“Beauty is back!” M.A.C.’s senior artist Nicole Thompson announced last week at a media showing of the brand’s new-season trends. Well ain’t that a relief? No more androgynous or aggressive looks, just pretty perfection. Of course, this is little surprise for those of us who have already spent the past five months drooling over Prada’s 1950s-housewife-meets-Grease-lightning or Givenchy’s rock’n’roll-meets-romance collections, both for S/S 2012. As Nicole went into more detail about M.A.C.’s take on the trend, it quickly became apparent that it comes with a set of inspirational hyphens, too.
There were four key looks in all, my favourite of which could be summed up by the term “sun-kissed metallics” (what did I tell you? Hyphens). Yes, it was heavy on the bronzer but it was, Nicole said, “an expensive bronze”. In other words, forget laidback and beachy; think polished and sophisticated. It was a look that relied heavily on M.A.C.’s soon-to-launch Extra Dimension Skinfinish (on counters early April), a liquid-powder hybrid that comes in three metallic shades and that Nicole couldn’t stop raving about. She used a brush daubed in the stuff to highlight the face – cheekbones, the sides of the nose – but switched to her fingers to press it into the model’s eyelids for a more intensely gilded hue. The all-over effect was mesmerising (top left), but made even better when it was teamed with a deep burgundy lip (Nicole used M.A.C. Lipstick in Diva, top right). It’s something that you could try right now, no matter which hemisphere you’re living in – a little cream bronzer, a vampy, stained lip and you’re good to go for summer or winter. - Read more>
Doing: having breakfast with the lovely girls from EGPR, to find out what’s coming up for their brands, KIT, Dermalogica, Kiehl’s and Bloom; working on a freelance project; fighting the grey skies with a bright jacket; finishing the day with a long overdue and enormously fun catch-up dinner with old friends Pip from Reality Chick and Clare.
Wearing: Dion Lee for Cue jacket; Konstantina Mittas tank; Acne capri-style jeans; Bally pumps.
We all make mistakes. Thankfully, we don’t always have to live with them. I invested a little too indiscriminately in the current trend for button-down shirts and wound up with a couple that just don’t work for me.
In spite of being an apparently versatile shade of pale grey, the Arnsdorf shirt (above right) was too boxy and mannish – I just don’t do that casual, androgynous look very well. And while I’m still mad for paisley, the all-over print of the Herringbone shirt (above left) was simultaneously too much (pattern) and too little (cool).
Something had to go; I chose the sleeves. I’ve been noticing sleeveless shirts all over the place lately (call it a sub-category of the broader shirting trend), including this lovely surf-inspired one from Equipment. Lopping the sleeves off my two shirts seemed like the answer.
I’ll spare you the DIY details (take a pair of scissors, etc…) and simply say that when snipping, I followed the existing shoulder seam, which, on both shirts, sat about two centimetres outside my actual shoulder. The seam also provides a natural selvedge, so the shirts shouldn’t fray too much. - Read more>
Sometimes the most utilitarian products can be the hardest to master. Like hand cream. On my desk right now are no less than six tubes, pumps and pots filled with the stuff. Another couple sit beside my bed. Each is great in its own way but none had hit on the perfect formula of being rich but not greasy – even after multiple applications (I’m a frequent hand-washer) – while also having no scent (it clashes with my perfume). Yeah, I’m a tough critic.
Aum’s Nourishing Hand Cream ticks all these boxes. Part of the Australian brand’s anti-ageing organic range, it features an all-natural cocktail of ingredients to protect and treat the skin. The three Ps – papaya, pomegranate and pineapple – lend antioxidants and Vitamin C to help brighten skin and ward off those dreaded age spots. We all know that the backs of our hands are one of the first places to reveal the truth about our years (we don’t talk about “the hands of time” for nothing), so brightening is definitely a good thing. You can see it happening straight after applying, too.
Macadamia oils, seaweed extracts and fatty acids derived from olive oil make this a really nourishing formula, but there’s no greasy residue – the moisture feels like it’s locked in, rather than sitting on top of your skin. And the slightly earthy scent is unobtrusive and quickly fades.
So I’m pointing the finger: Aum has done the handiwork and come up trumps.
Know any other hand creams I should try? Tell me in the comments below!
Doing: spending Australia Day in the office; arriving home to find my building smelling like sausages (apparently everyone had been barbecue-ing); “rejoicing” in two of my favourite Australian designers (yes, this is a dodgy reference to our national anthem) in a slightly rumpled outfit that sat somewhere between work and Weber.
