on a soundstage outside of Paris right now and I need to stop typing. It's all quiet on the set and who knew how noisy a keyboard could be!! (Bye!)

Our Spokesmodel Elettra: Green & Gorgeous! (Beauty Blog Giveaway Alert Too!)

I couldn't let Earth Day pass without doing a post on our most excellent spokesmodel Elettra. As some of you might know, Elettra is not only a model but a student and a serious environmentalist. She's studying biomedicine at the London School of Economics and was explaining her thesis to me the other day. (It has to do with global warming and farming. I'm not sure how much I'm allowed to say, but it was fascinating.) The girl's a total braniac.

And she happens to be as beautiful as she is smart, as these pictures attest. They're from the new issue of InStyle UK. If you live in the U.K. or near an international newsstand, pick up the issue! Elettra's definitely blessed genetically (mom is the legendarily beautiful Isabella Rossellini and dad was a model once upon a time) but she works out a lot to maintain her shape. She told InStyle that to keep her arms tone she'll do 30 pushups at a time and 60-90 when she's with her trainer. (Um, I can't even do one!)

Elettra has a great charity called Just One Frickin' Day that focuses on individual charity projects. Her current initiative is getting solar electricity panels for a hospital in Burundi, the world's poorest country. The hospital has no electricity, so once the sun sets, doctors operate wearing miners' helmets. Can you imagine?

To raise funds last year, Elettra got some of her designer pals like Chris Benz, Rag & Bone and Phillip Lim to design t-shirts. Anyone making a donation of a certain amount received a t-shirt. The shirts sold out, but Lancome made a small donation and got its hands on a special stash. We partnered with several of our favorite blogs on a giveaway today where you can get one of the t-shirts and one of our new Juicy Tubes 100% Natural Origin. Below is a list of the blogs. Make sure to check them out and leave a comment. You never know!

And stop by Just One Frickin' Day to learn more about its Burundi project.

Fab Over 40
Karla Sugar
Blogdorf Goodman
Fete a Fete
The Hungry Asian

Calling All Classical Music Fans!

Some of you might know we have a new fragrance this year--Tresor in Love! It's a very pretty fruity floral take on the original Tresor.

The fragrance launched in Europe and it is coming to the U.S. later this year. Lancome spokesmodel Elettra Wiedemann is the face of the fragrance, following in the footsteps of her mother, who was the original face of Tresor. (You all knew that, right?)

Lancome used a composition by Philippe Briche and Michel Portal for the original Tresor commercial, and commissioned more music for Tresor in Love that builds on the original. (Do you recognize certain parts of the music from the Kate Winslet commercial?) I thought you'd like this video of the symphony in Paris recording the music. Watch for a few glimpses of Elettra and the commercial on the video screens in the studio.

Enjoy!

On the Set of Our New TV Commercial in Paris...And a Baby Kiss Lipstick Giveaway!

So late this afternoon I stopped by the set of our next fragrance commercial. I can't give away too many details because I think there's another day of shooting and the scent hasn't debuted yet. But it will soon. Anyway, the commercial stars Elettra Wiedemann who looked beautiful a la a modern Audrey Hepburn. She wore a short white dress, long black gloves and very high strappy black sandals with a platform. (YSL maybe?) The brilliant and charming Mario Testino is the director.

The set (see above) was packed with dozens of extras, all very chic and good looking, dressed in black, white or a combo of the two. One very tall girl wore a striped shirt, a little black cap, black tights and no pants. Anyone out there rocking the no pants trend? I'm guessing not. The striped shirt trend is HUGE in Paris. Every boutique is stocked with striped shirts, including striped shirts with shoulder pads and jeweled epaulets. I'm sure that's a knockoff of something, but I can't place it. Balmain? The set had a vase of the most amazing roses I've ever seen (pic above) plus plates of hors d'oeuvres with signs telling the extras not to touch them. They shot each scene over and over and over. I could never be an actor.

The male model who plays the love interest in the commercial is originally from Dallas, Texas, and looks like a cross between Hugh Dancy and Robert Pattinson. I swear. I'll post pictures of him as soon as I can. Sorry my pictures aren't very good. I forgot my camera and have had to use my Blackberry!

Lastly, I picked up a Baby Kiss from the Lancome boutique for a giveaway. This is the little pastel-type crayon above from the O My Rose spring collection by Aaron De Mey. Baby Kiss is not launching in the U.S., so here's your chance to win one if you live in the States. Just post what you're wearing on your lips today and you'll be entered. Please post by Friday night. Has anyone used Baby Kiss yet? I'd love to know some tips and tricks.

Check back tomorrow for the last giveaway of the week and some fun Lancome news!!

P.S. Happy birthday to Debbie. Thanks to Citrine for the translation. And at Lancome USA, we pronounce Bi-Facil as by-fuh-seal, a bit different from our French counterparts!

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.

Makeup Brushes Versus Fingers: What's the Best Way to Apply Your Makeup?

I've been meaning to do this post for ages because I had a makeup brush epiphany recently. I had been using my fingers to apply my concealer, foundation and cream blush, but something lately was off with the application. The products hadn't changed. My skincare hadn't changed. Maybe it was a combination of stress, not enough sleep and a change in the weather. A lot of makeup artists like our foundation brush, so I grabbed two of them (one for my foundation, one for my cream blush) and a concealer brush for my Effacernes and...it's made all the difference in the world.

Good tools truly are useful. There's a reason why all the top makeup artists carry around dozens of makeup brushes. I know most artists will tell you a combination of fingers and brushes is the way to go, but I don't think I was applying enough product with my fingers or getting the application just so.

Do you have a favorite way to apply products? A secret brush you can't live without? Let us know. We'll pick one post at random to win my favorite brushes: Foundation Brush #2, Precision Cheek Brush #7 (my fave brush ever--use it for powder blush not cream) and Concealer Brush #8. Please post by Friday night. Good luck. If there are any makeup artists reading this, let us know what you think about fingers versus brushes. We'd love to hear your advice.

The photo above is a behind-the-scenes picture of our model Elettra Wiedemann from the Spring 2010 makeup collection photo shoot. That's Aaron De Mey applying her makeup, in case you were wondering!