Golden gifts - makeup, perfume for the holidays

What to buy the discerning makeup maven, whether it's someone on your list - or yourself? Try these limited-edition offerings that are ready to party, have serious counter appeal and make striking keepsakes, too.


Gold standard: For Marni's signature fragrance, designer Consuelo Castiglioni and nose Daniela (Roche) Andrier eschewed the usual floral and fruity formulations in favor of a spicy, woody scent laced with rose oil and incense. Only 300 bottles of Marni Metallic eau de parfum (4.1 ounces) were made, and each is numbered and comes in a white and gold gift box. $255,

Shadow play: MAC goes graphic with its festive Stroke of Midnight palettes, which come in warm, cool and smoky combos of five eye shades ($39.50, pictured) and three eye shades plus two lip colors, an eye pencil and iridescent pressed powder ($49.50). www.maccosmetics.com

Smoke and mirrors: Warm up those lids with 10 sumptuous yet subtle shades ranging from beigey golds to bronzey browns. Clarins' The Essentials Collectors eye-makeup palette comes with a lush, dual-tipped wooden brush, and a how-to diagram. As a bonus, the palette is made from eco-friendly materials, and Clarins has partnered with PurProject to help preserve the Kuntanawa culture and ecosystem in Brazil. $45,

When Novelty Is the Lure Makeup Brands Create Demand With Limited Editions Like RiRi

Annie Jimenez, 26, who works at the T-Mobile store on West 34th Street, was the first of about 70 women waiting to buy Rihanna’s RiRi Hearts collection for MAC cosmetics at Macy’s Herald Square one morning his fall.

 “I’ve been a fan of Rihanna forever,” she said. “But I’m also just a fan of makeup. I collect lipsticks.”

Ms. Jimenez had missed out on MAC’s two previous RiRi releases (“I spent two hours online just loading my cart and by then everything I wanted was sold out,” she said) and was determined to walk away with all the lipstick colors.

Also in line was Samone Rogers, 27, a lawyer in Manhattan. Less of a Rihanna devotee, she said she knew that the pop star was probably the reason for all the hype about the makeup. That and the items were available for just a short time.

“I’ve never stood in line for makeup before,” she said. “I wouldn’t do it unless it was limited edition. And actually because they are, they’ll make good gifts, too.”

As in art and fashion, releasing short runs of a product, often featuring the imprimatur of a celebrity or special packaging, like RiRi’s metallic pink tubes, has become a tactic of the cosmetics industry, one with little risk in proportion to the potential public relations payoff. If the item appeals, the venture can create excitement akin to the debut of a new iPhone. Sometimes the products are sold for many times their list price on eBay. If an item really appeals, it might become part of the permanent collection.


 If it fizzles — well, there wasn’t much of it made to begin with.

“The landscape has changed dramatically,” said James Gager, the creative director of MAC, who has been with the company for 14 years.

In 2003, when the company first dabbled in limited editions, one of the first collaborations was with the Japanese streetwear brand A Bathing Ape, Mr. Gager recalled. The brand was mostly known for men’s clothing, so “we took it as a kind of challenge,” he said. MAC released a lip conditioner and blot film wrapped in Bathing Ape’s black-and-white camouflage print.

Another early collaboration involved the cross-dressing comedian Eddie Izzard and a red glitter lipstick, which reflected the brand’s reputation for diverse takes on beauty, Mr. Gager said.

Now, MAC may be known more for a seemingly unlimited number of limited editions; this year they have included products designed around Archie’s Girls (featuring the comic-book characters), Antonio Lopez (honoring the late fashion illustrator), the Year of the Snake and vaguer themes like orange and baking.

Limited editions from other brands are crowding shelves as well, especially at this time of year, when prefabricated gift sets beckon panicked last-minute shoppers. In its holiday collection, Dior offers extravagant gilded round nail polish bottles ($26) and bulbous gold lipstick tubes ($36).

Whatever the season, more companies are replacing the notion that a customer will be loyal to one shade her whole life (think Grandma and her Cherries in the Snow) with one in which constant novelty is queen.