Wearing: Scanlan & Theodore top; Bassike pants (the ultimate summer pants, I’d like a pair in every colour, please); Dinosaur Designs bangles.
If you’re a certain age – let’s say between 20 and 45 – you’ve probably had some experience with The Body Shop’s White Musk perfume. For me, who’s placed somewhere around the middle of that age spectrum (okay, maybe not exactly the middle), it’s via a cousin, who made it her signature scent for most of our teenage years. Those years are long behind us now but White Musk remains as youthful as ever, even as it notched up its 30th anniversary last year.
To celebrate such longevity in an industry that frankly rewards the new and the fresh, The Body Shop has given White Musk a perky little sister, White Musk Libertine. Formulated by perfumer Vincent Schäller, it balances the obvious musk notes of the original with sweet notes of Turkish delight and Chantilly cream to create a truly gourmand scent that forms the basis of an EDP, EDT, body wash, lotion and other products.
At a lunch late last year, Vincent told me and other beauty eds that it took him approximately one minute to come up with the idea for the scent after receiving The Body Shop’s brief. “It was quite clear to associate musk with the Chantilly cream,” he told us. “Then the Turkish delight accord came later.” - Read more>
There can’t be too many artists who cite the humidity as a point of inspiration, but Scott Petrie is one of them. I met Scott late last year, when his solo exhibition, “Fresh”, was on show at the home of his agent Eugenie Pepper (which is amazing, by the way, and the perfect setting in which to view art).
An Australian who currently splits his time between Sydney and Singapore, Scott has found much to love about his adopted Asian home. “Singapore’s great because it celebrates every religious ceremony, so you’ve got the food, you’ve got the music,” he says. “And also, I’ve been able to travel throughout Asia and everyday I go for a walk in the Botanical Gardens, so there are many things to be inspired by.”
The only downside? Crippling humidity that can send the drying time of his large and layered canvases into the months. To compensate, Scott has been experimenting with new techniques, playing with oil paints of different depths and introducing a crackled finish to some of his work, even those painted here in his studio on the NSW Central Coast. The effect is somehow both abstract and organic, dynamic but restful.
Having painted for the past 15 years, Scott works regularly with renowned Australian interior designer Greg Natale, as well as on private commissions. With his past as a property developer (it gives him a good understanding of residential budgets, he says) and his easygoing personality, I can imagine he’d be a joy to work with. Because while he obviously takes his work very seriously, his attitude can be anything but. - Read more and see more of Scott’s work>
Doing: finishing a beauty feature for Women’s Health; styling a fashion story for In The Black; embracing the mod vibe I was so enthusiastic about in yesterday’s post.
Wearing: Zara knit; Dion Lee for Cue skirt; Sigerson Morrison flats; Dannijo bangle.
For a Frenchman, Carven designer Guillaume Henry has certainly nailed the late ’50s/early ’60s English look with his pre-fall 2012 collection. Sure, he told US Vogue that his starting point was an exhibition of photographs by American artist Diane Arbus, and there’s also a dash of his Parisian hometown in evidence, but for me, the collection is English mod done for the 21st century.
Just look at the little A-line skirts in wool tweed, the bracelet-length sleeves on shift-style dresses, the smart, boxy, slightly practical-looking coats and jackets, and – oh! – the pointy shoes. Heaven! Before everyone was obsessed with “street style” we spoke about “subcultures”, and the mods have always been my favourite.
And I don’t mean the parka-wearing, scooter-riding, Who-listening cliché that they were to become (seen the movie Quadrophenia?). I’m talking about the real deal, the neat-as-a-pin boys and girls who were fastidious about the length of a skirt or the width of a jacket vent.
In his excellent book Subculture: The Meaning of Style, Dick Hebdige writes that: “Unlike the defiantly obtrusive teddy boys [that came before them], the mods were more subtle and subdued in appearance: they wore apparently conservative suits in respectable colours, they were fastidiously neat and tidy. .. The mods invented a style which enabled them to negotiate smoothly between school, work and leisure, and which concealed as much as it stated.” - Read more>
Doing: checking out the new multimedia work by Ms & Mr at the Art Gallery of NSW (it’s mesmerisingly good); finally attempting the post-Christmas sales, only to find that everything I liked was new-season stock.
Wearing: Forever New tank; Zara pants; Hogan sandals; Dinosaur Designs bangles.
