2012 make-up trend report

It’s back to business as usual after Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia, a week of fabulous frocks, striking-high stilettos and multiple taxis back and forth from onsite to off-site locations. But while the shows may be done and dusted, the sets packed up on the back of trucks, international buyers headed home and clothes stored in boxes – it’s just the beginning for the beauty industry as the hair and make-up trends make their way from the runway to the sidewalk. But while last year’s Fashion Week might have been all about the dark brow, matte skin and false lashes, 2012 saw a return to a healthier, natural make-up look. With their brands looking after 37 of the 46 individual shows, we asked the make-up directors from , and Maybelline New York about the major make-up trends to come out of MBFWA 2012.

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Skin

While we’re not completely farewelling the statement lip or eye, the focus of this year’s Fashion Week was definitely all about the skin. One of the things that I’ve noticed throughout our 15 shows is clean skin. There’s a definite cheek or skin focus – it’s very much about bringing out the tops of the cheeks with a highlight,” says Napoleon chief of make-up services Rebecca Prior. M.A.C  senior artist Nicole Thompson agrees that skin is definitely having its turn in the spotlight. The main message that I’ve seen this week is that everything starts with a good base. You get the skin looking right, everything else looks good. The main thing I would say is prep the skin, make the skin look dewy, make it look really fresh.”

Last year we saw a lot of matte skin hitting the runway, but this year it’s all about a healthy, youthful finish. The biggest one with skin is that dewiness and luminosity are back,” says Napoleon national creative team leader Kate Squires. There were a few seasons there, both summer and winter, where we saw skin go matte and satine, but this summer it’s all about beautiful dewy skin – emphasising that with luminisers on the tops of the cheeks bones and the high points of the face. It’s that cool, effortless ‘I really look after myself’ healthy Australian glow – which I think is what a lot of Australian beauty is known for.”

Another skin trend being picked up by make-up directors is the focus on contouring. The biggest thing I’ve seen a lot of shows pulling out is contouring and highlighting. They’re creating lots of structure in the face rather than too much eyeliner and a smoky eye,” says Thompson.

Brows

This year saw brows take a step away from the solid dark intense brows of seasons past and head more towards a natural yet highly structured look. The thing about brows is that the shape is strong but the colour is not dark,” reveals Thompson. It’s a high arch, but it’s done with light colours – that way it doesn’t look too scary, it doesn’t look too intense and it’s a little bit more feathery and modern. I’ve noticed a lot of brows being part of the eye make-up, not being a separate feature, it’s all been pulled together.”

For Napoleon, brows haven’t been too much of a feature. If it is a brow statement, it’s something a little bit different, a little bit quirky like the gold brow that we did for Ginger and Smart,” says Squires. The only really strong brow that we’ve had is Miss Unkon. Other than that it’s just about the natural, brushed up – combed and raw finish.” Maybelline NY make-up director Nigel Stanislaus sums it up: Brows are full and lush but tonal.”

Eyes

The grey smoky eye took a backseat at this year’s Fashion Week, with make-up directors opting for a less-is-more approach to the eyes. There hasn’t been too many sexy, smoky eyes – it’s more about that natural staining,” says Squires.

But while the dark grey eye has gone, it doesn’t mean the smoky eye has disappeared altogether. I’m seeing different coloured smoky eyes,” says Thompson. I’ve got to say, grey smoky eye? Over it! Been over it for ages, let’s move on. There are lots of different colours coming into it. People are realising, ‘Okay, we can do the same shape but we can experiment with colour.’ I’ve seen some good wine colours, navy blue at Lisa Ho and bronzy smoky eyes and pastels.”

Thompson has also noticed gloss isn’t just appearing on the lips and skin but also on the eyes. I’ve seen a lot of bare eyes with gloss so the other features can pop out.”

Lashes

As eyes take a more natural approach, so have lashes. After a big season of falsies last year, it seems fake lashes are not going to be around so much next summer - sorry Snooki. They’ve disappeared! I have not done a false lash all week,” laughs Thompson. I haven’t done a lot of mascara. It’s all about applying the mascara really close to the roots and just softly swinging it through the end of the lash.”

It’s a similar story at Napoleon. I think we’ve only used lashes for three of our shows,” says Squires. It’s coming back from that sexy feminine flatter of the lashes to something a bit more organic and a bit more cooler than being overtly sexy.” Prior adds: Even when we are putting on a fake lash this year, it’s mostly just to emphasise the girl’s natural lash not necessarily to have a fake lash look.” Stanislaus believes that with some of the new mascaras on the market, there’s no need for fake eyelashes because the mascaras actually make lashes look like they have been applied.

Lips

With lips, it’s been all or nothing. I’ve found either bright colour or nude. There hasn’t really been a lot of in between,” says Prior. For Squires, lips have been about adding something a little quirky. Colour is still in, in a big way. There hasn’t been one consistent lip colour trend. We did the Magdalena show with a bright yellow lip, we did a red for Gary Bigeni, at Gail Sorronda we had almost the gothic clown lip, which was a purple-grape colour.”

Colourful lips were also picked up by Thompson. I’ve seen a lot of great lip colours. Berry tones, pinks, lavenders and some great neons and oranges. That trend has been around for a little while in Australia, because Aussie girls love lip colours.” Another lip trend noticed by the M.A.C make-up artist was that lips were also embracing the dewy wet-look. I’ve seen heaps of gloss. Whatever colour is going on, there’s usually a gloss over the top. Sort of a plastic-y vibe this season.”

Nails

While there was the usual splattering of subtle nudes and pinks making their way across fingers and toes, nails were seen getting a little experimental at MBFWA. Designers got hands on, with the Romance Was Born team creating three nail art stick-on designs and Carl Kapp collaborating with CND to give the French manicure a twist with the traditional white tip replaced with black. Other noticeable nail trends were lots of half moons, a rounded tip, neons and stark white. White is one of the hot looks for spring/summer this year," says OPI technician Aimee O'Shea.

Colour trends

Two of the big players in colour this year were pastels and metallics. While Stanislaus believed there were five main make-up trends at Fashion Week Australia – prints, architectural, pastels, basque blue and metallics – he believes pastels were a stand out. One of the big make-up trends is pastels, which is amazing because it makes everybody look young and pretty. Lots of peachy cheeks, pink lips and powder blue eyes.”

From eyes to skin to lips – there’s been no holding back for metallics. The Napoleon team even took gold from the eye and extended it into the brow. They also were seen adding metallic highlighters to the cheeks. Metallics on the skin [it’s] really pumping up the highlighters on top of the cheekbones,” says Squires. But while it is heavy on the metal, some hues are favoured over others. I haven’t seen a lot of metallic silvers on the face – it’s much more warm, like rose golds and honey tone metallics,” says Thompson.

With dewy skin, natural eyes, structured light brows, glossy lips and pastels and metallics on the cards for this summer, MBFWA has indicated that Australia is set for some colourful, girlie, healthy-looking times ahead.