Win Tickets to Our "Eat Pray Love" Makeup Artist Screening in New York City Next Week

The much-anticipated "Eat Pray Love," starring Lancôme ambassadress Julia Roberts, opens on August 13th. Lancôme is hosting a makeup artist screening of the movie on August 12th and we have a pair of tickets to give away. It will be a fun night. Some of the best makeup artists in New York will be in attendance and maybe you will too.



If you and a friend can be in New York that evening, you are eligible! To enter, leave us a comment and let us know what you think about "Eat Pray Love." Did you read the book? Are you excited to see the movie? Are you glad they cast Julia?



Please post by Sunday night. We'll pick one name at random and announce the winner on Monday.



P.S. We made a few changes regarding comments on the blog. You need to be a registered user to comment from now on. It's to cut down on any comments with profanity or personal attacks. We're always happy to hear constructive criticism, but I prefer that the blog remain a positive place for everyone. I hope you agree with me about this.



P.S.S. A big merci to TT, our friend and loyal blog reader. TT stopped by to visit the PR team and gave us the loveliest present. Thank you, TT. We hope you have a great vacation and we appreciate your support!

So You'd Like to be a Makeup Artist?

Get ready to schlep a lot of stuff!

These are pictures from four different shows we've done over the past few seasons. (L'Wren Scott, Victoria Beckham and Chris Benz, I think.) Even though I've been covering shows and working backstage at shows for more than a decade now, I'm always surprised at the amount of stuff makeup artists have to lug around.

I've even heard or read, can't remember which, about a very famous makeup artist (you know who she is) who travels to shoots with six suitcases, five full of makeup and one full of art books.

I guess you have to be prepared for anything.

Buon Giorno, "Matt" The Italian MUA...And Some Blog Giveaway Winners! Maybe You?

I spent today taking care of the blog's Gmail account. (Exhausting!) But there were a lot of nice emails from many of you, so thank you. One of the emails tipped me off to a cute project our Italian team is doing. It's called "Matt the Makeup Idol" and it's the fictional (I think) account of a young, very handsome Lancome makeup artist who seems to answer housecalls and last-minute makeup emergency texts. If any of you speak Italian, please feel free to translate some of this.

Matt has his own YouTube channel and there are five short videos. Even if you don't speak Italian, they're fun to watch. You can see Matt running around his swanky apartment, playing with his dog, playing with his hair, grabbing his cool Lancome case and jumping into his groovy Mini Cooper. It all seems very Italian.

Does anyone know if "Matt" is a real makeup artist?

I also forced myself to learn Excel this weekend so I can keep better track of the blog giveaways. I realized we never named the winners of a few blog giveaways and that a few previously announced winners are AWOL! Atelier Gal won the BB Kiss giveaway; Kristin won the Oscillation lash giveaway; Angela won the French skincare giveaway. I've emailed all of you. Awesome, if you read this, you won the Erika F. giveaway and we're still trying to find you! Same goes for Lucky/Lucy, who won the blog birthday giveaway. And JT, I need your phone number for UPS! All of you can email me at thelancomeblog@gmail.com.

Thanks for everyone's patience. As soon as we get these packages out the door, we'll go back to our regular schedule of giveaways!

Come Meet Chris Benz on Thursday! Plus, Who Won the Michelle Phan Giveaway?

Thank goodness for Chris Benz. The boy loves color! And that extends to the makeup for his fashion shows as well. He and the brilliant MUA Daniel Martin cooked up a look for his Fall 2010 presentation that was as fierce as it was glamorous. They called it Gothic Chic and that's spot on. The models above look gorgeous, don't they?



Everyone backstage was really blown away by Daniel's artistry. First off, he used Le Crayon Poudre in Sable as lip liner. (We've said it before, we'll say it again. Lip liner is back.) He did this gorgeous, gradated lip inspired by a picture of Kate Moss from the 90s. The lip liner was topped with our new Color Design Matte lipstick in Bronze Show. (Wait until you see the matte line. I'm playing with it right now and it's beyond. It's launching at Macy's in mid-March.) Then some shine was added to the center of the bottom lip ONLY with Juicy Tubes in Hallucination.



Every time the models rubbed their lips together, Daniel's masterpiece was smooshed a bit. Oh well. We all know makeup is precious, albeit temporarily. I'll talk about the eyes, cheeks and nails in another post because I don't want this to get too long, but they were amazing too.



Backstage at Chris's show is always a lot of fun. All our blogger friends stop by and plenty of our favorite beauty editors too. It's buzzy but calm because Chris is so organized. Same as Daniel. Our video makeup artist Michelle Phan worked on Daniel's team and did an amazing job. (That's Michelle and Daniel above.) Michelle's used to working on herself, so it's always a treat for her to do models. And Danny Roberts, the amazing illustrator behind the Igor & Andre blog, stopped by as well. Let's hope he was inspired to do some Chris illustrations for future blog posts.



Speaking of Chris, if you live in or near New York City, stop by our Chris Benz personal appearance tomorrow (Thursday) from 5 to 7 p.m. at Saks Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. It's on Fifth Avenue between 49th and 50th. If you're looking for the Chris & Tell lipstick (that's it above), it's probably your last chance to buy one as it's almost sold out everywhere. If you bought one already, stop by and have Chris sign it! The Lancome PR team will be there along with Daniel Martin and maybe even Sandy Linter, so make sure you say hi.



We're running low on Chris & Tell lipsticks, but let's give one away. Tell us which designer's fall collection you are or were dying to see and we'll pick one post at random. Please post by Friday night.



And the winner of the AMAZING Michelle Phan giveaway? Congrats to JT (June Tam). Please email us at thelancomeblog@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Arlenis Sosa in Harper's Bazaar! LOVE. IT.

I've been meaning to post these pictures for ages. I put them on Facebook the other day, so if you've seen them there already or in the actual pages of Harper's Bazaar, sorry! But they are so cute, I just have to post them again. On top of that, Arlenis is the nicest thing in the world. All that sweetness she radiates in the pictures is genuine.



(Plus, it's ZERO degrees outside, so the idea of riding a bike past palm trees is very enticing right now...)



Patricia and Erin from the PR team went to our labs in New Jersey recently for a tour with Arlenis and everyone had a great time. We have funny pictures of Arlenis in a hair net and safety glasses that I WON'T be posting because she'd kill me. Not that they would ruin her career. Amazingly, she still manages to look like a supermodel while wearing them. Go figure.



Tyron Machhausen did the makeup. I don't know Tyron, but he's clearly genius! I just looked at his agency portfolio. If you love makeup, you seriously need to scroll through this. There's some fab stuff going on. I'll try to interview him for the blog soon.



Stay warm!