Backstage With Bobbi Brown at the Tibi s/s2011 show

TEXT, VIVIAN KELLY

There are some people that it's love at first sight with. Such was the case with MAKEUP MOGUL, BOBBI BROWN. I first met Bobbi when she'd just started her namesake company and there weren't a whole lot of colors, but she had this great color called "brown", which everyone agreed looked good on anyone and everyone. She wore a lot of black, very little makeup and smiled a lot. The models loved her for her chilled-out attitude, and as the harried PR for Michael Kors, so did I.

Fast-forward 15 years later, and Bobbi's still Bobbi. It was great to get to catch-up a bit with her backstage, at the Tibi s/s2011 show. There she was, adeptly fielding questions fired at her by eager editors and film crews waving mikes in her face, all the while showing the special palette she'd created for the show. Bobbi turned to the crowd of faces and jokingly asked, "You're all from websites? Doesn't anyone work for magazines anymore?" She, like everyone this season who's in the fashion business is marveling at the sheer number of bloggers and tweeters who now cover fashion week.
For Tibi, Bobbi did her signature fresh and clean makeup, which went nicely with the side parted ponytail, accessorized with two clips. The Tibi girl is historically fresh faced but she has some fun too. This season, Bobbi provided that with a thicker eyeliner with her long-wear gel eyeliner to create the winged eye that was the focus for this show. The look was pretty, but not TOO perfect.

Meanwhile, over in the hair area, Aveda stylists Kevin Ryan and Frank Rizziari dealt with hair drama. One of the models arrived on the latish side rushing from her previous show with her long blonde hair crimped to the max and loaded down with product. Frank walked over to take a closer look and warned, "Honey, you have to use water and wash it all out or you're going to cry when we work on your hair".
He turned back to us and explained, "When a model comes with tons of stuff in her hair, dry shampoo will only make the hair grittier and will only serve to mask it. The only thing that works is water." Good to know, as I'd always assumed dry shampoo was the quickie solution to getting product out of one's hair.

I caught my few minutes of face time with Bobbi, and she answered the questions I lobbed over to her.
As to what she wants the makeup to achieve for this [or any show she does] "is for women to look and say, 'I want to look like THAT', wearing those clothes and THAT makeup."
We discussed how she's able to address her ever-exapanding global customer base. When she creates a palette, she thinks about how it has to work for women in England, Japan, and the USA. In short, she wants them ALL to love it.
Bobbi's Best-selling product after all these years is the original BROWN which started it all.
How many sku#'s does she have? "Hmm, I don't know, but I'm really excited about this one"[pointing at the sleek silver croco "TIBI" palette of silvery shadows." I left not knowing how many lipsticks are on the line, but I know I'm getting in line for one of the Tibi palettes when they're out this spring.

CARLOS FALCHI FOR MARK COSMETICS

TEXT, VIVIAN KELLY

FACT: CARLOS FALCHI IS A BRILLIANT BRAZILIAN HIGH-END BAG DESIGNER WHO'S NOT ALLERGIC TO COLLABORATING AT ALL ENDS OF THE PRICE SPECTRUM

FACT: MARK COSMETICS IS A STYLISH COSMETICS LINE GEARED TOWARDS THE TEEN VOGUE READER THAT THE AVERAGE TEEN CAN EASILY AFFORD

FACT: TODAY'S AVON IS WAY COOLER THAN THE FUSTY IMAGE WE HAD OF "THE AVON LADY CALLING" AND PTA MOMS WEARING THEIR SAFE BROWN-PINK LIPSTICK

A month or so ago, we dropped-into a Mark Cosmetics Event. After a long day of appointments in the City, we almost didn’t’ go. Always loathe to take a defeatist attitude, we hopped into THE TELEGRAPHE ESPRESSO BAR on 107 W
18th Street, and powered-up with a granita - the best in NYC.

