FASHION Magazine

Jump to: RACHEL ROY, DESIGNER | AMY VERNER, WRITER | ESSIE WEINGARTEN, ESSIE FOUNDER | ELAINE LUI, LAINEY GOSSIP | LEANDRA MEDINE, MAN REPELLER

For our final vintage Mother’s Day tribute, we reached out to Man Repeller‘s Leandra Medine, who passed on this delightful photo of her mother back in the day. We may never know what mama Medine was pondering in said photo, but what we do know is that whatever patent top action she’s got going on right there is seriously amazing. Happy Mother’s Day!

Jump to: RACHEL ROY, DESIGNER | AMY VERNER, WRITER | ESSIE WEINGARTEN, ESSIE FOUNDER | ELAINE LUI, LAINEY GOSSIP | LEANDRA MEDINE, MAN REPELLER

Wear the same polish as your mom? Today’s vintage Mother’s Day photo tribute comes from a lady who’s done just that: nail polish titan, Essie Weingarten! Read on to discover how sharing beauty rituals inspired her brand…

Today, we’re going inside the bag belonging to another of Canada’s PR power players: Natasha Koifman. President of her namesake firm, NKPR, Koifman heads up a team of 30 to work on blockbuster accounts like Stila, Essie, Kiehl’s and RACHEL Rachel Roy as well as one of the favourite gifting lounges during the Toronto International Film Festival, the IT Lounge. She’s been featured on The Coveteur and she’s also been known to host some pretty bangin’ parties at her beautiful North Toronto home. For that, we’d like to give her an everlasting shout out.

Let’s explore! »

Essie Weingarten steps off the elevator on the penthouse level of New York’s Mondrian SoHo hotel and is greeted by a wall covered floor to ceiling with framed photos of the most iconic nail polish shades she’s created over the past 30 years. “Oh my God, this is amazing!” she says, marvelling at the tributes to colours like “Mademoiselle,” “Wicked” and “Chinchilly” that her team has surprised her with as part of a dinner in her honour. As the founder of one of the most well-known brands in the category—seriously, walk into any nail bar, particularly in Manhattan, and you’ll see that her bottles dominate the shelves—Weingarten, originally from Queens, has much to celebrate. Not only did L’Oréal acquire her company in 2010, providing distribution of Essie to even more countries, but her colours are worn by everyone from the Queen (Her Majesty is fond of “Ballet Slippers”) to Lady Gaga (she paired “Merino Cool” with her infamous meat dress).

We’ve all been there: Just when you think you’ve worked out the perfect beauty routine, something changes. It could be the season, it could be age, or it could just be time to try something new. But when you’re used to your tried-and-true favourites, how do you decide what makes another product worth the switch? This week, we have the answer to five questions that ask just that—from exfoliation troubles to curling iron frustrations, we’re here to help you make the switch.

Read on for all the answers! »

In need of a beauty fix? Email us at beautyfix@fashionmagazine.com.

Cotton candy colours and oversized lace flowers were all over Louis Vuitton’s Spring 2012 collection, as well as many a trend report. But unlike other delicate prints, Louis Vuitton’s take on femininity seems almost animated: pale shades of saccharine colours get a bit of bounce with large lace eyelets. As inspiration for Nail Corner, the pastels were right in line with many new nail polish shades—it was definitely hard to choose just five colours to use!

See the pastel Louis Vuitton lace manicure! »

See our behind-the-scenes gallery from Ruffian »
Learn how to do the gold foil mani! »

In the final days of Toronto Fashion Week, one thing was starting to become very apparent: deep red nails are going to be huge for fall. Chloé Comme Parris and Pink Tartan both used the same maroon Essie shade—“Wicked”—and similar colours had been popping up at international shows all season, including Ferragamo, Jenny Packham and Bill Blass. Rachel Roy leaned towards an aubergine-tinted red, while Yigal Azrouel dubbed his shade of choice “pinot noir.” At L.A.M.B., burgundy polish covered just the moon, leaving the rest of the nail bare. And where red appears, gold seems to follow: the Toronto shows for Jeremy Laing and Ruffian paired both colours on the same nail, whereas Marchesa alternated all-burgundy (Deborah Lippmann’s “Single Ladies”) and all-gold manicures down the runway.

See our full backstage beauty gallery! »
View the full collection »
See all Toronto Fashion Week coverage »

Moody and dramatic, the inspiration for makeup at Chloé Comme Parris was a 1920s aesthetic mixed with an “if you had a lot of money to dress up in black grungy clothes” sentiment. Grace Lee, lead makeup artist for Maybelline New York Canada, started by slightly lightening the tone of each model’s face with Maybelline Fit Me Liquid Foundation for a fresh, porcelain effect. Then dark purple eyeshadow—Maybelline Eye Studio Color Tattoo 24Hr Cream Gel Shadow in “Pomegranate Punk”—was applied to the eye, followed by Maybelline Color Sensational Lipstick in “Mauve-ulous.” Both were layered in an almost translucent manner to give the eyes a hollowed out (think Clara Bow) look. Brown mascara kept lashes soft, however the lips were fully saturated with a rich coat of the same plum shade Lee used on the eyes.

Floral prints were in full bloom in our spring trend report and given that we seem to be experiencing the balmiest March weather on record, a floral manicure was a natural choice for this week’s Nail Corner. From Marni and Mary Katrantzou to Erdem and Prabal Gurung, flowers were bright and best done in matchy-matchy all-over arrangements. And, because we’re right in the middle of Toronto Fashion Week, it seemed appropriate to seek inspiration from one of our favourite TFW Spring 2012 shows: Denis Gagnon.

Read on and feel the flower power! »

Without a doubt, one of the most inventive beauty looks from Milan was at Prada. Those eyes! Style.com called it a “tricolour layering effort on lids”—shades of deep blue, shimmering purple, electric orange, and greasy black all stacked together. Despite how exciting the Prada look is, it’s extremely editorial and not so much a “try this at home!” style. So rather than toning it down for the face, I took the vibrant makeup to my nails. After all, six colours in one manicure? Totally doable.

See the Prada Fall 2012 makeup mani »

A few hours after the Erdem show ended on Monday, pictures of the lacy, camouflage-esque floral print started popping up across Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. It’s always interesting to see which elements of a collection achieve viral (for lack of a better word) status on social media sites and go on to become ubiquitous within months—Miu Miu’s swallows, anyone? So, in effort to start canonizing Erdem’s vibrant print, I took the Fall 2012 design to my nails.

See the Erdem manicure! »

It’s no secret that we’re huge fans of inventive manicures (check out our DIY Nails video series and Nail Corner column for further proof) and without a doubt the best inspiration comes from the runways. It’s worth pointing out that nude nails—that is, sheer taupe shades in barely-there colours—continued to dominate in New York. However, despite the abundance of one-colour manicures, CND, M.A.C, and Essie produced some very exciting nail-art designs for Fall 2012.

See our top manicure picks from NYFW! »