Sexy Siren Meets Old Hollywood, Backstage Lela Rose

I absolutely loved the look at the Lela Rose Fall 2011 show. Sarah Lucero from Stila was the lead on makeup, and she said the look was a “sultry, sexy siren with a vintage, old Hollywood feeling.” She used Stila’s Long Wear Lip Color in “daring” to get a powerful lip. She applied “gladiola,” a bright coral hue on the high plane of cheeks, to create an art deco feeling. The eyes were meant to be “really dreamy and hazy” with lots of beiges and a rosy shade in a heavy contour underneath. She wanted the lashes to be long and fluttery. The key element for this look was the skin—to even out under eye circles and redness, all the models used Clarisonic’s sonic skin cleansing system, which cleanses the skin 2 times better than manual cleansing. The brush oscillates against the skin to remove dirt from pores, and it lets all products that go on skin absorb more evenly. Models also used Clarisonic Opal Serum around the eyes to brighten and hydrate that area. I want to go out and buy these treatments pronto!

Deborah Lippmann provided the nails, and the color that all the models sported was a deep green shade called “billionaire.” Since the hair and makeup was so glam, this very wearable and earthy color was a nice contrast.

Devin Toth of the Ted Gibson Salon was the lead on hair, and in keeping with the old Hollywood theme, he created a strong side part with Tame It Shine Lotion. He then curled the right side of hair, freshened the wave out, and shaped it into a strong “s” wave. He used Beautiful Hold Hair Spray to help set the wave. The look is slightly different from regular Hollywood glam because the s wave is not as soft; it’s more severe and large, exaggerated French bobby pins were left in the models’ hair for the runway. To complete the look, he pulled hair into a low ponytail.

Go Backstage at Badgley Mischka

This was by far my favorite overall look of New York Fashion Week this season.  The talented backstage team consisted of Redken, MAC and Deborah Lippmann and the collaboration resulted in a warrior princess inspired theme.  Think Avatar.  Known for the signature ball gowns and evening wear, the two designers behind the brand, Mark Badgley and James Mischka, were introducing a new collection predominately for celebrities that is much younger. With these two looks in mind, Charlotte Tilbury lead the MAC team in contouring and highlighting, which created a look that worked for both collections.  Using a thick eyebrow brush she dragged MAC's eye shadows in Taupe, Harmony and Shadester from the top of the cheekbones up into the temples.  The swept up look helped to create the warrior effect.  On top of the cheek bones and in the bow of the lip she used MAC eye shadow in Crystal Avalanche to highlight.  MAC Lip Conditioner was used on the lips.

At home, this look can be recreated but toned down.  "The most important areas of the face for a woman to highlight would be the inner corners of the eyes, bow of the lip and upper cheekbones," she remarked.  You can use the same highlighter for all of these areas.

Since there were two collections, Redken lead stylist Peter Gray decided to change the look half way throughout the show.  The first look for the classic collection was all up. The top was loose and back-combed, sides were tightly pulled back and bottom was made up of two twists that intertwined and interlocked secured by about three hair pins.  For the warrior effect of the newer collection, as the models came back from their first walk, the pins were taken out, hair was let loose and straightened so it was half up, half down.

Deborah Lippmann used a metallic silver on the nails called Marquee Moon.