PERFECT MATCH
Vogue reviewers are loving longlasting foundation Lancôme Teint Idole Ultra Wear. Here’s why.
“It’s not heavy like most other long-lasting foundations on the market ... It leaves a nice, natural glow” – BRITTANY FERDINANDS
The ultimate foundation, one that matches your skin tone, lasts throughout the day and has just the right finish, is notoriously tricky to find. Views on what works are also usually highly subjective, so when 96 per cent of Vogue reviewers – most of whom also happen to be beauty bloggers – recommend the same foundation, it’s clear they’re on to something.
Lancôme Teint Idole Ultra Wear, relaunched earlier this year to mark the 20th anniversary of the brand’s cult classic Teint Idole foundation line, has been updated with a new look. It still has the same iconic formula, which makes it easy to achieve a velvety, semi-matt complexion. Plus, Lancôme Teint Idole Ultra Wear will be available in an impressively wide range of 40 shades at Myer from September 3.
Vogue reviewers cite the choice of shades and the foundation’s lasting yet natural look and feel as highlights.
“I would recommend it to family and friends because it’s not heavy like most other longlasting foundations on the market,” says Brittany Ferdinands, founder of the blog
Brittany Daisy. “It leaves a nice, natural glow rather than a thick, cakey finish.” Reika Wang, founder of the blog Front Row
Beauty, agrees. “The formula is easy to work with and feels very lightweight on the skin yet provides great coverage,” she says. Josephine Eve, who posts @ josephine_ eve_
stylist, says: “I found that it was beautifully light wearing, durable and perfect for flawlessly getting me through the day and still looking fresh in the evening.”
The verdict from Vogue reviewers is in: Lancôme Teint Idole Ultra Wear is a beauty musthave with a shade designed to suit everyone.
THE NEW SMOKY EYE TRANSCENDS TIME ZONES, MAKING IT THE ULTIMATE DESK-TO-DINNER COMPANION
and Versus similarly followed suit, as did Chloé, where the look was based on purveyors of cool “Marianne Faithfull and Kurt and Courtney, who are my favourite people in the world”, according to make-up artist Aaron de Mey. They all had their own updated take on beauty’s most enduring make-up look and led us to question: has the original smoky eye smoke-bombed?
Perhaps the parameters of the smoky eye are being refreshingly blurred. Historically, Cleopatra, the original poster girl for the smoky movement, rather resourcefully used the mineral malachite in lieu of eyeshadow and black khol to darken her lashes, heralding the birth of the smoky eye. Elizabeth Taylor continued the legacy with her perennially perfect smoked-out and winged lids. Nowadays, however, smoky can account for the full spectrum of smoked- out shadow, in every colour and texture.
Lucia Pieroni schooled everyone around her in how to bring smoky eyes into 2017 at Versus this season. Hovering somewhere between painterly swatches and blurred-out colour, Pieroni avoided the obvious choices – grey, black and charcoal – and instead offered up a spectrum of updated hues. “So we’ve got three colours: an amazing teal, almost like those scarab beetles; then a really gorgeous very bright navy – very beautiful – a flash of done-it-herself, slapped it on,” says Pieroni backstage at the show.
Perhaps this new wave of anarchist application is in response to the pictureperfect, not-a-lash-out-of-place beauty images we’re served up in social media posts. The nuance of our new smoke addiction is that it’s deliberately imprecise and can be achieved with your existing make-up haul (no ‘smoky eye’ palette necessary).
In fact, to hit the new smoky sweet spot – smudged, not blended, and not extended beyond the crease of the lid – one must forgo shadow altogether. Instead, reach for chalky kohl eyeliners, which are best smoked out with a fluffy brush. Finish with two or three generous coats of mascara for a lived-in look Topshop Unique this season. Make-up artist Lynsey Alexander deliberately clumped together lashes for a day-two effect. “Make-up is a bit deconstructed, lived-in; clumpy, leftover-mascara-spiked-together lashes,” she says.
I’m reminded of the new smoky eye’s versatility on a recent trip to Paris. Almost every other woman I clock in a restaurant is sporting slept-in smoky eyes, as dark as their espressos, peeking out from behind bangs. And that’s the other advantage of this new look: while a traditional smoky eye may have been relegated to after dark, the new smoky eye transcends time zones, making it the ultimate desk-to-dinner companion.
With the promise of less effort, I tested the theory. My usual beauty routine is mechanical, to say the least, and it takes a considerable amount of effort to scan past my trusty Bobbi Brown neutrals palette and head straight for an inky black kohl liner. The intense pigment and colour payoff, usually advantages when it comes to liners, somehow feel a little harsh for my 7am complexion.
I start by correcting my base, knowing that no amount of eye make-up is going to pop against a canvas of blotchy skin. While squiggling the khol liner onto the back of my hand – and trying to shut out the Iggy Pop connotations – I take a thin eyeliner brush and smudge it into the pigment. Using the lash line as a guide, I push the pigment into the lids in small circular motions and continue, albeit slightly more softly, below the lash lines. The result is intense, yes, but it doesn’t look out of place in a morning meeting – and it doesn’t give the impression I spent hours perfecting it. Before heading to a work event I check it again in the office bathroom at 4pm, bringing along a concealer stick, pre-empting the charcoal mess that will have inevitably made its way onto my cheeks. Surprisingly, although it does look a little more lived-in (eight hours more to be precise), I need only smudge it out again with my fingers to bring back its polish. As it turns out, this is one form of smoking I’ll be happy to take up.