Spring/summer beauty trend report: Plastic lips, pastels and natural skin rank high on beauty trends

MANILA, Philippines - It was only last year that I was backstage at Milan Fashion Week, watching Tom Pecheux expertly apply makeup at MaxMara, Moschino and much much more.

Now those same looks he highlighted are here, off the runway and very much in real life.

At the MAC trends presentation, senior artist Victor Cembellin, who has worked under the likes of Pecheux at fashion weeks in Milan, NY, Paris and London, demonstrated four key looks that’ll be making their mark this year.

Nu-ance

Taking its cue from the inherent romanticism of the S/S trends, this look is emblematic of the vivid digital prints that walked down the runway, only in a fresh, almost watercolor-like approach to the swirling digitized patterns.

With hues like turquoise, lilac, lemon, mint and apple on the table, this is no insipid pastel color wheel. Thanks to plenty of neo-futuristic flourishes, like hints of silver or metals to give it new depth, this trend is no Laura Ashley redux. Instead, as seen on the runways of Blugirl, Issey Miyake and Monique Lhuillier, there’s a vigor to the intensity and application of the palette.

One fresh attempt at the pastel makeup is to avoid one uniform finish over the entire lid. Matte is too literal ’80s territory. Instead, apply a transparent wash in a mixed depth with metallic hints. Also using creamy tints for the lids is a more nuanced approach.

For lips, Cembellin likes the effect of layering gloss over the lips. “It makes it look almost plastic,” he says, referring to the style oft employed by Nicki Minaj, who is fond of pairing a neon or hyper-bright lip with a shiny top coat. Using the Nicki Minaj for MAC lipgloss, he paints it over a vivid lip. “This gives it the impression of the lipstick floating over the face.”

Sci-chedelic

“I grew up in San Francisco and there are a lot of drag queens there,” says Cembellin, while painting the model’s eyelids a vivid cerulean. “So this is the kind of makeup I like to do.”

The kind he was referring to was the graphic element popular at shows like Missoni,Vivienne Westwood Red Label and Haider Ackermann. Distinguished by a singular, bold palette, the central theme is focused on a single idea: a red lip or a boldly lined eye. At Ackermann, a rich, dark purple lip is accented with a slashing black brow in a strong line. Graphic elements pop on an otherwise bare face. At Moschino, Tom Pecheux proffered a ’60s homage that refused to go the reductive route. Instead, he softened the traditional white and black liner with a blurred white shadow and painted the lip a bright red-orange.  With modern matte textures and richly pigmented, hyper bright hues, the new modern is minimalist yet layered, colorful yet controlled.

Puri-tan

“This is not Real Housewives of Everywhere,” Cembellin declared. “This evokes the mood of a tan with a luxurious feel. It’s a very approachable bronze.”

With new micro pigments that don’t look like eyeshadow, the subtle application of discreet glimmer offers new ways to achieve texture and depth.

Instead of an orange pancake face, the new technology in product development delivers a natural glow that’s flattering and, more importantly, looks natural, not like it was delivered via spray gun in a tent. The goal is to mimic the look of, to quote Cembellin, “girls who love hiking in the mountains of Utah: granola, hippie girls who go hiking with their boyfriends.”

To achieve the look, aim for a matte finish but add shine through MAC’s Extra Dimension powders.

Sig-nature

A focus on skin puts this trend at the forefront of the heap. It’s about perfected luminous skin buffed, polished and shined. With MAC Mineralize Moisture SPF 15 massaged into skin, followed by concealer two shades darker than the natural skin tone and finished with a glow-faking finish like the pearl Cream Color Base in Shell or Luna. At MaxMara, Tom Pecheux spent a good 10 minutes massaging the model’s face with a hydrating moisturizer. A good base, being natural skin, is essential to this look. Followed by sheer applications of foundation and cream-based finishes, the effect should be luminous but not wet. Natural brows, no mascara and a light-hued lip complete the look.