Photo: Via Carven.
The days of rosé and blushed-from-the-sun cheeks are well behind us — well, at least sun-kissed cheeks; rosé can be year round, right? — but pastel pink is still very much alive for fall. As seen in that oh-so-covetable Saint Laurent dusty rose fur coat, Marc Jacobs' cashmere coat, and don’t even get us started on the star of Carven’s fall campaign, the oversized, notched collared, we-will-sell-our-souls-to-get-this coat. But, what if your outerwear budget isn’t in the thousands this year? The easiest, cheapest way to wear this color trend is on your face, and no, not just on your lips.
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Flipping through the September issue of Marie Claire, we stumbled upon gold medal winner of the genetic Olympics, Georgia May Jagger sporting a fabulously chic, glossy pale pink eye. Paired with a natural lip with a hint of pearl, like Rodin Ollio Lusso’s lip balm, this look is a lady in the streets but a freak in the sheets, so to speak. The dichotomy of such a feminine color with a masculine brow, and contoured face, represents all that is good and just in the world. Okay, maybe that's going overboard, but it is pretty damn gorgeous looking.
We spoke with Dolce & Gabbana national makeup artist — and the creator of Georgia May’s look — Christian McCulloch to find out what products to use, and how to tailor the trend to your skin tone. "I used heavily pigmented pastel colors on the eyes, and to give the pigment extra shine I mixed Dolce & Gabbana eyeshadows with Elizabeth Arden's Eight Hour Cream," says McCulloch, who notes that Eight Hour is his go-to for glossy lids because it's a little wetter and shinier looking than Vaseline or Aquaphor.
He used Dolce & Gabbana Smooth Eye Colour Duos in Rose and Blossom to get Georgia's look, but says that you should switch up the pink you use depending on your skin tone. "A rule of thumb is that the darker the skin is; the darker or more intense pigment is needed to simply show up and have an effect at all," he says. For darker skin tones, he recommends lilacs or purples, while paler skin should temper their rosy hues with a mascara to define the eye and keep it from looking sickly. "Olive and brown skin look amazing with vivid pink — think about Diana Vreeland's famous quote, 'pink is the navy blue of India.'"
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According to McCulloch, while slick looks great on the runway and on photo shoots, many women think it's not realistic for the real world. He says wet eyes are definitely translatable, just don't expect them to have the longevity of a regular powder eyeshadow. "They will crease up a little bit and look a little worn in, but that can be fresh and sexy looking — it’s not a super precise look," he says.
McCulloch says you can either apply shadow to the lid and then add your gloss over it with a finger,
or take a brush and mix the shadow with the grease on your hand, then dab or paint the concoction on. "[For Georgia] I did both, layering a mix of shadow and goop [a.k.a. Eight Hour Cream] over shadow on the eyes. You need as much pigment on there as possible, but you don’t need that much goop to get the glossy sexy effect!"
But, don't limit yourself to just your eyes. "I would say to use color on two out of three features on your face," says McCulloch. "Out of eyes, lips, and cheeks choose two to highlight with color and leave the other completely nude or neutral. Mascara and defined eyebrows will always bring back the definition and standard 'pretty factor' to your face." He's also a fan of bright, very matte lips: "The contrast of bold matte lips against a dewy, highlighted complexion is really nice, and the matte lip is also so lovely with the glossy eye." If you do choose to go pastel, McCulloch says to be sure to warm up your skin with a little bit of bronzer on the cheeks.
Now get out there, and think pink. Paired with heavy knits, and buttery leathers, this feminine color worn in an unusual way will add a modern cool factor to anything you pair it with.