Category: face
The secret’s out!
It’s here! Reknowded make up artist Charlotte Tilbury is launching her range next week at her own website, Selfridges and Net-a-porter. What awaits us? Luxurious art deco inspired packaging, formidable high quality formulas and online tutorials accompanying every single product. The whole idea is that anybody can apply make up and learn how to beautify themselves using Charlotte’s products and tips. I am a huge fan of Chatlotte’s work (Vogue, W, ID – you name it) and of her fab tutorials on net-a-porter and onnher own blog. Excited about this launch is an under statement, it is great to see a range mixing the best of the old world (vintage inspired packaging) mixed with the new world (tutorials).
The Oil Rush
Buzzing in beauty are organic oils – for face, for body, for nails and for hair. Oils have been used since mankind basically and are now experiencing a massive resurgence. Oils nourish, hydrate, heal and balance the skin no batter what the skin type is. Contrary to belief they don’t clog up your pores. So don’t be intimidated by thinking you will end up looking like a spotty teenager – you won’t – instead will have gorgeously hydrated skin. And unlike the majority of what you can buy in beauty department stores these products are natural – ie free from artificial ingredients and full of organic goodness. As this winter has been especially harsh oils came to the rescue and nourish my skin.
The trick is to massage the oil into your face in circular movements – therefore stimulating the blood flow of your skin. Rodin facial oil was developed by a make up artist. As you can imagine models do many shows during fashion week and need to be made up in the minimum of time possible. Travelling, working crazy hours, cleansing and reapplying (crazy!) make up to their skin can have negative impact, hence make up artists often travel with some Rodin Oil in their make up bag to rescue the models skin. This product comes with a hefty price tag so below are some products that are a bit more affordable.
I really rate Kiehls midnight recovery oil – it smells delicious and is absorbed really quickly. Recently I tried out Josie Maran which you can use on hair, face, cuticles you name it. Great for travelling as it is multi use product. It is basically pure argan oil so really delicious stuff. When I went skiing a couple of weeks ago I bought the Clarins blue orchid oil. from a knowledgeable swiss pharmacy sales assistant. She was so right in advising me this bestselling oil. It is my current favourite as the botanical fragrance puts you in a very relaxed state of mind before going to sleep and the 100% natural ingredients (rosewood, patchouli, blue orchid & hazelnut oil) do their best over night! In the morning I add 2 drops of this into my moisturizer to add extra hydration. Since last week i have been using Aurelia Cell Repair night oil which has been a delight, see my blog post on this brand here. Finally I am also a massive moroccan oil fan to keep my hair in check and have been known to drag liters home with me from the pop up store at cosmoprof in Bologna.
Have you got any favourite oils you simply love?
Korean beauty
Ok so South Korean beauty is trending as they say.. What is all the fuss about you might wonder?
South Korea is the innovator of the moment, bringing new ground breaking products to the market – it’s the new France of the beauty world. It was the country to really champion BB creams (originally a german invention, a combination of tinted moisturizer, sunscreen, foundation and an overall makeup base). Now many high-end cosmetics brands, such as Dior, have developed their own BB creams. In much the same way that Harajuku put Japan’s beauty and fashion scene on the global stage, K-pop groups like Psy’s gangnam style have brought recognition of Korean cosmetics to their fans across the world.
Koreans are OBSESSED with looking good and will go to any length to achieve this. The country has invested loads in R&D which can now be seen with the growing popularity (and earnings!) of Samsung, etc. There are several very high quality cosmetic producers. At the beauty fair cosmoprof I made a real effort to check out their booths and see their newness. Last year Coty, a french big player in the beauty market, announced a joint venture with LG Household & Health Care (LG H&H) to create Coty Korea.
Koreans really stress the importance of flawless skin. Key to this is nurturing the skin and creating bright skin, which in the old days would symbolise coming from a noble family.
So what is their trick?
1 – Facial massage
To maintain porcelain looking skin, Koreans usually perform facial massage. This stimulates blood flowing through the skin.
2 – Power exfoliation
Koreans love a good scrub, which they can get at the popular public baths (jjimjilbang, in Korean) and with at-home treatments.
3 – Super charged skin-plumping masks and serums in highly soluble formulas.
I use Korean face masks all the time. They also make great presents when you come back from an Asian trip. Packed with effective ingredients the impregnated sheets really do make a difference and make your skin feel amazing. Highly recommended before a big night out or on the day after! The pore tightening serum is widely used for many purposes. It brightens their complexion and it heals the rashes or stretch marks on the face. The toners that are used by the people of Korea remove the dead cells of the skin and hence the skin becomes cleaner. They use serum to rectify all types of skin problems that is caused due to heat, air pollution and dust particles.
