Although not the official makeup sponsor at this year’s Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, MAC Makeup is making a big impression on the catwalk .
On Monday, the first day of Fashion Week, makeup artist Nicole Thompson gave the party dresses in the Alice McCall show at Carriageworks a “tough edge”that was as “messy as possible for a 9am show”.
“We’re not afraid of a chunky lash – the chunkier the better,” she said.
“I think I have done about six layers of mascara. Everything is in aubergine, the liner and the mascara. We’re using a mascara called Feel My Pulse which is an amazing colour that dries quite matte.
“I like the idea of using quite a girly colour that we’re used to seeing on social media, applied perfectly, and making it look completely messed up. We’ve used a little mascara fan brush which is the star tool because you can really load up how much mascara you put on.
“We’ve also added small individual lashes and applied them quite haphazardly to make sure they don’t look too ‘dolly’. On the water line we’ve got Coffee and Feline eye pencils, it’s darker on the inner and outer corner of the eye once again to give it that toughness – not too rounded and girly.
“The thread that’s tying the look together through the eyes, cheeks and lips is a lipstick called Driftwood, which is a mauvey-nude. I’ve used this as the base of the eye shadow…. I’ve also used it on the cheeks and lips, and it’s really muted that natural pink.”
Makeup artist Collette Miller created equally bold looks – except this time the focus was on yellow rather than aubergine – for the models at the Pageant ’17/18 Resort show at Carriageworks yesterday.
“The inspiration for the Pageant collection came from The Cave Clan who were a group of urban explorers from the 1980s so we took elements of graffiti and created a yellow spray effect on the eye but kept it quite powdery,” she explained, adding that the MAC pigment used to create the effect was ‘Rocket Yellow.
Miller also created a “very fresh and dewy” look for the models’ skin using facial oils rather than makeup.
“There’s quite a sporty vibe to the clothes and we wanted to keep it quite youthful and makeup free so we used a lot of beautiful oils to prep the skin. This included MAC Careblend Essential Oils that we really massaged into the face and then we covered the lips in lots of gloss to keep them really hydrated and fresh.”
Likewise at the Bec & Bridge Parade in David Jones, Thompson created two different but “very French, cool girl chic” looks – vastly different than the aubergine mascaraed eyes she styled a day earlier.
“To create the red lip look, we started the skin with our Face and Body Foundation,'” she said.
“Then we’re using a tiny bit of Studio Finish Concealer and dabbing it on with the tiny brushes. I’m also using the White Face & Body Foundation … when I dab it on the high points of the face it gives it a really beautiful glow, brightness and shine. With the lip it is the So Chaud Lipstick, the red lip pencil and the pigment over the top.
We’re leaving the brows natural and on the eyes using our Siss Lipstick, we’ve brushed it around so it has a soft tea-stain effect. We’ve also used it on the cheeks.
“For the blue liner, we’ve used Chromacake in Marine Ultra and Zinc Blue and How Royal Eyeshadow over the top to create this thick line with a rounded edge.”