Holiday Gift Giving Ideas-M.A.C.'s Tartan Tale Collection

Giving the gift of MAC this holiday season!? Good call! M.A.C. Cosmetics always have fab. gift palettes during the holidays and this year is not exception. MAC's Tartan Tale Holiday Colour Collection comes in beautiful packaging and has new rich, holiday colors to spice up your makeup this season. The collection features the perfect and budget-friendly eyeshadow, lip, face palettes as well as brushes, nail lacquers and makeup bags. The Tartan Tale collection is a little posh, a little punk, royal and raunchy and a fabulous mixture of patterns and colors.  It's edgy Scottish-who knew that was a thing!? It's if Charlotte York in her York-McDoogal days went a little edgy punk with her custom made "Fling" outfit.

For a limited time MAC wants your gift-giving to look as posh, punk and poetic as their collection looks. They're offering bonny bags adorned by a golden M.A.C. crest tag and tied with a patent leather bow. Enter promo code MACWRAP between now and January 4, 2011! Enjoy free shipping if you buy on their website between now and December 12th. No promo code needed!

If you're loved ones are big MAC fans like me, you'll take advantage of these awesome offers now! Enjoy!!

Fashion Week-Stephen Burrows-Beauty Breakdown

CFDA Lifetime Achievement Winner, Stephen Burrows has been creating lively, colorful prints and patterns for years. He's been an important staple in the fashion industry for several decades and mingled and partied with legend after legend. He was friends with Andy Warhol, dressed Cher and hung out regularly at Studio 54 at the height of it's disco days. This season he created a collection that showed off his traditionally vivid designs and knack for perfectly cut jersey dresses. Burrows said he looked at "Gustav Klimt and Tiffany Lamps" as the inspiration for his latest collection. His dresses had wonderfully abstract prints, rich colors and classic silhouettes. He also showed a variety of other styles like ultra-wide wool trousers, fur vests, black leather jackets and chunky cable sweaters.

Makeup Inspiration: The inspiration for the makeup was based on the look and feel of Biba-the iconic European fashion label and mecca in the 1960-70’s era. Head makeup artist, Quinn Murphy, said he wanted to enhance the style of the clothing and overall youthfulness and individuality of the time. The look was strong but not heavy. Murphy made the look special by balancing a smokey eye with red lips. He did this by creating a layered effect on the shadows. The lips were modern and bright.

FACE: He pared down the skin by making it youthful and fresh. He used minimal concealer and a minimal amount of Armani Luminous Silk Foundation. He used a Beauty Blender Sponge to make the foundation look as sheer as possible. He skipped the blush altogether to not overpower the face with color. After setting the skin with powder he added a dot of moisturizer to the cheekbone, bridge of nose, forehead and chin to add a youthful glow.

EYES: Murphy said the eyes were a “smoldering tornado of black charcoal shadow, more undone and bohemian than a traditional smokey eye.”. He applied a small amount of black cream shadow, Black Flash Color by Make Up For Ever, from the lash line to the brow. He then used a black Armani eye pencil to line the inner rim and top of the lash line and smudged it. He then took a matte black eye shadow with a sponge tip applicator and lightly dotted the colors around the eye. He used black eye shadow on the lower lash line and blended further with an invisible loose powder. Finally he brushed on Armani Maestro Mascara on the lashes. By using small amounts of the shadows he was able to layer and build the look.

LIPS: Murphy chose a moist red lip to complete the look. He used Ruby Woo by M.A.C. to the edge of the natural lip line and the applied a tinted lip balm (Benefit Benetint Lip Balm SPF 15) to give moisture without being glossy. The softer red lip countered the deepness of the dramatic charcoal matte eye.

HAIR: Hairstylist Michael Deunas created a modern, chic donut shape (an alternative to the classic bun) for the hair. "The modern shape added simplicity and beauty to Stephen Burrows collection." he said. He sectioned the hair off at the base of the neck horizontally across. He sprayed each section with OSIS Flatliner and a round brushing smooth and then flat ironed each section smooth. He brushed the hair into a tight ponytail on the right side behind the ear. Denunas took OSIS Wax and smoothed it over each ponytail and wrapped the ends of the hair with a hair doodle and rolled it to the head so the hair was wrapped around it. He then snapped the hair doodle into a donut shape and spread the tightly wrapped hair around it. Deunas then took small hairpins and secured the hair doodle to the head. Finally, he finished with OSIS Elastic Hairspray and OSIS Air Pomade.

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week-Rebecca Taylor

The hot designer of the moment, Rebecca Taylor knows how to design and dress for "it" girls. It's the kind of girls that go nuts for her collections, sit in the front row of all her shows and wear her urban chic designs out on the red carpet and in every day life. Her Fall 2010 collection was for such an "it girl". There was a Euro coolness and femininity to it as the designer did draw from a 70's Parisian attitude yet was still primarily inspired by an urban New York City girl. Taylor knows how to do classic sportswear and in this line there was a beautiful twist to that and her more signature feminine designs. The color palette was more neutral with "dusty hues contrasted with military olives and hints of old gold. Fabrics were washed to provide a worn, overly-loved appeal and are combined with cashmere wool suits, leopard faux furs and down quilted coats, together giving this collection an affordable luxe quality."

Hair: Rudi Lewis, lead stylist for Cutler/Redken wanted to create something that screamed effortlessly cool. 'It' Girls, like Lou Doillon and Charlotte Gainsbourg were used as an inspiration. Lewis said, "I wanted them to look as if they'd been to the hairdresser, before going out partying all night, then tumbling out of bed and pulling their boyfriend's jumper on over their hair. I created a bed of 'static' at the roots of their hair before putting a loose undone wave through the lengths, and then brushing the whole thing out and fluffing up the surface just before they went on the runway."