Dolce & Gabbana’s cosmetic line, introduced in 2009, has been built around limited editions, said Luigi Feola, vice president for luxury products at P & G Prestige, which licenses the line. Released twice annually, they help draw in new customers, he said, citing the example of the Animalier bronzer, a leopard-spotted edition that became the fourth-best-selling item for the beauty collection in 2011. Dolce & Gabbana found that 65 percent of customers who bought the bronzer were new to the brand, Mr. Feola said.

For other companies, like NARS, limited editions are a way to titillate their loyal fans. NARS has long released limited-run colors each makeup season whose purpose “is really to be fashionable,” said the company’s chief executive, Louis Desazars.

The company has also collaborated with the estates of Andy Warhol and the photographer Guy Bourdin. François Nars, the company’s founder, said that he had long been obsessed with the photographer.

“I love the decadence and the insanity of the makeup in Guy’s pictures,” Mr. Nars said. Particularly, “Guy liked pink skin. I think he liked the fragility of it. And for me, I love blush.”

Some of his more-extreme ideas for limited editions, though, have run aground.

“From a manufacturing point of view, it can be very difficult with our vendors to get François’s vision across,” Mr. Desazars said. But the effort is worth it, he said, not for marketing’s sake but because “it’s stretching the color palette” and “speaking to the consumer about their passions outside of the brand.”

Even if companies claim lofty goals, there’s no denying the potential business value of a seemingly hard-to-get set.

“Limited-edition cosmetics are like beauty’s answer to fast fashion,” said Ann Colville Somma, 36, a beauty blogger. “Women are trained to come back to retailers like Zara and H & M on a weekly basis to see what’s new. Beauty’s usual cycle doesn’t allow for that, so that’s where these one-offs come in.”

Ms. Colville Somma is not immune to the charms of short runs. She collects Chanel’s Le Vernis limited-edition nail polishes.

“Chanel always tweaks the color just enough so it’s unique or trendsetting,” she said. Her recent favorites include Peridot, a color she described as “beetle green,” and Black Pearl, an iridescent black.

“Especially if you’re on social media, you do your nails and you share it,” she said. “It has that buzz factor. You’ll get a ton of likes, and you’ll get it for a lot less money than something from the runway.”

And, Ms. Colville Somma said of her collected bottles, “They look great all kind of lined up together.”

he Beautiful Faces of Makeup Artist Pat McGrath

MANY OF TODAY'S leading makeup trends come from a woman who wears very little of it herself. In fact, Pat McGrath, one of the fashion and beauty world's most sought-after artists, wears very little color at all, preferring all-black ensembles whether she's backstage at a runway show or holding court at a fashion event. Which isn't to say she isn't colorful. Within the multibillion-dollar cosmetics industry, McGrath, the global creative-design director for Procter & Gamble, PG -0.83% is something of a legend—creating new looks on the runway and then distilling them into innovative products that find their way into cosmetics aisles and beauty counters around the world.

Makeup artist Pat McGrath is WSJ. Magazine's Fashion Innovator of the Year.

Just how in demand is she? Supermodel Linda Evangelista puts it like this: McGrath is the only makeup artist who can cause a job to fall apart if she's unavailable. Most of the time a shoot is canceled because they can't get a date on the photographer. "Sometimes, it's the model," she says. "But I've seen things get canceled because they can't get Pat. That's how important she is."

Photographer Steven Meisel rarely, if ever, works without her, and top fashion houses—including Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, Christian Dior, CDI.FR +0.54% Louis Vuitton and Gucci—all count on her for runway shows and campaigns. Self-trained and charismatic, McGrath has become a muse to photographers, a mother figure to models and one of the fashion world's most inventive talents.

"We go on these incredible journeys," McGrath says of her creative process. "It's always something different. It might be Blade Runner or a Fellini movie or Bette Davis —I could lose it over Bette Davis's lashes. Whether it's the Byzantine cathedral for Dolce & Gabbana or the modern film noir look we did for Prada, with the wet hair and undone makeup, it's always an incredible journey."

McGrath's energy is renowned in the industry. Evangelista recalls visiting Meisel at Pier 59 Studios one day while he was shooting a fashion spread featuring an exotic dancer. McGrath was in the center of the action, throwing dollar bills at the dancer and egging her on. "She's directing, she's correcting, she's collaborating," says Evangelista. "She's part of the whole process. A lot of what she does is not in the makeup chair."


