Musings of a Makeup Mastermind is moving!

There is exciting news in the Kate O’Reilly Makeup headquarters today. This blog shall be no more! If you wish to continue reading my jibber jabber you may do so on the all new and improved kateoreillymakeup.com where I shall be sharing my inspirations, icons and how to tips with one and all! Hurrah!

Prada AW 2012 Makeup by Pat McGrath

Yesterday I told you to keep an eye on @patmcgrathreal ‘s twitter account and was I right or was I right? What a genius! Complete originality and precision execution, I’m in awe of Pat and her amazingly talented team, they must get to bed REALLY early.

Pictures from Vogue.co.uk and @patmcgrathreal

Gucci AW12 Makeup by Pat McGrath

Twitter was a STORM yesterday with pictures of the AW2012 Gucci show in Milan as the legendary Pat McGrath tweeted backstage photos of the makeup team at work (see below). The look was a drop dead gorgeous dark lip with petal soft matte skin and bleeched out eyebrows. Completely exquisite, no wonder Pat is considered one of the best makeup artists in the world! The entire team are clearly superstars as there wasn’t a single wonky lip line in sight.

Pat McGrath is creative director for COVERGIRL, Dolce & Gabbana The Makeup, and Max Factor, so you know where to head to recreate the look. My research suggests Pat used Dolce and Gabbana Lipstick in either Amethyst or Lust along with Dahlia Lip pencil to create this perfect vampy pout.

Pat has been tweeting throughout the fashion week season so follow her and be the first to see her next amazing creation @patmcgrathreal

Cara Delevigne at Burberry Prorsum AW12 LFW

What a magnificent way to open the Burberry Prorsum AW12 show at London Fashion Week. Cara Delevigne looked absolutely smoking hot, complete with my favorite fashion statement; the hair-in-jacket-do! Key makeup artist Wendy Rowe went for a striking and extremely wearable look that works beautifully with the chic understated mood of the collection. Simply stunning!

The gorgeous new Burberry makeup collection is available in:
Harrods in the UK
Nordstrom in the US
and the Online Burberry Store

After perusing the makeup collection online, I reckon Cara is wearing a combination of Eyeshadow in Gold Trench No4, Eyeliner in Midnight Brown No2, and Lip Cover in Nude Beige No1.

GET THE LOOK
1. Apply a matte foundation
2. Use a deep amber coloured eyeshadow under the eyes, all over lids and blend upwards. If you’re extra brave you can bring it right up to the brow.
3. Deepen the socket line with a darker brown shadow.
4. Define brows in a shade slightly darker than your hair. Remember to retain some texture in your eyebrows to avoid the dense “scouse-brow” that looks as though its been painted on with a sharpie pen! Using feathered strokes is the best way to achieve texture.
5. Finish with a cool nude lipstick.
6. To make this look a little more wearable, pop a little blush on your cheeks to liven up your skin tone. Alternatively, swap the cool nude lipstick for a soft peachy gloss. Burberry’s Lip Glow Sepia No3 looks like it would do the trick!

xK

Topshop… Swoooooooon!

This showed up on my facebook stream today and I just had to share. Hannah Murray just ALWAYS gets it so right! Beautiful punk colour, glamorous, punchy AND not too heavy for this lovely teenage girl. LOVE IT!

Marilyn Monroe / Norma Jean

As excited as I am to see Michelle Williams’ portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in “My Week With Marilyn” (in cinemas 25th Nov) I’m also very apprehensive. I have always loved auld MM and it was Andy Warhol’s screen prints and the wind-up-skirt shots that first caught my attention around age 8. I soon became obsessed with all of the Norma Jean mythology; the rare photos of her reading or shooting a bow and arrow, stories of her difficult childhood, her husbands and affairs, any info I could get my hands on made me feel like I knew the REAL Norma Jean instead of the Marilyn Monroe facade.

Unfortunately, I soon discovered that this intimate relationship I thought I was having with Norma Jean was in fact being experienced by millions of other Norma Jean fans around the world (Elton John included). Andy Warhol’s colourful screen prints, a commentary on the mass consumerism of Marilyn’s image, began to be mass consumed all over again. Those “rare” photos began to pop up on bags and t-shirts. Countless “biographys” perpetuating fantasies about Marilyn’s eleven toes, plastic surgery and all those conspiracy theories surrounding her death abound. It’s impossible to know all the private things about Marilyn so people just make it up themselves. Secret husbands come out of the woodwork armed with only one photograph but 20 years worth of anecdotes. Transcripts of conveniently destroyed tapes recorded be Marilyn’s analyst surface with lurid details of trysts with Joan Crawford. As if the Marilyn Monroe myth wasn’t constructed and packaged enough in her lifetime, it just keeps snowballing.

This somewhat cannibalistic appetite for all things Marilyn does concern me a little, and surely with the sheer volume of Marilyn “experts” knocking around these days a screen portrayal is next to impossible. People are so surrounded with Marilyn evidence that they’ll be able to see every flaw in Michelle’s appearance, voice and mannerisms. Michelle has received some alright reviews so I will reserve judgement until I see the movie, but for now, here are some of my favorite “rare” photos of Norma Jean and Marilyn Monroe.

Kay Montano

image: http://www.wemakelittleshops.com

One of my all time favorite makeup artists is starting her very own site soon; www.kaymontano.com. Hurry and sign up for updates before you miss all the fun! In the mean time, have a look at Kay’s prolific portfolio on her agency’s website dandvmanagement.com. Swoon…

Rita Hayworth’s Dramatic Transformation

In these days of Photoshop, Botox and buttock implants, unobtainable ideals of beauty seem to be pushed down our throats at every turn. We dream of a simpler time when hourglass figures were admired and a stick of red lipstick was all you needed to feel glamorous. Well as my sister put it: “unattainable beauty has always been unattainable”. The studio bosses during the golden age of Hollywood had some seriously extreme and dubious ideas of beauty. I’ve heard rumors of Marilyn Monroe’s nose job and chin implant and Jane Russell’s aeronautically engineered bra, but what we have right here is proof in plain sight of Rita Hayworth’s dramatic transformation from Hispanic Femme Fatale to Irish-American pin-up! In an effort to land bigger more mainstream roles, a young Margarita Carmen Cansino (under the guidance of Colombia Picture’s boss Henry Cohn and then Husband, Edward C. Judson) took her Mother’s maiden name, dyed her hair red and spent 2 years undergoing painful electrolysis to create a new, less ethnic looking hairline…. and it worked! Not only was Rita considered an epic beauty, her amber locks were one of her most famous assets. Personally, I’m delighted they sorted out her Chola eyebrows, but I reckon Rita is breath taking both before and after her transformation. When Colombia studios brought the young brunette in for a screen test, one of her co-stars, Jean Arthur, is quoted as saying “She’s too pretty for me to stand with her.”

Bottega Veneta Eau de Parfum F/W 11

I DIE! This is so so so pretty and as a new hairstylist convert, I’m dying to try out that hair! Brucey baby, you did it again…

Photographer Bruce Weber
Makeup Kay Montano
Hair Orlando Pita (as pointed out by Ms Montano herself!)
Model Nine d’Urso (separated at birth from Natalie Portman)

Photoshop 1930s Style!

I mentioned how intrigued I was about photo retouching before the days of photoshop in my post last week so after a small amount of googling I have found these lovely images of a freckly and kind of pained looking Joan Crawford via Swing Fashionista. I’ve always loved this image because it shows such a softer Joan than the usual Mommy Dearest persona I have come to know, but the softness seems to be more at the hands of the retoucher than Joan herself. I shall continue to search and keep you all informed of my next find!!!