FASHION Magazine

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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.

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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.

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.

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.

In our DIY Nails series, we take the average manicure to the next level by including an element of nail art. Runway nails are often a great source of inspiration and our beauty director Lesa Hannah is obviously smitten with those created for Prabal Gurung’s. Earlier this year, we taught you how to recreate his […]

The post DIY nails: Recreating the Fall 2011 Prabal Gurung textural black on white runway nail appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

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Last night’s Lucian Matis show was an exhibition of super-bright embellishments worn atop sheer champagne bases but, if you ask us, the bona-fide delights were in the digits. Spotted on the runway was yet another certifiably insane—as in amazing—nail art design by Leeanne Colley from Tips Nail Bar, Toronto’s infamous cool zone for manicures. Before the show started, we snuck backstage to preview the custom almond-shaped nails decorated in a vibrant watercolour pattern. “We did a base of Revlon‘s “White on White” nail enamel, then CND‘s “Anchor Blue” and “Electric Orange” and Hard Candy‘s “Yellow and Splendid.” We dabbed a pin-sized amount of each colour onto the nail using a tiny brush, then dropped a smidgen of acetone on top to make it disperse and look transparent. Basically, we made all the colours run into each other,” Colley explained. Well, basically, Colley just inspired us to ornament our nails with similar show-stopping designs.

The TIFF countdown is officially in full swing! With less than a week remaining until the city’s red carpets roll out, we’ve selected our top five essential luxury treatments for pre-TIFF beauty prep: not just for the stars but for those who are lucky to share their airspace.

Face: The Organic Oxygen Infusion Facial at the Windsor Arms Hotel
The vitamins, minerals, and amino acids used in The Organic Oxygen Infusion Facial at the Windsor Arms Hotel were cultivated in the Alps (we’re guessing the fancy Swiss, French, or Italian ones) to be certified organic and chemical free. Back in Toronto, the pasteurized nutrients are blended with an icy blast of medical-grade oxygen and massaged into your skin using a special O2 Oxygen Machine. The gratification of plumped up fine lines and glowing skin is instant and should last about a week.
($195, 416-934-6031 to book)

In our DIY Nails series, we take the average manicure to the next level by including an element of nail art. Last time around, we taught you how to replicate the nude-and-neon look from the Spring 2011 Prabal Gurung show. In today’s episode, we’re teaching you how to perfect the empty-moon nail. Trust us, it’s […]

The post DIY nails: How to perfect the retro-inspired empty-moon nail appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

For fall, Line sent out their signature knits on what co-designer Jennifer Wells described as European settlers from the 1930s. With each model wearing a skull cap and/or headband, the hair was intended to look “wavy and distressed, not too perfect, like they’ve been traveling,” she explained. To that end, lead hair artist Eric del Monaco created bend in the hair using a similar technique he used at Joe Fresh earlier in the week: wrapping sections with a large barrel curling iron from midway down the shaft. A dab of Studio Line Mineral FX Modeling Gel-Cream was then rubbed to give it a slightly weathered look.

“The makeup has a cold feeling,” said M.A.C Cosmetics Senior Artist Melissa Gibson backstage at Greta Constantine on Friday night. Fitting since, “backstage” was actually the frigid basement of the Audi dealership. With references that included Tibetan children and Tilda Swinton in Orlando, Gibson created what she called “almost a non makeup, but there’s kind of this wind burnt lower cheek.” In addition, pictures of Renaissance women that she found online as part of her research compelled her to put “some redness around the eye,” but was quick to disassociate it from the kind one develops from too much partying. “It just gives a pure look to the face.” To mimic the “really ruddy, great skin” of the Tibetan tots, Gibson mixed M.A.C Cream Colour Blush in “Premeditated” and “Movie Star Red” and deepened it with “Root”. On lids, she applied M.A.C Eye Shadow in “Coral” and “Orange”, layered it with “Sushi Flower” and softened it with M.A.C Mineralize Skin Finish to make it look more “fleshy”.  Lashes were left bare, and lips muted out with a touch of concealer.

Even by our own standards, nail frenzy at the FASHION offices has reached a new high with the sudden mania for the half-moon manicure. This polish option, where the curve at the bottom of the nail is painted a different colour, was popular in the 1940s and has seen a resurgence in recent years as a favourite of Dita Von Teese and as a runway staple at shows for Ruffian, Vena Cava, Thakoon and Christian Dior.

Last night, we gathered at Tips Nail Bar (844a Danforth Ave., 416-405-8477) for an office baby shower and were introduced to a take on the moon that incorporates another big nail trend: Glitter.

It’s been eight days since my most recent manicure—courtesy of the amazingly talented Rita Remark at Tips Nail Bar (844a Danforth Ave., Toronto, 416-405-8477, tipsnailbar.ca)—and dammit, it is still going strong. Granted, I don’t wash dishes, but I did paint my dining room and had to scratch a ton of remnants off my hands. Plus, it’s a dark shade (a true charcoal grey by China Glaze called “Recycle”), which as we all know, reveals the slightest chip instantly. Behold, the dry manicure, the only conclusion I can draw for this feat of longevity.