FACE Stockholm Summer 2012 Makeup Collection — A Midsummer Tale
FACE Stockholm founder Gun Nowak looked to her native Sweden when musing about the colors she’d integrate into the Summer 2012 collection. In particular, Nowak decided to commemorate national Midsummer celebrations, which typically take place between June 19th and June 26th, during which Swedes rush to the countryside to celebrate the summer solstice and bask in the sunlight, often donning traditional garb, crowning themselves with floral wreaths, and enjoying local foods like herring and fresh strawberries. A key part of summer solstice festivals is the raising of the maypole, which is typically covered in leaves and flowers, and around which revelers dance during the subsequent revelries. The three new FACE Stockholm products introduced for Summer 2012, then, speak to this traditional celebration, to the magical quality of summer sunlight, and to the delicate femininity of freshly picked blossoms.
First, then, there’s the FACE Stockholm Illuminator ($24 at FACEstockholm.com), billed as a light-diffusing moisturizer containing antioxidant-rich, anti-aging agents like grape seed extract and soothing green tea extract, alongside vitamin E, which both conditions and fights free radicals. Packaged in a tube with a pump dispenser, the Illuminator looks like a liquid mother-of-pearl shade inside the packaging but, once blended onto the skin, it’s completely translucent,leaving behind no milky or creamy streaks and patches of color. And, unlike other luminizers that are saturated with glittery micro pearls, this one offers a much more demure type of luminosity, giving skin a youthful, lustrous, kissed-by-moonlight finish so that you glow rather than sparkle. You can apply the Illuminator onto bare skin for a very natural look or mix it with foundation or tinted moisturizer to attain coverage and radiance in a single step. You can also dab the illuminator atop foundation and use it to sculpt the face, dabbing the product along cheekbones or delicately tracing the jawline.
Moving on to the floral motifs associated with Midsummer fêtes, the Summer 2012 collection incorporates a lovely tulip pink gloss: the Prästkrage Nektar ($20 at FACEstockholm.com). Packaged in a squeezable tube, the sheer gloss looks like a bubblegum pink hue with bluish undertones inside its packaging but, once applied onto skin, appears rather sheer and ethereal, with tons of green, blue, and silver pearl particles for a dewy shimmer.
Last, the collection incorporates a deep forest green nail lacquer with a rich creamy texture that speaks to expansive meadows, grassy expanses, and countryside locales. The Nail Polish 113 ($12 at FACEstockholm.com), then, is the color of cooked spinach, of the deepest and darkest kale, of the densest forest at twilight. The hue is so richly pigmented that two coats will offer full coverage, and it conveys a sense of intrigue that will make it foray smoothly into the autumn and winter seasons.
After the jump, you’ll find swatches of the Nektar Prästkrage and the Nail Polish #113. Enjoy!
Here’s what the Prästkrage Nektar looks like on skin. As you can see, the color is so sheer that it almost looks clear, offering only a veil of daisy pink color, so that it’s only the shimmering particles that create a sense of freshness and dewiness. Texturally, this gloss is a bit stickier than what I favor, but it does contain emollients and conditioners like shea butter, aloe leaf extract, castor seed oil, and safflower seed oil to keep your pout looking smooth and supple.
Below, you’ll find photos of the Nail Polish #113 hue. Please forgive the state of my cuticles (I realize they were in a ragged state here) and just concentrate on the color, rather than my shoddy manicure (hey, we all mess up our nails sometimes, right?). In any case, I hope you can at least get a better understanding of the depth and richness of the green shade.
