Backstage Beauty AW09: Twinkle by Wenlan

Posted by Kathleen

on February 16, 2009

Referencing my favorite era of fashion, the Twinkle show held yesterday at the Classic Car Club on Hudson Street, featured a dreamy ‘50s beauty look with soft, wavy hair and a soft orange-red lip: it wasn’t the hard look of your mother’s Mad Men, but a younger, more optimistic and innocent version.

MAC makeup artist, Greg Arlt, stated that the inspiration for the look was a “1950’s, first date going to the drive-in.” The makeup was designed to look like a “young girl applying makeup for the first time, mimicking the things she had seen her mother do,” but with a lighter and softer hand. Thus, the curved, dramatic cat eye her mom draws on, was re-interpreted to be a “kitten’s eye,” Greg quipped, with only the slightest of curved lines extending past the lid (more of a suggestion of a cat’s eye than anything) using Mac Fluidline in Blacktrack.

The lids were also dusted with Mac Naked Lunch, a gleaming champagne neutral peach, with mascara on the top lashes on, and Well Dressed on the cheekbones, a soft immaculate, slightly shimmery pink. Greg Arlt, purposely designed the look to be more “shimmery, shiny, and not so matte” to give the look some freshness, and to differentiate it from a too grown up or adult look. The strongest part of the look was the lipstick in Lady Danger (a color not yet available), a gleaming orange red that “isn’t your mom’s fire engine red.”

To achieve the soft natural waves seen at Twinkle, Jon Ruidant, head stylist for Redken, prepped the hair by spraying Fabricate for Redken on the hair and blowing drying it in. He then used a 1 ¼ inch curling iron, sprayed Redken HotSet 22 Thermal Styling Mist into it, curling it inward. After pinning it in close to the hairline and the base, to “minimize volume” and keep the look relaxed, he let it cool. To keep the curls look soft, he then used a Mason Pearson hairbrush to brush through the hair, and set it with Redken Workforce Flexible Volumnizing Hairspray.

Nails were also kept their natural length, with a combination of a squared and oval shape. A mix of Fedora, in a dark chocolate color, and Decadence in a dark red, were combined to give the nails a black cherry color, with a high shine.

See some more pictures from backstage below: