SPRING SUMMER 2011 MAKE UP TRENDS (PART 2)

GET LIPPY!
As you have probably noticed colourful lips are massive this season. Designers who went for colourful clothes also chose colourful make up to go with it. It could be a clever way of fighting the economy crisis that's giving us so much trouble.. Colours are fun and to wear them cheers you up and can make your day happy and light.

First on the list is Jil Sander who went for a bright fluo matt pink. I was part of Peter Philips team for the fashion show and I promise that that lipstick was full on colour.

To recreate this look leave the skin quite bare but make sure you even it out with a light foundation or tinted moisturizer, once that's done the colour will pop out beautifully. The lipstick is matt, you can find this shade at NARS, LORD & BERRY, YSL.

Fendi went for three killer colours: orange, fuchsia and coral, seriously mat.

Again with Peter P. we did immaculate base but this time we eyelined the bottom rim of the eyes with a soft brown and enhanced the inside with a beige lipliner. Couple of coats of mascara to follow.For the lip colours you can find the same shades at LORD & BERRY they have fab fuchsia and orange, also REVLON has excellent choices. For the coral red you can find amazing variety at DOLCE & GABBANA MAKE UP or BOURJOIS.

The look at Gucci was sleeker by giving layers of glassy gloss on top of lipstick.

Any transparent gloss dabbed onto the lipstick will do the job or Elizabeth Arden 8 hours cream.

At Marc by Marc Jacobs the bright orange and coral lipstick is paired up with rosey cheeks which makes the look very fresh and Lolita like.

To replicate it on the lips you can use the Convertible colours by STILA  and on the cheeks the Watercolour by DANIEL SANDLER in Cherub is just perfect.

Instead at Givenchi is DRAMA. Deep cherry lips and soft beigy eyes gives the look a certain sofistication.Bleached eyebrows for modern and dewy skin for freshness.

SPRING SUMMER 2011 MAKE UP TRENDS (PART ONE)

Since lots of you made this request I've decided to write about the make up trends for this fabulous upcoming season, with some special tips on how to achieve the looks. I did some research from the catwalk shows and we can tell there's a bit of a variety on trends, which makes it even more fun!
Clothes wise the key world for spring summer is certainly COLOUR!  from blue to pink, green, purple, yellows, a TUTTI FRUTTI colourful season!
Also the top MUAS got their multi colours palettes out and painted eyes and lips à la Renoir.
We still see some "au naturel" and smokey eyes which are always an evergreen, but what I like the most is the silver and gold trend, I love it, it reminds me of  the goddesses from the Ancient  Greek Literature.
So let's start from this last one : three names: PRADA, ANNA SUI, RODARTE, they all went for the shiny look.
Prada combined  the metallic silvery eyes with thick, marked eyebrows and 20's hairstyle to give the girls a sultry-retro yet modern look.

 Anna Sui went for a much  simpler version of it leaving the gold to speak for itself.

Rodarte chose a sophisticated metallic effect by painting gold lips and tinting fake lashes in gold = GENIUS

How to adapt the silver/gold look to your summer look

As we all know the catwalk looks are inspirational and set the trends but for an everyday/evening look we're not going to reproduce them identically, instead we re going to use the key element and introduce it to our make-up routine. In this case the main element is the gold/silver so I'd start with  an immaculate base with a tinted moisturiser or light (texture) foundation, possibly luminous finish.

Apply your silver or gold eyeshadow, you can use any type of eyeshadows: liquid, loose pigments or regular pressed eyeshadow. 

Bourjois does a gorgeous silver which you can use dry or wet (wet is FAB), while Daniel Sandler 's eye delight loose eye shadow in pinkgold is just perfect for your goldy nites.

Add lots of mascara and kohl eyeliner on the rim of the eyes.

Eyebrows filled in, bronzer to sculpt your cheekbones for the gold look.

A much colder blusher if you go for the silver eyes, you  can add some silvery highlighter for the ultimate chiseled cheekbones.

Transparent super glossy lips and your goddess look is done.