4 – Skincare with natural ingredients made from fruit extracts and plant extracts like ginseng and green tea or water extracts.
A brand I have been trying myself recently is Amore Pacific’s skincare range: LA NEIGE. The brand name stands for snow – water, that is what the brand is all about. I have tried the Water bank hydrogel and I’m really impressed with the fragrance, the way it goes on, the way it gets absorbed and the how fresh my skin feelts. Prices are more expensive than say L’Oreal, but cheaper than Lancome. La Neige is not for sale in Europe or USA but you can purchase it at SASA.
5 – Stem cell skincare.
On a more technical note the Koreans are pioneering stemcell skincare. Beaucell is a range that makes the skin look plumper and younger. It uses extracts of stem cells from adult bone marrow and excess body fat tissue, rather than the synthetic stuff you see in most Western products. First engineered for bone and tissue regeneration Purigenex is the only topical medical-grade collagen sold in the U.S..
Top Korean beauty products:
- Face Masks – sheets drenched in Hyaluronic Acid for example are very effective
- Skinfood nails & facial mist
- Tony Moly Gel liner
- Etude house lip and BB cream
- China Glaze nails – very high quaity and great colours
- Clarisonic cleansing rotator – great for the ultimate weekly exfoliate
- Contacts to make your eyes look bigger
- Eyelash extensionswhich are professionally applied
- Eye strips to create ‘western’ eyes
- Nail Art – this is where it all started
- Missha make up
- Airless pumps (keeps the product from being contaminated and oxidized. Everything from cleansers to moisturizers and even foundation can be found in an airless pump. Plus, the technology allows you to ensure the perfect amount of product every time)
There are 2 excellent places online to shop everything Korean Beauty related: Soko Glam (Soko, short for South Korea) and the BB cream shop.
Treat your skin like silk
One of my favourite blogs intothegloss has put up this great little cleansing video featuring french skin expert & facialist in new york Isabelle Bellis. It features great tips like massaging your face endless and treating your skin just like silk. If only we all had her gorgeous cheekbones..!
Aurelia
Last week I met the inspiring founder of Aurelia skincare, Claire Vero. Her passion and enthusiasm for the brand she set up herself was completely infectious. Being a beauty industry insider myself I know how hard it is to set up a new brand, so my respect goes out to her. Also great to see a newcomer in a market which is basically dominated by the big players like Unilever, L’Oreal, P&G and Beiersdorf who own the majority of the skin brands you see in store. In luxury skincare there is more brand diversity but it is still a very competitive market to enter.
Claire saw the effects dermatology can have on improving peoples lives first hand, when she worked at GSK. Her idea was to incorporate science & botanical ingrdients to get the most effective products. Probiotics on one side and botanics (sourced from Africa) on the other side provide the ingredients of the range.
I tried the antioxidant and omega-rich cell repair night oil and was pleasantly surprised. The fragrance relaxed me with essential oils of neroli, lavender, rose and mandarin. The next morning my skin felt hydrated, fresh and not a bit greasy. Happy skin equals good morning vibes so I have been happily applying this every day and night.
Dream away with the little video below Aurelia did to highlight their african ingredients.
Aurelia Cell Repair Night Oil
Shop it at aurelia.com and at net-a-porter.com.
Liberty Beauty
Liberty launched a beauty magazine this week with the 4 key trends this SS13:
eye gloss & perfect skin – sixties eyes – bright pink eyes – two tone lips
Geek Chic
Geek Chic – Because magazine
tavi – rookie magazine
rookie magazine
Daria
Gwyneth as Margot in the Royal Tennenbaums
Welcome to the dollhouse – illustration
Chloe Sevigny
Geek Chic – source: pinterest
Geek chic – source pinterest
Geek Chic – Pinterest
dweep tshirt topshop
Because magazine are into Geeks. Make up artist Georgina Graham and hair stylist Colin Gold go for non-functional make up. A mix of the 80’s, litte bit of 90’s and lots of contemporary cool. The freckles, bright green mascara and pale lippy remind me of our cool nanny who used to come with us on holiday. She would show me how to do make up which at the time in the 80’s was frosted pink lips and bright blue mascara. As she was lightyears older than me everything she did was cool with a capital C. Happy memories! Wonder where I can score a frosted lippy now?