McGrath, who is in her forties, grew up in Northampton, a small town north of London, with her "fashion obsessed" mother, Jean McGrath, a Jamaican immigrant. Together, they would watch classic films (everything from Blonde Venus to Taxi Driver) and scour the local thrift shops. On Friday nights they trolled makeup counters for new products. For Pat—the youngest of three children—these mother-daughter trips were mandatory. "I was hothoused into the industry without even realizing it. Every Friday night, she would take me to the store. We would look for pigments that worked on black skin. There might be one color a month. She'd say, 'That's it! There's a blue that works on us, it's not ashy.' " McGrath's mother mixed her own colors and creams, which is how McGrath still works today. "And I'd be standing behind her weeping, because I didn't want to be there. Then it ended up being my career."

After completing her A-levels, she moved to London in the early 1980s, just as the city was experiencing an explosion of colorful club kids. "I was obsessed with the New Romantics, such as the Blitz Kids, Boy George, Spandau Ballet: My friends and I would stalk them down along the King's Road," she says. Once, when she was loitering outside the Radio 1 studios, a DJ from the station noticed her unusual makeup: She'd used a red lipstick on her eyes and cheeks to create a dewy, rosy glow. "She said, 'Why don't you do my makeup like that?' " McGrath recalls. "And I said, 'That's a real job?' "


McGrath never went to beauty school or trained professionally—the DJ suggested a makeup course, but it turned out to be too expensive. Instead, she learned by trial and error, often experimenting on her own face. (The trick of applying lipstick to eyes and cheeks, which she popularized in the '90s, was something she stumbled upon as a young girl, she says, "because stealing eye shadows from my mother's drawer was difficult, but I could snatch a couple of lipsticks and she wouldn't notice they were missing." This technique later became the basis for her liquid eyeliners.) Some of her earliest jobs were as an assistant to British editor Kim Bowen on underground fashion shoots around London for magazines like Blitz and i-D, where she later became beauty director. "I did whatever they told me to: sweep up, get coffee, hold a light. I was just so happy to be on those shoots and participating in the creative process."

It was model Amber Valletta who, in the early '90s, told Meisel about a new makeup artist she thought he'd love. Valletta said McGrath was talented and had a wicked sense of humor. Sure enough, when Meisel met McGrath in 1996, the two hit it off. His first impression? "She needed a new wig. And I knew I had found a soul mate." The duo went on to create a series of iconic images for American and Italian Vogue, introducing bold new colors to what was then a conservative cosmetics market in the late '90s and dreaming up radical new beauty regimens into the new millennium. Meisel says their experiences together on set could inspire a miniseries. "Every day is complete insanity," he says. "From strippers during breakfast, to wheelchairs during lunch, to screaming and fighting all day long, we are constantly tripping and falling over each other."

Naughty Or Nice: Holiday Beauty Tips From Celebrity Makeup Artist Erica Gonzalez

'Tis the season for fabulosity! Holiday parties always offer up the perfect opportunity to debut a new look. But the questions is, are you more naughty or nice? We've tapped celebrity makeup artist Erica Gonzalez to help us all figure out which side of the beauty festivities we fall on. First up, Team Nice. Going the good girl route? Check out Erica's makeup tips in our Q&A below.

So Erica, what colors/textures are going to be big for this festive holiday season beauty wise if you wanna keep things sweet?

All holiday makeup should feel glamorous and playful, but rosy cheeks, and nude lips are the way to go for a nice sweet holiday look.  I recommend Cargo's Water Resistant Blush ($26). This long-lasting formula is sweat-, heat-, and tear-proof. It's also packed with light-diffusing minerals that give skin an effortless glow.

What should we play up for a sweet, daytime holiday look?  Lips, eyes? OK to do both?
Shiny lips will amp up an everyday look in seconds. Try nude gloss such as MAC Cremesheen Glass in Boy Bait ($20).  It's a innocently sexy lip finish that fuses the creamy, sheen-filled nature of Cremesheen Lipstick with the shine of M·A·C Lipglass and won't feel sticky.

For eyes, I create brightness by dabbing the inner corners with a cream highlighter or brushing a light, shimmering shade underneath the lower lash line. Also, for a sweet daytime makeup look, try a silver or blue eyeliner. Not only will it brighten your look, but it also pairs perfectly with another wintertime hue. I love the Limited Edition Let's Meet In Paris Eye Palette by Cargo Cosmetics ($39). A must-have for the holidays! Choose from 12 metallic highly pigmented eye shades that work as both shadow and liner.

