6 Summer Beauty Ideas From Couture Week
The perfect (rouge-ish) lip, the new French twist, and dewy summer skin.
Want to get the perfect (rouge-ish) lip, make the most of humidified frizz, or amplify that dewy summer glow by a thousand? Study the couture catwalks.
Textural Twist
Curls took an ingenious turn at Dior, where hair maestro Guido Palau employed the old-school "tissue set"—using twisted paper towels as curlers—to make the hair "more floaty" than a curling iron could. Starting at the roots, Palau wound the hair around the paper twists, leaving the tips free "to avoid too-curly ends." After clamping a flatiron over each twist for a few seconds, he allowed curls to cool before unwinding them and gently grazing them with a bristle brush for an ultrapillowy effect. Windswept coils also reigned at Jean Paul Gaultier, where hair maven Odile Gilbert accentuated the models' natural fluff with Tresemmé Beauty- Full Volume hair spray before weaving a fishtail braid or two.
A Beautiful Wind
Instead of a typical French twist at Chanel, hair guru Sam McKnight celebrated the dry wrap, an elegant swirl traditionally used by black women to protect the hair under a scarf or wig. McKnight raked mousse from roots to tips and tamed frizz along the hairline with pomade, then drew a center part down the back of the hair. Starting on the left side, he swept up strands and pinned them in place as he swirled the hair into a flat, circular pattern. Polish off your style and fight flyaways with a gleam-giver, such as L'Oréal Paris Extraordinary Lustrous Oil Serum .
GET A GRIP: Make a statement when holding hair in place, as hair honcho Paolo Soffiatti did with graphic metal barrettes at Francesco Scognamiglio.
Grunge Goes Glam
The Alexis Mabille show—in which models' mouths were shaded an intriguing brownish red, the unofficial lipstick color of the '90s—was basically one giant shout-out to the Nirvana era. For fair skin, makeup artist Lloyd Simmonds, using M.A.C Trend Forecast Fall 2017 lip palette (3), mixed a "true beige" with a hint of "dusky rose." To prevent beige undertones from skewing gray on darker complexions, Simmonds advises mixing a rose hue (we like Giorgio Armani Rouge d'Armani Lipstick in Bamboo (4)) with a raspberry shade.
MAKE WAVES: Blast hair with a tousle- accentuating finishing spray, such as Redken Wind Blown, before curling or weaving a (mussed) braid.
Bands All Here
Rule number one for the unfussy who strive to look glam: Acquire a splashy-hued headband, as mane master Orlando Pita did at Elie Saab, where he pumped up roots with mousse and added waves before crowning models with the atelier's cerulean– and champagne-shaded hair bands. Hairstylist James Pecis pulled strands into a low pony at Giambattista Valli prior to accessorizing with elegant white silk headbands. Since silk has a tendency to slip, Pecis suggests misting the section where your headband will sit with hair spray prior to putting it on.
HAUTE HACK: A wide style—like Colette Malouf's Turban in Teal (1)or Jennifer Behr's Washed Silk Stretch band in Cobalt (2)—offers extra grip.
Flick Off
Ah, the endless appeal of the scene-stealing cat-eye. At Ralph & Russo, makeup artist Sam Bryant riffed on "metallic flashes" in the collection with a silver "eye-widening" swoosh—Marc Jacobs gel liner in N(Ice) (2) adds a pleasing glint. Fellow face painter Tom Pecheux rimmed models' top lashes with a band of blue at Elie Saab (try CoverGirl Intensify Me! liner in Sapphire (1)), a style, he says, that "plays with the modernity of graphic color"—while pro Val Garland kept things classically inky at Ulyana Sergeenko with a crisp wing offset by mile-long fluttery lashes.
Lighten Up
Concealer will forever be the ultimate insta-refresher, but makeup pros took a more opulent approach to luminizing eyes—using swaths of glitter and strategically placed stars. Inspired by kintsugi, a Japanese art form, makeup queen Pat McGrath traced shimmery silver and gold pigments below brows and across lids for an extreme lifting effect at Viktor & Rolf. To create the perfect sparkle at Chanel (below), Pecheux used a Magimix food processor to pulverize chunky phosphorescent confetti into microfine particles reminiscent of shattered glass, tamping the lustrous blend over models' temples to open the eyes and create the impression of "a hologram." Get the look (sans kitchen gadgets) via Stila Magnificent Metals glitter shadow in Diamond Dust (1) or Nyx Roll On Shimmer in Platinum (2). For what Peter Philips at Dior called a "punk approach," adhere a single étoile to the inner corner of each eye with lash glue.
STAR-STUDDED: Be sparing with shimmer application to avoid depositing a distractingly light-reflecting level of bling.
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