Charlotte highlights the inspiration behind the film on her website: The character came from looking at the films including “Welcome to the Doll House”, Margot Tenenbaum from the Royal Tenenbaums (the character that Gwyneth Paltrow plays) and also the cartoon Daria as well as pictures of Tavi and her Rookie manual. But this is a new type of sexy geek. We found this amazing picture of Chloe Sevigny where on first glance she appears demure but actually behind her eyes you can see she’s not really innocent at all.
I really love freckles. Everyone looks so cute and sweet with them and it’s a really youthful look. It’s so easy to do: we used an eyebrow pencil and drew a smattering across the bridge of the nose, the forehead, and on the cheeks and then powder to set it.
I think blue mascara is a very fun look. Even if you’re scared of blue eye shadow, you might be able to indulge in a bit of blue mascara. It’s a very fun way you can apply some colour to your face and still look really beautiful. Blue mascara has had a bit of a bad rep. It was thought of as very 80s, either a bit Essex or a bit of a young Lady Di. It wasn’t seen as something chic or glamorous. I think that you have to curl your lashes with it and do loads of layers so you get that really 70s separated clumpy lash. If you’re going to do it then it’s like “Go on, have the balls and really do it!”
When you’re a teenager, your first lipstick is usually a frosted twist-up stick of lip balm that you buy in a chemist. Everyone’s scared of the frosted lip! So I thought I’d bring it back. You can experiment with the colour and I really love a frosted plum lip on a darker skin tone, it’s absolutely beautiful. We used a very pink YSL lipstick and then a took a pigment by MAC, which is a frosted pink powder, and patted it over the top. The pigment helps to set it because frosted lipstick can seem to disappear in a heartbeat. When I’m doing editorial work, I’m not really thinking about whether something is specifically for an eye or a lip, it’s more “How do I get the effect that I want?”
For the nails we did a clean foundation nail in a warm pink skin tone. We kept the shape oval and fairly short, something we actually call “model short” at the shows and on shoots. It’s versatile classic length, not too short, not too long: if you look at the palm of your hand, you can just see the tip of the nail at the end of the finger.” geek chic – because magazine
Bio Beauty in Brooklyn
A movement in brooklyn can be detected – organic skincare made by beauty lovers themselves with the least amount of ingredients possible. Counteracting the synthetic, science driven skincare are mavericks who are going back to basics and discovering essential ingredients and techniques which deliver high quality organic skincare.
SWBasics of Brooklyn (formerly known as Sprout)
Small batches are produced in a communical space on the Greenpoint waterfront by Adine Grigore and her fiancee. Originally, the products were just for herself as she has sensitive skin. Other people soon loved them and bigger batches were produced. Her vision is that if you want great skin you should not want to hurt yourself or the planet to get it. All the products are made from scratch using only whole, high-potency ingredients. Less isn’t just more; less is everything. Using fewer ingredients means more potent skincare. No cheap synthetics or exotic fillers are used which makes the product more likely to be safe on senstive skin. That’s why everything we sell only has 5 ingredients or less. And they still make you look amazing and smell pretty. SW Basics support sustainable agriculture by buying only from organic, Fair Trade, or small-farm sources. The victorian style black and white packaging makes for a beautiful bathroom staple.
Inspired by holistic healing Angela Shore studied at Kerala Ayurveda Academy and the School of Ayurveda & Panchakarma in Kerala, India. This together with Ayurvedic principles and Native American shamanism she createred Jiva Apoha, her line of all-natural face and body oils that she blends and ships out of her Brooklyn Heights apartment. All products ar made with herbs, flowers and essential oils. The packaging is stunning too and reminds me of Navaho indians rummaging around in the wild.
Soapwalla creator Rachel Winard is super passionate about natural skin care. “If I can’t create a product that’s safe and effective with only natural ingredients, I won’t release the product,” she says. She crafts her line of soaps, body oils, and more—including an ingenius cream deodorant —at Gowanus’ Old American Can Factory, a communal building filled with artists and artisans. “I adore Brooklyn. It’s home,” she says. “I love walking to work; I love running into neighbours every time I’m out and about.” Their fragrances are really fresh and invigorating.
Skinnyskinny started from a strong belief that organic and eco friendly bath & body products should work as well (if not better) than conventional products. The philosphy is to keep the products simple where they need to be simple (no synthetics, no sulfates, no artificial preservatives) and not skimping on certified organic ingredients. Packaging is recycled, reclaimed, and sustainable. And with very few exceptions every single product is made by them in their Brooklyn, NY workshop. Skinnskinny’s facility and products have been registered with the FDA are members of the Organic Trade Association. Most of the products are vegan, and all of our products are cruelty-free. I am a big fan of their dry shampoo.