How do we step our makeup game up from the ordinary to extraordinary?  Any simple tricks?

For radiant skin, try mixing a drop of luminizer into your foundation for a flawless glow. Try Tarte's Amazonian Clay Shimmering Powder ($30). It's an easy-to-use pressed powder that adds a customizable, luminous glow to cheeks, brow bones and décolletage. I also suggest trying Motives Gold Liquid Shimmer ($15). Perfect for a sweet holiday look, you can play up cheeks, eyes, and also hide imperfections by deflecting and diffusing light.

Any shades or techniques to avoid? Why?

Play with makeup fearlessly and have the confidence to try new bold trends such as a full brow. Gone are the days of the pencil thin, over-plucked brows. Keep a nice arch, but let the natural shape of your brow really frame the rest of your face. For dark haired people, go one or two shades lighter than your hair color. For light haired people go two shades darker than your hair color.

What celebrity inspiration do you think of for a nice, sweet holiday look?

Katie Holmes- her makeup style is always soft and beautiful- perfect for a daytime holiday look.

Expert tip and some celebrity inspiration to boot, thanks Erica! Look out for expert tips on a Naughty holiday look from Gonzalez soon!

"No Makeup November" Movement Questions Standards of Beauty

The past month has seen a plethora of beauty-related controversies, from celebrity airbrushing and Instagram retouching to makeup mastery, and in protest of the trend, Christian association Rave Ministries wants us all to go back to basics. Rave, a religious group for young women, has announced their latest campaign, “No Makeup November,” encouraging women everywhere to question why, exactly, they use cosmetics.

“No Makeup November” encourages women to ditch their makeup and go natural, at least for the next nine days. Despite overt religious motivation behind the group’s initiative, there are other, less ecclesiastical reasons impelling Rave. According to the group’s website, American women spend a staggering $12,000 annually on beauty-related goods. However, Rave was careful to emphasize that “No Makeup November” does not seek to topple the makeup industry or eradicate the practice altogether, saying:

    This campaign is in no way an anti-makeup campaign, because let it be known that it is not the makeup we are battling. Instead, it is a culture we are trying to fight.

The initiative echoes similar proclamations by Lady Gaga and Milla Jovovich in recent months, which call attention to our culture’s tendency to erase facial flaws and standardize unusual features. Rave claims that in makeup usage, the real problem occurs when women do not see beauty or value in their appearance, and attempt to mask their features due to a deficiency in self esteem. The organization said:

    It is our hope that women everywhere can see themselves as a true masterpiece intricately and purposely woven together by the Creator of the Universe.

Whether or not you believe in an intelligent creator is actually irrelevant to the crux of the movement; the central issue is the prevalence of women who don’t believe in their own beauty because of impossible, culturally-imposed beauty standards. So prevalent is the instinct to conform to a single standard of beauty that the process begins as early as elementary school, from the misery of braces in pursuit of the perfect smile, to the use of injectable chemicals to freeze a face into perpetual youth. Clearly, we have an obsession with a very specific ideal of beauty, but one which is ultimately unachievable as well as potentially unhealthy.

Rave’s movement is making its debut at a particularly prime moment thanks to a handful of brave celebrities and cultural pundits who are encouraging the self-image to the forefront. Tina Fey, an authority on being a woman in a male-dominated world, paints a vivid and unsettling image of our culture’s perfect woman in her book Bossypants. Fey determined that the paragon of beauty is, much like Jim Carrey’s collage of magazine photos pasted together to look like his true love in The Truman Show, an amalgamation of traits which typically do not occur naturally in the same woman. Fey says:

    Now every girl is supposed to have Caucasian blue eyes, full Spanish lips, a classic button nose, hairless Asian skin with a California tan, a Jamaican dance hall ass, long Swedish legs, small Japanese feet, the abs of a lesbian gym owner, the hips of a nine-year-old boy, the arms of Michelle Obama, and doll tits.

