When I was 10 and 11 years old, I would often beg my mom and my oh-so-fabulous grandma to let me put on one of their fancy nail polishes, a process that involved child manipulation tactic— from placing praying hands moving up an down ever so slowly in supplication to fluttering eyelashes, pouty lips, and the occasional crocodile tear.
Usually, come summertime, cosmetics companies embrace beautiful but predictable palettes that incorporate aquatic tones (teals, turquoises, azures, aquamarines, sky blues, cobalts, navy shades, and seafoam greens); shimmering earth tones (pearly shades of sandy cream, khaki, and warm brown); sizzling metallics like gold, copper, and bronze; and punchy brights like raspberry pink, coral orange, and deep magenta; and fluorescent iterations of bold hues like blue, green, purple, and pink.
I’ve been waiting for MAC Cosmetics to release its MAC Ruffian Collection since February, when I went backstage at the Ruffian Fall 2012 show during New York Fashion Week and saw the models rocking velvety red and cobalt blue press-on nails and luscious red lips.
When you dip your toes into a sparkling swimming pool, let the sea-moistened sand creep onto your feet while strolling down the shore, or show off your pedi in a pair of feather-adorned or beaded thong sandals, do you really want your nails to be coated in a matronly wine or russet color or, worse, to bear a timid baby pink or nude hue?
Talk about sprinkling some fun into grooming.
FACE Stockholm founder Gun Nowak looked to her native Sweden when musing about the colors she’d integrate into the Summer 2012 collection.
Cherry red kumkum powder.
Taste, as we all know, is subjective — and yet there do tend to be commonalities in the aesthetic values and norms of specific regions, notions of beauty or style dictated by everything from climate to historical minutiae and cultural phenomena.
Though most laypersons associate 19th century artist Claudet Monet with his beautiful water lily pond paintings, the French Impressionism pioneer derived inspiration from many of nature’s wonders — in fact, while living in Argenteuil from 1873 to 1878, Monet turned his attention to the rural landscapes around his domicile, producing a series of oil canvas paintings capturing the expanses of grass covered with bright red poppy blossoms.
Last week, I walked into a Sephora store with the intention of killing time before a morning meeting but, as tends to happen with us beauty junkies, what started out as an innocent store visit turned into a pocket-hurtin’ experience.