THE EVENT HIGHLIGHT: Previewing the Limited Edition "Festa" Collection, and meeting Carlos, who is charming as only Brazilian men can be. HE's won the Accessories Council Lifetime Achievement Award, but he's as approachable and engaging as a newbie designer, who's eager to meet the press and make a good impression. Carlos is the best kind of designer there is: one who leaves his ego at the door and takes his talent with him wherever he goes – whether it’s designing a bags that sell at Neiman Marcus, or collaborating with Target or in this case, with Avon. The "Festa" line originated, he told us, with a watercolor illustrations he created of his native Brazil. The almost Van Gogh like colorful swirl pattern was evident in the 'flora' dress and 'brazilian beach bikini', with a retro-style 0-ring detail.

Happily, anyone can own a Carlos Falchi.
Over on www.target.com, you can still pick up one of the few bags he did for a recent GO collection that would run you less than filling up an economy car with “Regular” gas at the gas pump.
Mr. Falch, is one of the few GO/Target designers who successfully translated his top drawer aesthetic into "nice price" product. In fact, I bought my Mother his small green collage hobo for her Birthday. She liked it as much as the small chain link Chloe black leather bag I bought her back when I was an intern at Chloe, in Paris, in 1992. I ate take-out shredded carrots and raisins for a week to be able to pay for it, and that was WITH the company discount.
If you're in the market for a "I'll keep it forever piece", there's a killer Falchi yellow clutch for $395 at Neiman’s and a glazed python shoulder carryall, for $2595 that brought tears to our eyes [mortgage first!] on www.neimanmarcus.com.
If you can't score one of the Target bags, you can pick up his small gold 'take me to rio bag' in aby blue faux croc and/or the gold 'rio ready mini bag' on the Mark website.


FACT - TRYING MAKEUP ON TOGETHER IS ONE OF THE TOP MOTHER-DAUGHTER EXPERIENCES THERE IS
In Middle School, my Mother took me to Bloomingdales’ Stamford – now the UConn Business School Campus] -to buy makeup. That night, I left with “The Big Brown Bag”, filled with $200+ of Calvin Klein skincare and makeup. I felt like Brooke Shields in “Island of the Blue Lagoon”.
Twenty+ years later, with my own daughter and friends in tow, we sat down at a round table that starred a box filled to the brim with MARK cosmetics to play with.
The event concept was “Play with the makeup”, and play we did. My daughter and her friend over-indulged and posed delightedly for the Avon execs who snapped-away. Everyone was happy that night and excitedly Twittering-away. Ten minutes in, it sunk into my head that Mark is in fact, an Avon brand. Never has the phrase, “You’ve come a long way, baby!” been so apt.

After the four of us tested-out everything on the table at the event, we came-up with OUR TOP MARK PICS:

MARK Flat Eye LIner Brush - it's also great for eyebrows
MARK mark Totally Balmed SPF 15 Tinted Lip Balm
Best= “Totally Bare"= a neutral flesh pink for day and “Totally Hot” = crushed berry red, good for evening.

MARK Free for all Body lotion Acai Berry Blend/Shea Butter- the line contains super foods and super fruits in it.

***CARLOS FALCHI FOR MARK – “Getaway Beach Hat” - $16.
Why this is our #1 pick – unlike the cute bikini, you don’t have to strip down and try it on.

*What Needs Improvement – the makeup wipes. From years of testing, only removers that have oil in them really work when it comes to taking-off black eyeliner, mascara, and highly pigmented eye shadows, like the MAC Cosmetic ones I collect on my travels.


MORE ABOUT MARK
They're on their marketing game, having recently signed LAUREN CONRAD as a spokesperson.
To read more and to shop, visit www.meetmark.com

HOLLYWOOD! GOLDEN GLOBES MANIA – MAKEUP MAESTRO, MICHAEL KORS

TEXT, VIVIAN G. KELLY-VAN ZUTPHEN

We’re tired of the obvious fakery of the whole GOLDEN GLOBES exercise, but like an addict, we’ll take some, even though we know the product’s inferior.
That said, we’ve got to congratulate our former boss, MICHAEL KORS, for getting the formula down right.
There IS a formula for RED CARPET makeup and he delivers it in the MICHAEL KORS VERY HOLLYWOOD Collection. Model, Hilary Rhoda, looks red-carpet ready in the counter signage.