Quite the laundry list of expectations for the average woman. And how does one achieve this impossible ideal? If you go the non-surgical route and don’t have a job which allows you to spend five hours a day at the gym, makeup offers a quick fix. As Rave reiterates, however, the issue is not with makeup itself, but with the culture which hails makeup as a solution to what is deemed ugly, as opposed to a form of empowerment meant to make the wearer more confident.

The beauty industry isn’t all bad, though (which is good, since, you know, we’re here on this Fashion & Beauty vertical). Legendary makeup artist Bobbi Brown offers a healthier solution to the trend towards uniformity: use makeup to highlight what is beautiful on each individual face instead of wielding it as a tool of conformity. Her books, including Bobbi Brown Teenage Beauty: Everything You Need to Look Pretty, Natural, Sexy, and Awesome, emphasize that everyone has a unique look, and should celebrate what separates them from others by using makeup to play up individuality.

However, Brown’s approach is still not a universal attitude adopted by makeup industry and its major players, made all the more complicated by the recent prevalence of beauty tutorials designed to make the consumer look like a particular character or celebrity. Case in point, if you type “Angelina Jolie Makeup” into the YouTube search bar (or any major celebrity, for that matter), a shocking number of search results are presented, each featuring a makeup artist who becomes unrecognizable after contouring, plumping, plucking, and covering up their features.

What we can glean from both the No Makeup November campaign as well as the airbrush/retouch/makeover standard is that there are negative psychological ramifications behind these unrealistic beauty expectations. In other words, our culture tells women that we aren’t good enough as-is.

Makeup can be an incredibly amusing and confidence-boosting practice, but when cosmetics take away all traces of someone’s unique identity, it becomes an exercise in negativity. So instead of using makeup to cover up the negative and fix problem areas, try picking out your favorite features and accentuate the positive. As the wise Oscar Wilde once bluntly said, “Be yourself; everyone else is already taken”.

Know the art of makeup removal

London: When makeup is removed in an incorrect manner, it leads to irritation on the face and chances of premature ageing and uneven complexion rise. So use face wipes to remove makeup, but do it the right without causing any damage to the skin.

"Using a face wipe is a great way to make sure you cleanse and tone, removing makeup at the same time to ensure your pores aren't blocked," a website quoted facialist Teresa Tarmey as saying.

She also said that wiping haphazardly before going to bed can remove makeup, but learning how to wipe without stretching your skin and minimizing pressure will reduce any damaging effects.

"Skin is the foundation for looking beautiful, so taking care of it is crucial. Removing makeup in the wrong way can not only irritate the skin but promote premature aging, causing fine lines and uneven complexion," said Tarmey.

Follow the following makeup removing steps shared by Tarmey:

Gently remove makeup from your forehead first. Wipe it from the middle of the forehead to the left and then back to the middle and to the right.

Then move on to your eyes. Wrap the wipe around your finger, exposing the other side and gently sweep it across the lids towards the outer corners. Use your ring finger for this to avoid applying more pressure on your delicate skin.

For your cheeks, repeatedly sweep the wipe upwards towards your ears. The upward movement will not cause skin to sag.

The makeup test: Six area high school girls set out find if wearing cosmetics makes a difference in how people treated them

Confidence. Enhancing natural beauty. Feeling more put-together. Experimenting. These are all reasons some area teen girls give for wearing makeup. So the statistic from the American Economic Review that women who wear makeup to work earn up to 30 percent more than their bare-faced peers shouldn’t be too much of a shock.

A study reported on by the New York Times in 2011 found that wearing makeup “increases people’s perceptions of a woman’s likability, her competence and (provided she doesn’t overdo it) her trustworthiness.”

Six area high school girls decided to put that theory to the test in a four-week experiment, curious to see what people’s reactions toward them would be in one of the most look-centered places around: high school. The participants went sans makeup for two weeks before switching back to their normal makeup-wearing routine, keeping track of people’s reactions, comments and how they themselves felt about it throughout the course of the experiment.

After reading the article, “I found that I was looking at teachers and students at school and how people interacted with them, and I found that the students who were considered the most ‘trouble’ in class wore really dark and thick makeup,” said Alyssa Kramer, a senior at Starpoint High School. “Many teachers were very plain with their makeup. However, the ones with a more polished makeup look were the ‘favorite’ teachers.’ ”

Fellow NeXt correspondent Melanie Izard, a junior at Sweet Home High School, was the only participant who did not already wear makeup, explaining that she was “surprised that makeup boosts confidence. I never wear makeup. When I was younger my older sister would put some on me sometimes, but I would always feel ridiculous, not confident.”

