Thursday’s fashion parade for Myer’s Spring/Summer collections was all glitter and mayhem backstage, with 22 makeup artists, 75 models, 7 manicurists and a veritable fleet of hairdressers all working their creative magic to make the girls look breathtaking.
New makeup kid on the block, Illamasqua, just arrived from the UK and selling like the proverbial hotcakes at Myer, was sponsoring the show so we were using all of their products to create the looks. We were also fortunate enough to have the Illamasqua creative director, Alex Box, here to direct the show, which is a rare treat.
I’ve assisted Alex in London and Paris for a long time so I was heading up the Ready to Wear section of the parade whilst she was looking after the Avant Garde Gold section. Dressed in the season’s hottest trend of nude dresses the models literally looked like they’d swum out of a golden, glittery sea. Genius hairdresser Brad Ngata did an amazing job on the hair, which was either loose, gorgeous and sexy hair for the Ready to Wear models, or for the golden girls slicked back with gold leaf through it.
We were lucky to get some of Sydney’s top makeup artists to work on the show as many of them are fans of Alex’s editorial work, so backstage it was lovely to see some of our major makeup stars working side by side.
Illamasqua very kindly gave every artist a full set of Illamasqua brushes so we were all getting into those, particularly the Contour and Buffing Brushes. I love the feel as they are made of synthetic fibres so they are cruelty free, super soft and easy to clean. This was big makeup so we put those bad boys to work!
Both the looks were heavily contoured so we used cream foundation to perfect their skin, and then spent quite a bit of time buffing in contouring and highlighting powders (key to both looks was the layering of products). Here is a breakdown for Alex Box’s Gold Avant Garde Goddesses.
Illamasqua Avant Garde Gold
All products are by Illamasqua
Face
- Flatten brows against the skin using soap and a toothbrush to create an exaggerated bushy shape
- Illamasqua Satin Primer all over face
- Using Illamasqua cream foundation about two shades darker than their natural skintone, start bronzing the skin with the Foundation brush.
- Contour the skin using Illamasqua Rumour powder blush (a grey tone) then work into the same area with Disobey Powder blush, a biscuit colour, using the Blush Brush 2 over the brow, up into the temples, under the chin and down in to the neck. The combination of colours is what brings dimension to the face.
- Using Illamasqua Bronzer duo in Glint/Burnish, dust the dark side of the bronzing duo over the same contoured area again.
- Use the lighter side of the Bronze duo Glint/Burnish, fill in the areas of the face that weren’t covered with the contour/bronzer to start bringing radiance to the centre of the face.
- Using Create blush, go over the chin, forehead, neck, ears and cheek area using wide, sweeping motions and a Blush Brush 1 brush, but avoiding the nose.
- Take Marvel pigment and a Blush Brush 1 brush to go over the whole face, but adding more gold through the centre of the face. Work gradually to build the colour.
Eyes
- Illamasqua Wolf Powder shadow is used first to get the shape of the eye, creating a strong contour shape up into the crease and over the lid. Take the Wolf shadow quite high on the crease, and use an Eyeshadow Brush to smudge underneath eye to make a dramatic round shaped eye.
- Using Gimp shadow, a matte black, go over the whole lid and up into the crease, with the Eyeshadow Brush, and under the eye as well. Make sure it is stronger on the outer 2/3rds and up into the crease area for extra drama. Soften the outer edges with a Blend Brush 1 underneath so it blends in with the gold on the cheeks.
- Line waterline with black Sophie pencil and smudge all around eye. Blend in well with the Gimp shadow.
- Spatter Solstice Liquid Metal (Gold) on inner eye corners and tear ducts using fingers and a Lip Brush. It should cover the inner 1/3 of the eye, and look quite organic. Take under the inner eye corner as well with the Lip Brush.
- Gold Marvel pigment goes over this, with the same Lip Brush.
- Harness mascara (black) top and bottom lashes
- No 13 lash is applied to top lashes.
- Use Gimp shadow with Eyeshadow brush along the upper lashline to make sure there are no gaps in the black
- Illamasqua Android pigment goes on the outer corner of the lid, just up to where it meets the gold on the inner corners, with Eyeshadow Brush
- Solstice Liquid Metal is painted all over neck, body and ears with Foundation brush.
- Spatter large craft glitter in gold randomly over hairline and neck and shoulders
Lips
- Gold highlight lip using Solstice Liquid Metal on cupid’s bow and Lipliner Brush.
- Add Brilliant clear gloss with Marvel pigment in it with fingers in the centre of lips.