Beauty and the Brand

MAC DEMO

Visiting London we had the opportunity to visit MAC's makeup store in Westfield shopping center. This allowed us to get a really feel for the brand and their ethos. As well as having a break down of all their products we were also giving demonstrations on their key looks for this season. MAC focuses heavily on current trends enabling them to be at the top of the industry, being to main sponsor of London Fashion Week. They support the shows featuring all the top designers. As well as focusing on current trends they also need to keep ahead of their game, forecasting future trends. 

SPING/SUMMER 2014 TRENDS

ONCE UPON A SEASON…

Wake up! HEALTH, FRESHNESS AND FEMININITY have never been so synonymous with modern makeup as they are this season. The haunted shadows and gothic grunge that portrayed AW13 have departed, making way for a revitalized vision of beauty. What we’re seeing for SS14 is a shift towards something more SUBTLE AND ALIVE. Artists have quietly assimilated feelings that have been relevant for a few seasons (minimalism, a certain purity of vision, the idea of something quite effortless and un-laboured) and evolved them into a unanimous point of view, one that positively and authentically enhances the individual.

ORGANIC, ELEMENTALLY INSPIRED COLOURS AND TEXTURES feel more apt than anything synthetic, and the beauty missive cited most often backstage was for “RADIANCE” and “REALITY” rather than drama, high-glamour or fantasy. Even the notion of consciously adding “edge” to makeup (once so vital to contemporaneity and synonymous with androgyny) feels a little old. We see a buoyant celebration of the female face rather than boyish, carved cheekbones and handsome brows, which looks altogether more compelling.

DAY-GLOW cheeks are the new way to study skin and a “RAW “complexion finds a new narrative in a sporty lexicon…LIGHT FX speaks to the PREVAILING RADIANCE that is so relevant now…CC-THRU COLOUR tunes in to the corrective cast that cool and warm tones bring to brightening the face…THE NEW EYE-DEAL REINVENTS THE EYE ACCENTS that subtly play into contemporary enhancement. “The main thread throughout the season is the idea of OUTDOOR, DAY-LIT BEAUTY. We used oils, highlighters and even fine glitters to emulate dewdrop products to create low-tech beauty,” explains Terry Barber.

“Yes, this season is about TWEAKING AND REVEALING BEAUTY, NOT REINVENTING IT,” agrees Lyne Desnoyers. “How you style a face is the question this season – the whole makeup treatment, not one element, is the focus. So much of trend is considering what you juxtapose – TEXTURES and COLOURS and how they interplay.”

In short, it TAKES AN ARTFUL HAND TO EMULATE EFFORTLESSNESS AND ELEVATE THE “EVERYDAY,” but never has such a study in subtlety felt more relevant. 

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THE TRENDS 

Spring/Summer 14

DAY GLOW

'Raw, rugged and healthy were the most-quoted descriptors backstage this season. It feels future-facing, this womanly accentuation of individuality; after so many seasons citing androgynous features, "gaunt has gone," confirms Val Garland. Suddenly, wholesome femininity looks strikingly modern. With a sportive nod to the elements – references to the sun, sea, sand, wind, air, water, surfers and skaters abound – the natural vitality behind SS14 is less obvious than a proletarian bronze look. It’s more about peach and pink cream blushes mixed with nuances of sculpting creams and soft highlights than a tan story.' 

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CC-THRU COLOUR

'When colour feels fitting this season, it is anchored in filtered, instagram-effects and hazy shading. The lilacs and peaches that abound for SS14 aren’t necessarily pastels, yet so aerate is their application that they may as well be. These eggshell tints make a sensitive statement, acting as a beautification strategy that projects the features and brightens the face.'

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LIGHT FX

Expanding on the moonlit glow that held strong beauty currency for AW13, the new approach to light-reflecting makeup injects an optimistic life force into whites and lights.

With glassy and opalescent clarity, these new light effects have an energetic, humid sportiness that makes them part of the “healthy” story that is omnipresent for SS14. “It’s another mode of looking at the way that light works on the skin,” explains Terry Barber. “Using emotional glazes of whites and lights on the high points gives the cheeks an immediate contour, without adding any colour,” adds Alex Box.

Accenting what Val Garland calls “super-skin,” flashes of white, gold, silver, glitter, shimmer and frosting abound, adding an unreferenced, avant-garde mood to the makeup. “White is the key colour for me this season, it brings such freshness and brings out the features on a slightly deeper skin; it is beautiful and pure,” enthuses Tom Pecheux. “I have used white in essentially every show.”

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THE NEW EYE-DEAL

Artists have zoned  in on a honed brow for a few seasons now, so it's a pace-changer that this masculine angularity has been dropped and the detail has shifted back to the more feminine aspect of the eye. 

Liner, lashes and kohl aren't, of course, anything new...but that's the point. Artists are reconsidering these accents in a manner that doesn't feel indebted to the past. "Certain details are timeless and beyond trend - it is the canvas of the skin, their execution and the mood elsewhere on the face that makes them modern," clarifies Terry Barber.

In store demo 'NEW EYE-DEAL'