The reactions the girls received were much more positive when they wore makeup. Alyssa described the first two weeks as “uncomfortable.”

“Going to school without makeup was something I haven’t done since seventh grade,” she said. “People are very used to my look. So when I got to school, I got a lot of double takes, and ‘Are you sick? Did you oversleep?’ ”

“When I didn’t wear makeup, I felt different ... I didn’t feel as confident in myself when I was walking into school,” said Kallie Olear, a sophomore at Wilson High School.

Melanie noticed a big difference in how people treated her when she was wearing makeup.

“A lot of teachers and administrators came up to me, just to talk,” Melanie said. “I’m not saying I’m normally unapproachable,” but it seemed they approached her more than they usually do, and “the makeup might have had something to do with it.”

Jenna Schlosser, a sophomore at Wilson High School, said that she had started getting closer with more popular girls in the weeks prior to the experiment, but said, “once I stopped, I obviously stopped getting comments on my makeup ... and they started ignoring me if I smiled at them in the hallways.” The girls, she said, were much friendlier after she switched back to wearing makeup.

Being a cheerleader, Jenna skipped makeup during a football game. “I felt like everyone was overlooking me,” she said.

Another NeXt correspondent, Elyse Cinquino, 15, a sophomore at Kenmore East High School, and Sara Coykendall, a sophomore at Lewiston-Porter High School, were the only ones who didn’t perceive any major differences in people’s reactions toward them.

“Other than one person asking me why I wasn’t wearing makeup on the first day of the experiment, there was no change ... I was expecting that there would be some sort of difference, but there wasn’t,” Sara said.

“I may not have received feedback similar to what the others got because I don’t wear a lot of makeup, and it’s very natural,” Elyse said. “I think I’ll end up wearing makeup less than before ... if anything, I think my self-confidence has increased.”

None of the girls mentioned anything about boys’ reactions. So does such a staggering statistic have anything to do with sexism?

“I think that these reactions are sexist because people believe that girls should always be wearing makeup and that they only look good with makeup on,” Jenna said.

“I think that those are stereotypes that are true with many people, but not everyone thinks that way, even though I could understand how they could,” said Troy Dickenson, a sophomore at Wilson High School, reacting to Jenna’s comment. “I think that the real problem is that girls don’t think of themselves as pretty without having makeup on, not as much because of a guy’s reaction.”

“I don’t really think makeup has that big of an influence on it, but I think it’s the equivalent of a suit,” said Bryan Bedolla, also a sophomore at Wilson High School.

Alyssa agreed with Troy, and mentioned that her “business teacher said that most advertisements for makeup make women feel inferior so they’ll buy it and go for a ‘natural’ look, even though they’re putting $12 worth of makeup on their faces.”

For me, the purpose of makeup “is to enhance your features, not cover up things or make you look prettier,” Elyse said.

“Parents need to set an age for when their daughters wear makeup, and they need to show them how to put it on,” Alyssa said. “The girls all agreed that the earliest age should be 13.

“I still believe that girls and women should be able to be confident with their natural selves. Society ... puts a huge emphasis on appearance, and I feel that that is wrong. Makeup shouldn’t be used for popularity, it should be used for confidence and self-positivity,” Alyssa added.

“I know that people, especially the ones who know me the most and are closest to me, treat me the way they do because of who I am, not because of how I look or if I wear makeup or not,” Sara said.

So will Melanie, the sole non-makeup-wearer continue to wear makeup? She said that she was glad to have learned how to put it on, as it “took about a week of practice to get down a look I like, and I now know for future reference how to do it. I’ll probably wear makeup on some days, but I definitely don’t want to wear it every day.”

“The most important thing to remember is that people should know you for you, not your makeup,” Sara said.

“My advice to other teenage girls would be to try out what you like,” Melanie said. “If makeup gives you confidence, then by all means wear it. However, it’s also important to be yourself. Makeup can skew people’s vision of you, and I think that it’s just as important to be confident ... without makeup, but if you wear makeup all the time that might be harder to achieve.”

Anna Kane is a sophomore at Wilson High School.