IMAGES FROM http://www.vogue.it/

SPECIAL EFFECTS SURPRISE

It is quite surprising after doing this job for many years discovering new techniques and products...it's the beauty of this job though and I want to share it with you...as there might be some like me who are not aware of it.
I was booked for an advertising photoshoot for a product called CICATRENE, which  makes your wounds heal.
My job was to make up the characters and to reproduce a little wound, it had to look fresh/ish, on the palm of a hand.
The first thing it crossed my mind was to go and get my special effects wax, which I use from time to time (quite rarely actually) on eyebrows plucking occasions......also because since I moved back to Italy I don't do very often TV or non-fashion advertising work....
Anyways I got my wax, solid fake blood , liquid fake blood , concealer, powder, greasy colours...
It seemed I was all ready..when the thought of me having nightmares trying to stick the wax on the palm of some-body's hand took over....so I decided to pay a visit to the KRYOLAN shop in Milan and get some advice.
WHAT A BRILLIANT IDEA !
The lovely girl who runs it recommended to use Tuplast instead. It's much faster and easier to use and you can achieve a great result. I knew Tuplast already from the college days but somehow I thought it was just for herpes, beauty spots etc..
Well as it often happens on shoots I had very little time to do it  and in literally 5 mins my wound was done!
I was very impressed with myself and the client was too.
There's only one downside to the story: it's now forbidden to use Tuplast on the face. Anyway you can still use it on the body and they sell an alternative product for the face.

MENS GROOMING

Do men wear make-up?
yes they do. I remember when I was working at Urban Retreat - Harrods having a long consultation with 3 nice American guys. They all loved the Retexturizing Face Primer by Daniel Sandler and the Super Mineral Make up SPF 15 by Daniel Sandler for a groomed natural, healthy look. They listened carefully to my advice and bought all I recommended.
It's quite popular in the UK too. I've noticed once myriade of cosmetics at a boyfriend's house and later on found myself buying make up for him during sales time at Space NK.
In Italy it's a different story though ..apart from the "paninaro era" when even the macho-est type was wearing foundation and bronzing powder, these days they tend to stick to sunbathing and sunbeds which is so so damaging...but I'm sure that they are getting more and more sensible to the subject.
Anyway this is for what concern their ordinary life, when it comes to a professional level they certainly do.
So when I'm  on a photoshoot, or film set, or catwalk show and the models are males I do apply make-up, but in a different way then what I would do for a femal model.
It's very important to discuss the look with the photographer or art director or designer, basically the person in charge. They might ask you to keep it extremely natural and use just moisturizer and primer, like I did for the David Mayer campaign (to come out).
Or they might want the guys to look healthy but not too groomed: for the Z-Zegna show last season under Wendy Rowe's guidance we covered spots, blemishes, dark circles but  left some of the natural redness on the cheeks so that the guys looked "real".
Models know that they look better with make-up and sometimes it's them asking you to put more on, like it happend this season at the Missoni mens show, when one of the model asked me to give him cheekbones motivating the request by saying "I've been doing this for years I know what looks good on me".....
My routine for mens' grooming is quite simple, I'm going to write down the steps, so if you feel stuck you have an idea.

1 cleanse and tone to make the skin alive and check if there's need for shaving.
2 if  you have time give him little face massage (they love it and won't give you troubles for a while)
3 apply moisturizer: oil free one or  light texture.
4 spread a little foundation on your fingers and apply from the center of the face taking it to the side.
5 conceal dark circles and spots or blemishes keeping it very soft i.e. build layers but blend it well so that you won't se the marks.
6 libbalm on the lips (tone down reddish lips with a bit of foundation if needed)
7 powder well
8 check if the body needs any make up or body moisturizer.
Any extra step (bronzin powder, sculpting, shine) depends on the job request.

Here some pics from my portfolio:

Photographer: Roy Schweiger

Photographer: Cristina Capucci

Photographer: Francesco Brigida

Photographer: Diego Diaz

Photographer: Cristina Capucci

Photographer: Doo Hyun Kim

Photographer: Stefan Giftthaler