Bollywood Ladies on the Cutting Edge

Celina Jaitley scares the living daylights out of me...there is something about her icy glare (perhaps with fake contacts?), flared nostrils, nonsmiling lips, and parted in the middle Morticia Adams style hair that just freaks me out. So I was pleasantly surprised to find the below photo of Celina at a recent event with soft pink makeup and an even softer hairstyle!! I am loving her new shoulder length haircut with the ends curled under!

Even better, it looks like Mahima Chaudhary, below, decided to forego her usual pageant curls for a slightly edgier haircut with long bangs and layers.

It can be hard to say goodbye to old styling habits (especially when Bollywood remains stuck in a style rut itself), so kudos to the ladies who mix things up once in a while!

Big, Bold n Bordeaux Lips

Its no secret that women of color can pull off bold, saturated colors...but how many of us are really gutsy enough to pull off such a look? I, for one, am much more comfortable with doing a very dark smoky eye rather than bold lips.

Well, I've decided that if there is any season to pull off bold lips, tis the season! As seen on Salma Hayek, Rachel Roy and Jessica Alba, wearing a burgundy or bordeaux commands a sense of female power like no other makeup look.

Above, Salma opts for a creamy wine color that complements her all-black ensemble. Below, Rachel goes for a glossy bordeaux color.

How to wear the bordeaux on the lips:

1. Keeping the rest of the face as bare as possible gives a fresh take on the bold lip. On the eyes, keep makeup minimal with a neutral, matte shadow that matches your skin tone and black mascara. If you feel naked without eyeliner (as I do at times) do just a smidge of kohl on the eyes, like Rachel above.

I love bare cheeks as well as it really draws attention to the lips, but if you must, pair with a slight bit of bronzer or a blush that complements your lip color, like Jessica below.

2. Like the rest of your makeup, hair should be as unfussy as possible. Save the hair baubles for another day and pull hair straight back like Salma, go completely sleek like Rachel or wear a slightly retro look with Veronica Lake type waves similar to Jessica.

Here are some lip color recs for gorgeous bold lips:

1. Dior Rouge Dior Lipstick in Red Premiere 752

2. CK Calvin Klein Delicious Luxury Creme Lipstick in Sinful

3. Laura Mercier Lip Velvet in Cassis

Manicure Must Have: Essie Corrector Pen

I'll admit it, I'm absolutely terrible at applying my own nail polish. I just can't seem to keep the polish confined to the nails when painting them. The color goes all over the sides and the bottom of the cuticle, and the final result always looks like I got a manicure from a four year old.

In the past, I've relied upon dipping a Q-tip in nail polish remover to clean up the edges, but I discovered something new the other day at my local Ulta store, The Corrector Pen by Essie, ($14). Built like a fine-tip marker, this awesome tool has a firm rounded tip that delivers a steady amount of polish remover so you can get deep into the edges around your nails without removing the polish on the nail itself. It's sold at most manicure salons that sell Essie products and also at Ulta stores, but for some reason it's not available online at Ulta.com. You can, however, order it at Essieshop.com if you don't have an Ulta or a manicure salon near you that carries Essie.

And while you're at it, give Essie's new nail polish Damsel in a Dress ($8) a try. The color looks good on nearly everyone and perfectly complements fall looks.

Violet Eyes: Experimenting with Bare Escentuals Smoky V Eye

Having finally figured out the macro setting on my camera, I can finally take photos of some of my favorite looks...

Below is Saturday night's experimentation with the Bare Escentuals Smoky V Eye shadows (that I blogged about back in July), Pacific Heights (a shimmery lavender-gray) and 1990s Glimmer (a shimmery dark purple-gray). Here's the breakdown of my "violet eyes":


1. Dip a makeup brush in 1990s Glimmer and then mix the shadow with MAC Mixing Medium (or water). Apply the wet shadow to the lids from the lashline up until the crease. Blend the wet shadow to the inner corners and outer corners of the eyes. Drag the wet shadow from the top lid to line the bottom lashline. The wet shadow will look very dark purple on the lids.