To recreate the gorgeous style at home, try these tips and tricks and you'll have a runway-worthy 'do in no time!

Hair: Spray Cutler Volumizing Spray to hair and blow dry with a large round brush. Backcomb the roots to give hair a bit of texture and volume. Spray hair with Redken Spray Starch 15 and flat iron hair to seal in the fluffy texture into the roots. Finish with a light mist of Redken Workforce 09 Hairspray for a long lasting hold.

Makeup:: Head M.A.C. makeup artist, Rie Omoto created a soft, girlie chic look. She used M.A.C. foundation and Studio Sculpt concealer on the face. Applied Corkscrew eyeshadow on the brows to lighten and give them definition. She brushed Coquette Eyeshadow on in the inner crease and defined the eyes and made them pop using Black Paint Stick and Blacktrack Fluid Line. The cheeks were contoured with Mineralized Skin Finish and M.A.C. Cream Colour Base in Pearl was used as blush to add a rosy, shimmery glow. The lips were au-natural and Omoto used Lip Erase Dim to remove overly pink or red tones.

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week-Luca Luca

While nude lips was a big trend seen this week, the Luca Luca show went against the grain and opted to go another direction: burgundy-red almost wine-grape, defined lips. The well-contoured kissers, done by James Kaliardos for M.A.C, was created by just using a lip pencil (in shade Vino) that was shaded in to fill in the color of the entire lip. The rest of the face was kept simple: Clear Gloss to add sheen to the lids, individual fake lashes (#30) in the outer corner of the eyes and a skin illuminator (Pigment in Skin Light) to highlight the face. The low-key hair, done by Teddy Charles for Redken, complimented the more dramatic retro-inspired face with a wide, side bun. Blackish, blood-red matching nails (in M2M's Glam Slam as the first coat and shimmery Havana Nights as the top coat) pulled the look together and added a touch of “polish” (pun intended) to the outfits. The collection itself had a dark, moody feel to it. Clingy, sculptural clothing was mainly seen in dark grays, olive tones, browns and blacks. In fact, bright or light colors didn’t make the cut anywhere except for a scarce sprinkling of navy, cream and gold. Raul Melgoza, creative director and designer of Luca Luca, said he was inspired by architectural elements like Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum Bilboa. I did enjoy the contrasts he used: pieces that mixed feminine and masculine textures, shiny fabrics with matte elements, leathers in patent and suede and wool and silk pleated dresses. One of my favorite pieces of the night was a supremely shiny, jeweled green-gray-silver trench dress. The over emphasized collar lapels and impeccable fit and tailoring made it a stand out in the sea of darkened fabrics.


The celeb crowd was a bit varied and a bit of a smorgasbord of noteworthy types, but overall a good showing there to support the designer and brand. One of my favorite sightings was of Luca Luca founder Luca Orlandi and his absolutely stunning wife Oluchi Onweagba with their toddler sitting on her lap throughout the show. Real Housewives of New York star, Kelly Bensimon, Mad Men’s Alison Brie, model’s Carol Alt and Irina Pantaeva, socialite, Tinsley Mortimer and American Idol’s Constantine Maroulis all lined the runway.

Check out my personal pictures and a few pics of my favorite pieces from the runway.





Thanks to Stylelist.com for filling in some of the missing pieces.

Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week-Twinkle by Wenlan

Girlie Gothic was the name of the game at the Twinkle by Wenlan show. The Fall 2010 collection had a wonderfully ethereal feel to it mixed with a tinge of toughness exemplified by chains, studs and exposed zippers. There was a Hansel & Gretel "in the enchanted forest" ambiance in the room, which was mystical and reflective of the entire line. The stark white setting provided a perfect contrast to the spectrum of color splashed in front of me. Slinky models cascaded down the runway in everything from earthy hues in mossy green, muddy brown, nutty cream and mustard yellow to tints more reflective of the city's hustle and bustle: royal purple, inky blue, mauve, sparkly gold, charcoal gray and of course black. There were dark silhouetted outlines of trees in this fairy tale forest-fantasy-land that provided the main prop for imagination and the label's logo. Each outfit had a fabric, sheen, pattern or shade that I loved and the mixing of chiffon, silk, knit and wool provided an interesting, eclectic silhouette that I'm more than excited about recreating. Twinkle jewelry was also out in full force. Big, chunky beads, geometric baubles, statement pendants and metallic bling graced the necks of our lanky friends and added sparkly accents to the clothing. If there's one thing I took away from the show, it's that interesting necklines are going to be the highlight of Fall fashion. Twinkle necklines went from embellished, adorned with jewels to bare, one shouldered, and cowl necked scooped.

M.A.C. makeup artist, Gianpaola Ceciliato, created the fresh faced look which reflected some of the big beauty trends I've been seeing throughout the week. Natural looking, "makeup free" faces were seen here and at several other show, foreshadowing a big trend in healthy, bare skin for the Fall. The rest of the look was equally understated and drew your eye straight to the upper quadrant of the face: darkened eyebrows, a basic smokey eye and completely nude non-existent lips. Blackened or deep red nails, done by Roxanne Valinoti at CND Nails, added extra edge to the flirty outfits. Not one model wore loose locks and updo's are another trend that seems to be big on the runways this week. John Ruidant for Redken helmed the hair team and created the upswept variations. The styles varied from an elegantly refined low bun, to pulled back messy chignons, french braided pinups and extra teased bouffants.

Check out a few of my personal pictures from the show:


Waiting for the show to begin



Fern Mallis, the woman who makes Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in NYC possible


Rev Run's daughter-Angela Simmons in fuschia


America's Next Top Model's Miss J





Check out highlights from the show courtesy of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week New York