Kors states in a press release that for the Rodeo Pink palette; he was inspired by “the iconic pink of the flowers that line Rodeo Drive and the bright colors of the homes in the Hollywood Hills.”
What the colors reminded us of were old-time Hollywood Glamour stars like Liz Taylor and Grace Kelly had in spades.
The afternoon of the Golden Globes we spent a few hours in our local DANBURY FAIR MALL and hit Macy’s and Lord & Taylor, in search of the “Marilyn Monroe red” lipstick Lancome Harper’s Bazaar featured in a beauty editorial.
While we didn’t have any luck finding the said lipstick, we DID stumble onto Michael Kors’ brilliant totally mini limited edition cosmetics collection.
We tried “honey blonde” and “bungalow pink” lipsticks, and “sunset coral” blush.
We’ll probably come back for bungalow pink but left with a L&T bag containing our purchase of “Hollywood Gold”, the PERFECT nude-beige we’ve been on the look-out for, seemingly forever.
It’s nice when satisfaction comes at a mere $19 price tag.
To buy, visit your Estee Lauder counter or shop on www.esteelauder.com

The Collection is available at Estee Lauder counters now, until supplies run out.

JILLICIOUS Cosmetics’ NEW LOOK

Text, Vivian G. Kelly
Portrait of Jillian, Richard Spiegel

JILLIAN ALTIT, the brains behind this little line is a makeup artist with 15 years experience. She’s a former Bobbi Brown protégé and like her famous former boss, she’s got plenty of celebrity clients: Gabriella Union, and Jennifer Garner to name just a few.
In an article that was syndicated in the
Knight Ridder Newspaper chain, writer Madeleine Marr wrote,
“If you want ... Jennifer Garner's lips: Jillicious has its own version of the increasingly popular lip plumpers that increase blood flow. Bada Bing Tinglers ($12.50), nonsticky flavored and scented balms that do the thickening with menthol. The downside to most of them is that they tingle AND burn. One even gave us a rash on the inside of our lips.
Happily, Bada Bing Tinglers let you have the Garner/Jolie lips MINUS the pain.

We met Jillian at the Press Lounge at the Ritz Carlton, just down the block from the Raleigh, during Mercedes-Benz Miami Swim Week. We walked into the plush lounge around 2p.m, to escape the 100+ degree heat. We were more than happy to plop down in a chair and let Jillian do her magic and to hear about her line.
Jillian gave us a few tips as she expertly applied it on us.
1. “You won’t need breath mints with this. Bada Bing leaves you with a cool feeling AND freshens your breath.”
2. “Start with a neutral colored lip liner, as close to the contour you were born with. Put the balm to the center of top and bottom lip, not all over.”

JILLICIOUS is a micro line, which like the wildly successful BENEFIT line, only got the key elements in it. In other words, just the items you’d carry in your purse. We road tested the BADA BING TINGLERS– for fresh breath and that patent leather-like wet look you usually only see in beauty photo editorials in foreign Vogues.

REVAMP in the works
Jillicious is going green AND Jillian’s she lowering the price point as a response to the economy. Seems everyone’s doing the same in this rocky economy. Unless your brand is called Hermes or Vuitton, you’d be smart to do the same.

ROAD TEST –
Jillian used Marshmallow highlighter and khaki shadow and liner and Lemon twist lip-gloss.
HOW IT PERFORMED: 10pm check – the eyes stayed put – eye shadow and eyeliner both. The lip-gloss needed reapplications, but not as often as our usual Chanel and Aveda glosses.
A FEW LAST WORDS: While we liked the shiny shadow [new for us] it didn’t come off easily with the usual makeup remover pads we used.
*We called Jillian the next day to report how we liked the line. She suggested using an OIL-based remover – baby oil or Vaseline would work too.

THE VERDICT: With the glitter, shine, Green initiative, and reasonable price points, we see this line playing very nicely to a young crowd – from Tweens up through College Students. It’s not a bad sector to play to being that this age group always seems to have some extra spending $ in their Coach pocketbooks.

WHERE TO GET IT
The website is currently under construction to reflect Jillian’w new eco initiative. In the meantime, for more information and to purchase some pieces, contact
info@jillicious.com
The website address is: www.jillicious.com