FASHION Magazine

Oh, Rihanna! We were starting to get worried about her, but this look from Wednesday’s Battleship photocall has alleviated all concern. The singer—who has a starring role in the board game-turned-film—looked positively glowing with luminous skin and bouncy, blown out curls. While she’s been rocking this blond hair for the last few weeks, we have to admit that the intentional toupee-like crown of dark brown roots are (pardon the pun) growing on us. With the heavy fringe, she almost looks like Nicole Richie, no?

Aside from the excitement of the movie itself, obviously the best thing from The Hunger Games are the crazy manicures that Effie Trinket wears throughout. Unfortunately, only of a few are available to view close up (come on, Lions Gate Films, give fans a full gallery of nail art screen grabs!) but to our delight, one of the more intricate designs was shared by Elizabeth Banks—who of course, played the role of Effie. These Hunger Games nails include the soon-to-be-everywhere trend of caviar manicures—that is, manis with tiny beads that add playful texture—and thus, inspiration for this week’s Nail Corner was born!

Read on and find out how to do nails like Effie! »

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.

Elections are big business across the border, meaning that the rich and famous are quick to publicly support their choice candidates. But when you’re Barack Obama, you get some pretty fashionable names—one look at Obama’s fundraising shop and you’d think that American political merch was the latest H&M or Target collaboration! Jason Wu, Prabal Gurung, Marc Jacobs and Alexander Wang are just a few of the many designers who have created official custom campaign items, from printed sweaters to tote bags to…nail polish?

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

Clean, simple and slightly androgynous was the idea for hair and makeup at Jeremy Laing. “It’s masculine, but with feminine tones to contrast the gender-bender look,” explained CoverGirl makeup pro Greg Wencel. Eyebrows were defined with a brow pencil, but the desired effect was for a full, soft brow—not a harsh or bold statement. Eyes were equally soft, with a light wash of CoverGirl Intense ShadowBlast in “Beige Blaze” and a dusting of warm eyeshadow on top. In a very Downton Abbey sort of move, no mascara was applied—this further impressed the idea of a masculine, androgynous look.

This week’s Nail Corner steals inspiration straight from the pages of our Spring trend report: a delightful mixed-prints look from Carven’s Spring 2012 collection. The bright-pink and lime-meets-chartreuse chevron pattern has a hand-woven quality to it, with soft lines and organic shapes. When translated to a manicure, the prints vary on each nail, allowing them to mix across each finger.

Check out the mixed prints mani! »

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! »

Go backstage with us to do nails for Lucian Matis! » View the full collection » See all Toronto Fashion Week coverage » My obsession with everything nails has been well-documented over the last few months, so you can only imagine the backflips of joy that occurred when top manicurist Leeanne Colley called, asking me […]

The post TFW backstage beauty: We join the Tips Nail Bar team and go behind-the-scenes to do nails at Lucian Matis appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

See more backstage pictures from Chanel’s Fall 2012 show »

Having thoroughly fallen in love with their gemstone brows, it only took a day to find something else to obsess over from Chanel’s Fall 2012 beauty offerings. Are you ready? It’s “Frenzy,” a pale mushroom shade that’s due on counters this fall. Just when we were about to claim exhaustion over neutral nail polishes, the Chanel effect hits. Hard.

See all of nail stylist Lisa Logan’s behind-the-scenes pictures! »

The hotly anticipated Haute Mess editorial from Vogue Italia dropped today and it’s a glitter lover and nail-art fanatic’s dream. Photographed by Steven Meisel, the shoot includes some of the most familiar faces in modeling. But thanks to makeup artist Pat McGrath and hairstylist Jimmy Paul, it takes a keen eye to identify Joan Smalls, Jessica Stam, Karen Elson, Abbey Lee Kershaw, Lindsey Wixson, Daphne Groeneveld, Guinevere van Seenus, and Coco Rocha underneath the wigs, gemstones, and pencil-thin eyebrows.

While the abundance of brightly dyed furs on almost every runway was tempting inspiration for Nail Corner, the colour blocking at Céline’s Fall 2012 presentation made for a much better manicure. Mixing horizontal and diagonal stripes, this design matches the asymmetrical pattern of an undeniably stunning Céline overcoat.

See the Céline colour-block mani! »

Help! I went to repurchase my favourite product and found out it’s no longer available! Is there any way to find it again?
The feeling when you’ve polished off a perfect makeup product can be sad—it’s the loss of a true love! For me it was a pink blush I found while in university: it was a perfect pretty fuchsia that had an almost-blue metallic texture under the light, and I used it right to the very end. If only there was a reserve of products that we could search through to try to find our beloved items again! But I digress.