Phoenix herbal skincare is formulated from the healing energy of plants, their fragrance, and beneficial properties. Handmade with fresh local plants of the northeast and organically grown herbs. All ingredients are organic and locally sourced when possible. Irina Adam is the founder and creator. She started Phoenix Botanicals in 2005, after apprenticing several years with local herbalists Robin Rose Bennett and Lata Kennedy and working at NYC’s Flower Power Herbs & Roots. Irina also worked for much of a decade in ethnobotany research and indigenous culture preservation, which exposed her to many cultural and therapeutic uses of plants. I especially like their lip balms which you squeeze up out of a carton tube.
A boutique fragrance brand and studio based in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, created by Anne McClain, a graduate of the Grasse Institute of Perfumery in southern France. They specialise in perfumes, oil roll-ons and candles. Their products are composed of the highest quality natural and synthetic ingredients in bases of organic carrier oils, pure alcohol, and distilled water. All of their products are carefully crafted in small batches and bottled by hand by our in-house production team.
Graves is a beauty product formulator, a star facialist, a herbalist and a natural beauty entrepreneur. She works with the Triangulator diagnostic method. Her website reads: “Other skin-care lines that are holistic or organic don’t necessarily follow herbalist principles. And not every herbalist sees skin as their primary focus, so that’s where I come in,” she says. She is known in New York as the “Pimple Whisperer.”
Get your liploss fix with this organic brand set up by rocker/model and new mommy Theo Kogan. As the singer for bands including the legendary all-female Lunachicks and Theo And The Skyscrapers, Theo is known for her over-the-top makeup styles. She has modeled for Calvin Klein, Burberry and Kenneth Cole (to name a few) and has acted in film, television and continues to perform in avant-garde theater all over the world. Armour’s moisturising formula is long wearing, cruelty free and environmentally friendly, with a beautiful range of colors. Formulated to stay on and moisturise with a base of: Shea Butter, Avocado, Mango and Olive butters and oils, Grape seed oil, Vitamin E and is paraben free.
If you find yourself in NYC good shops to visi are Miomia in Williamsburg, Homebody Boutique and Diana Kane in Park Sope, and Shen Beauty in Carroll Gardens.
Face Architecture with the Sculptor
Sculpting has been trending for a while; more and more products are coming out to help achieve this look. It a way of defining the face to give more depth, accents and highlights. It can transform the face (creating cheekbones for example) without heavy make up being required. Some people call it (cosmetic) Face Architecture. Tom Ford’s sculpting pallet is legendary and used by many make up artists. The sheer, light shade can be used on the upper cheekbones to reflect the light, which in turn brightens and lifts the face. The dark shade, used under your cheekbones, defines and contours cheekbones while staying invisible to the naked eye. But not being a pro make up artist myself I find it difficult to use as find I either use too much colour or don’t get the effect I am after. I love applying make up with my fingertips, but this formula definitely needs a pro synthetic make up brush for application. Synthetic make up brushes don’t absorb the formula like a natural brush would do, hence they are best for foundations/sculpting products. You also need to have well moisturised skin beforehand. The pallets I prefer to use have a light (& forgivingly) creamy formula more like the Nars multiple, which you can really blend into the skin. Benefit and Sleek make up have even brought out products which combine contouring, highlighting and blush.
See pics of my favourite sculpting products by Topshop, & Other Stories, Tom Ford, Nars and Sleek. Below 2 videos by Charlotte Tilbury. The first is a guest video for Lisa Eldridge’s website in which she explains how to achieve a beautiful sculpted look at the shoot for French Vogue on Kate Moss. In the second video she highlights how to get the look created for Tom Ford AW13 show.
Bowie inspiration
bowie inspired metallic eyes
Obviously super excited about the Bowie exhibition in London at the V&A museum. I am still in the gorgeous snowy mountains but I am already looking forward to being back in the big smoke and visiting this very special exhibition. The exhibition runs from 23 March – 11 August 2013. It’s the first international retrospective of the extraordinary career of David Bowie featuring . David Bowie more than 300 objects that include handwritten lyrics, original costumes, fashion, photography, film, music videos, set designs and Bowie’s own instruments. Bowie inspired many people all over the globe with his forward thinking amazing designs, music and looks. So here are some pics to get you inspired!
theilluminatorblog 