Make Up Advice: Getting runway and movie star looks

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Red Carpet & Runway to Reality Jake Surette
Runway & red carpet looks are always fun, and there are enough versions that most - or all - can be translated to reality.

Do you know whose look I really loved this season? Mary-Kate Olsen's at any given function, where she shows up with her classic Starbuck's cup of whatever (assuming a triple, skinny latte of sort), a size zero dress that looked like a potato sack and a smoky eye that is huge around her eye, continuing half way down her bottom lid.

I was talking about this look recently with a client of mine where we both wondered how it was achieved. I researched different angles of the look from a variety of paparazzi and legit photos. I then realized something. The smoky on the bottom lid was a continuation of the shadow that just blended into the depth of her sunken eyes.

Make-Up: Red Carpet & Runway to Reality (Aishwarya Rai)

I explained this to the client who really wanted to re-create the look for herself. She immediately backed off from wanting the look and decided to let me modify it to suit her as a healthy woman. No disrespect to Miss Mary-Kate intended (Hey! She looks great now!).

My point here is that upon closer look from any celebrity red carpet event, one must realize that recreating a look from your favorite celeb requires some adjustments for how you are going to apply it for yourself. Take into consideration eye shape, for example. Mary-Kate, due to past health and wellness issues, has a bit of a sullen eye. My client, who is in excellent shape, has a much different eye contour; rested and full and flat as opposed to hooded. To recreate the exact application or look for my client would not have made her a happy gal. It would have looked completely different. My advice here is: if you want a recreation of a red carpet look, have more than one favorite, no matter how attached you are to the look that you can't get out of your mind. Be mindful of eye shape: do you have the same eye shape as Gwen or Pink or Beyonce? Who has an eye shape closest to your own? Ask your girls and boys to help you with figuring this out. Then you can determine whose look you can recreate.

Don't stress if that look you have to have doesn't work for you; just remember to have a roster of looks in you mental files and in your plethora of mags.

Recreating red carpet looks go beyond the eyes, but I know that's what most of you look at first; I've heard it time and time again. You also have to look at face shape and structure (for application of blush/ bronzing/ shading placement), and - of course - lip shape. Luckily, gloss is so stylish and has been for so long now that it will always give you the fullness you need. However, deeper lip color is back with a vengeance. If you have a wee little pout, a deeper lip shade is not going to do you any great favors, unless you are willing to over-draw. If that has never been a part of your lip repertoire, it may look foolish to you - most importantly - and to everyone else around you. Take care, ladies, when over drawing. More on this important fact in future reads. It must be discussed.

Runway looks are always fun, and there are enough versions of runway that most - or all - can be translated to reality.

Whether it's makeup artist Pat McGrath's more conservative looks or her design for Galliano/Dior's outlandish drag makeup that you are secretly attracted to, you can recreate it. Here, we will talk about the latter. A blocked out natural brow covered in sparkle with a new brow half way up the forehead, for example, may not be the glam look you are quite looking for. Alter it. Take the colors and design that are seen on these genetic drag queens and take it back a notch, using less of the product and keeping the design more demure for just the lid and brow bone. This allows your own brow to do the framing.

It's all good. Don't stress if that look you have to have doesn't work for you; just remember to have a roster of looks in you mental files and in your plethora of mags. Once you let go of that one and only idea, you will set yourself free, sister.

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