September 1 - 14, 2003

Spirito Di Franco
Arched eyebrows, sprayed eyeshadows and stunningly luscious lips are creating quite a stir this season. Here’s the loot on the latest beauty styles, textures, techniques and colours

Metamorphosis is only a heartbeat away for the classic and beautifully-chiselled Indian face. Our face is a canvas that needs not much, but albeit a little help from a professional to win sighs of admiration. According to Italian make-up artist Franco Fumagalli, whose work has featured on the runways of designers like Armani, Fendi, Ferragamo, Valentino and Versace and for campaigns of beauty companies like Estée Lauder, Revlon, Lancôme and Shiseido, ‘‘There is not much that is different about Indian faces in comparison with those of Europeans or Caucasians, other than the complexion.

From what I have observed, Indian facial features are simply beautiful and can be enhanced by moving away from the severe, pared-down look to one that wears subtle colour as well. Let’s start with the basics:
I would say a luminiscent, flawless finish is where it’s all at. If you have good skin, you can get it right without applying a base, and with just a touch of foundation — the surefire way to shimmer!

In a humid climate, it is better to stick with water-based foundations and use them for just evenings or special occasions. For day, settle for some glow with formulas that reflect light.

If you have patchy skin, cover with a mix of concealer and foundation. When in need of covering a dark patch, blend and mix concealer with the foundation and patch on. For even better coverage, dust on some pressed powder.

To cover dark circles, don’t use a beige concealer; you will end up looking grey. Instead, what you need is a special colour pigment — a bit of orange.

To open up small eyes, embrace pastel colours, a trend of the moment. Contour the lines with a black pencil, but not from the inside, that is unless you want to give your eyes more expression and depth. Play with colours — brush the lighter shades on the inside corners of the eyes, keeping the darker hues for shading the outer corners. Use the darker shade to colour the bottom eyelids, too, starting a little away at the inner corner and going outwards. Add a touch of shimmer to the brow bone.

Warm up the complexion with a little blush to radiate health. Dust on some blush powder, but just for a touch-up. To give the illusion of higher cheekbones, shade below the cheekbones with a darker colour, coming down from the temples and then add some sparkle to the cheekbones.

If you have a long face, shade the jaw line and the forehead, till the temples. If it is heart-shaped, contour all over. Lighten the face at the centre, going from the centre of the forehead, down to the nose and the chin, to lend a thinner optical effect.

Go for wet look lips with lip tints and glosses with hints of crystal — it looks sensual and is trendy, too. But do contour the lip line with a lip pencil and then fill up. If you have darker lips, you could do better by filling them up with a lip liner and then applying a tint for a natural, more brilliant effect. To allow your lip colour to stay up as late as you do, dust some loose powder on the lips after you have filled in with a lip liner, and then apply lipstick.

To cut a bella figura, replace the sharp edged or mask-like look with a face that is covered in a veil of softness and surprising warmth and you are as ready as can be.

Franco Fumagalli’s Celebrity Do-Ups
Kate Moss: “Her features are very modern. To me, she represents the best icon of beauty in the new millennium. I focus on her lips with purple-pink gloss and maybe some glitter... futuristic chic.”
Kim Bassinger: “Her lips are full and sexy, so I use a lip liner to contour her lips and to fill in with. When coloured a Marilyn Monroe red, Kim’s lips really come alive.”
Cindy Crawford: “I line the upper lids of her eyes with a pencil, blending towards the outer corners. Ivory covers the entire upper lids, with some sheer for the browbone, and layers of black mascara.”


What’s On The Ramp
Eyebrows have never had it better. They were the highlight of the LIFWL. Pencil thin, arched like a half moon, or like a horseshoe in some cases and completely painted over at other times, they clearly established a new trend.

Fashionistas were found raving about the shapely brows painted bright red in one of the shows. Thin eyebrows also gave the make-up artists more space to highlight with shimmer, and give spray-on effects on the brow bone with different colours.

Colour on the temples was another trend that came up at some of the shows. Subtle tints of yellow and blue, dusted and blended around the temples and a little over the forehead, made for interesting effects in the arc lights.

Eyes were definitely the focus, with much experimentation and variety in effects. Dark pockets for eye make-up were quite a favourite for designers like Rocky S, Aparna Jagdhari, Aki Narula and Ranna.

Want to look disturbed and foreboding? Smear heavy black kohl around the eyes and you could be Aki’s ‘Sex Goddess Goes to War and then to a Pub’ girl. That’s ramp drama for you! Tone it down for a Bad Girl look, if that’s your style. And while urban decay and dark scary make-up marked the first few shows, faces soon turned more towards pinks and blues, with subtle sparkling highlights and lip colours that ranged from glossy nudes and natural pinks to pastel lilacs and pouty reds.

At the Grand Finale, luminosity reached a new level with waves of hot, melting colour and shades of golden sheer. Besides the allure of shimmer and shine, pinks and lilacs from Lakme’s Watercolors range created a transparent oceanic effect. Water-kissed skin, the theme for cosmetologist Shobha Sehgal’s workshop, seemed to translate into the Colour Drench and Colour Spray looks — creating luminous and radiant natural looks. And just the way water takes on the shape of the vessel in which it rests, the two looks take on the personality of the person wearing it.

Big hair was the other highlight of LIFWL 2003. The bed-head look has gone a few steps farther. Frizz isn’t a bad word any more and neither are fly-aways — they give a natural look that’s part casual and part image statement. Tight curls and perms with striking gold highlights caught the eye of hairstylists. “The bed head is easy to create with Indian hair as it naturally frizzes,” said Sandrine Verrier, stylist at the Lakme Studio at LIFWL.