2. Dip a dry makeup brush into Pacific Heights and blend the shadow over the 1990s Glimmer, again only up until the crease. Continue blending the lighter lavender shadow over the dark purple shadow until you have the shade of purple you like. I blended Pacific Heights over 1990s Glimmer twice before I got this shade.

3. Take a q-tip dipped in eye makeup remover to clean up the edges of the eyes as there will likely be some fall out from the loose eye shadows. Blend the edges of the shadow again to make sure there are no harsh edges.

4. Line eyes with black eyeliner on the top lashline and in the inner rims - I used MAC Eye Liner in Smolder. Finish with black mascara - I used Cover Girl LashBlast.

You don't need the specific shadows I used to create this look...try it with any varied shades of purple shadow that you have on hand. Although its a bright color, I find purple to be a great shade for tan skintones and especially complimentary for dark brown eyes!

Smoldering Makeup for Deep Set Eyes

Just like skin tones, eyes come in all shapes and sizes and knowing how to use makeup to enhance your eye shape and size is one of the basics of makeupdom. I came across this photo of Jamie Lynn Sigler of Sopranos fame and loved the artistry on her deep set brown eyes.

As deep set eyes have a tendency to appear to recede, its important to use lighter colors to bring forward those peepers instead of dark colors. As a result, if you have deep set eyes, you'll want to avoid doing an all over black smoky eye, for example, because it will make your eyes look smaller.

Instead, do what Jamie's done:

1) Apply a light, shimmery eyeshadow to the eyelids, extending slightly above the crease. Here, Jamie uses a shimmery champagne color that deepens her brown eyes. Recs for shadows are: Bobbi Brown Metallic Eye Shadow in Champagne Quartz or Gold Dust, MAC Shadows in Nylon or Seedy Pearl or Retrospeck (a personal favorite!), Revlon Grab Me Gold Diamond Lust Shadow.

2) Avoid putting dark colors in the crease, in the traditional manner of eye makeup application. Dark colors in the crease will make your eyes appear to recede more.

3) If you want to smoke out those eyes, smoke near the lashes, not the lid and not the crease. Line the upper and lower lids with eyeliner and use a sponge tip to smudge the liner around the lash line - just avoid moving the color to far into the middle of the lid!!

Thandie's Smoky Winged Eye

At the premiere of Rocknrolla, Thandie Newton sported an interesting hybrid between the smoky eye and winged eyeliner - that I am now calling the "smoky winged eye." Now traditionally, the winged eyeliner is accomplished with a swoop of black liquid liner, which is forever classic and elegant. Thandie took the winged eyeliner look a step further by extending out her charcoal smoky eye and the result is stunning.

Eyes are perfectly imperfect as displayed in the picture above. One of the great things about this eye makeup, unlike the traditional winged eyeliner, is that its okay to mess up. Look at the photo - you can see little smudges of the charcoal eyeliner but it adds to the smoldering, carefree look!

To get Thandie's eyes:

Using a silver gray shadow such as MAC Silver Ring Eyeshadow, sweep the color across the lids up into the crease. Shade the outer corners and crease of the eyes with a dark gray shadow such as MAC Print Eyeshadow. Also use the dark gray shadow to line the lower lid. Blend the silver gray shadow into the dark gray shadow. Taking a stiff flat brush, use a black shadow such as MAC Carbon Eyeshadow to line the upper lids. Extend the black shadow out into a wing as you would with liquid liner.

On a side note, are Thandie and Gerard with other people? If not, they would make such a cute couple!

Lakshmi Menon in Biba Magazine

I thought I'd share some scans of Lakshmi Menon (aka, the only Indian model storming the major runways) from French magazine Biba, August 2008. I really love the colors and use of light in these photographs. And for some reason, Lakshmi reminds me of a young Frida Kahlo.

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