The change of season offers cooler temperatures and a crisp snap to the air. Clothes may be getting heavier, but the look for fall isn’t: This season, the look is luminous, light-enhanced, positively...well, angelic.
THE ARTIST’S EYE
This season’s makeup trends will fit the busy woman just fine — a few deft touches and a pared-down look and out the door you go. The look is Vermeer-inspired, a fresh-faced, soft glowing look best enhanced by the most natural lips and eyes. To match the Old Masters’ look of ethereal beauty — pale, polished alabaster skin and the flush of youthful, pale pink on the cheeks, start with moisturized skin and a light touch of foundation. Better yet, consider a sheer formula (not just for summer anymore!) like Bobbi Brown’s Extra SPF 25 Sheer Tinted Moisturizing Balm. This rich, luxurious tinted moisturizer gives skin a dewy, soft-glow finish, and is a great light coverage alternative to foundation. ($45, bobbibrowncosmetics.com, local department stores).
If you love your foundation (it took you forever to find just the right shade), try taking it up a notch with a foundation enhancer like Smashbox’s Artificial Light Luminizing Lotion. Apply a tiny amount to brow bones and cheekbones for a clean, subtle sheen (a little goes a long way). It’ll take 10 years off your face! ($28, smashbox.com)
RADIANT GLOW
One way to capture your youth is following the season’s mandate of just the slightest blush. Bare Escentuals Clear Radiance says it all: Just a swipe with the angled brush (included with the powder) and the mineral formula will put the apples back in your cheeks with a natural, healthy-looking color. ($28, qvc.com)
If you prefer a cheek gel, try Pixi Sheer Cheek Gel, a glide-on, hydrating gel with aloe vera that will impart a natural flush to your skin. Choose our favorite, Fresh (shown), a translucent peach. ($20, sephora.com)
Nars offers a handy all-in-one, cream-to-powder formula in a multi-purpose makeup stick. The Multiple comes in a range of shades; choose a sheer accent like Copacabana (glistening pearl) to use as a luminizer or the sheer pink of Riviera as the perfect blush tone. Bonus: You can use these to highlight eyes, even as a very sheer lip tint. ($36, sephora.com)
Another great face kit to pull it all together for you is the Mally Beauty Shimmer, Shape & Glow Face Defining System from celebrity makeup artist Mally Roncal. This three-powder compact will refine your look with glow for your cheeks, define your face with shaper to accent bone structure, and highlight your eyes with light-catching shimmer that adds subtle radiance and instant lift. We love the color choices: Life is Lighter (Light/Medium) or Love is Deeper (Tan/Dark). ($44.94, qvc.com)
POLISHED AND POISED
To match your luminous skin, keep to the light touch for eyes and lips. For eyes, substitute brown mascara for black, opt for a whisper-thin eye liner instead of that smokey eye.
We look to new product line Mally Beauty for the latest in liners (or, we should say, the “un-liner”): The Light Wand Eye Brightener Powder Pencil will freshen up your look any time of day. One end has a creamy, long-wearing pencil that instantly lightens and brightens. An extra-soft dabber on the other end lets you highlight the eye with illuminating powder. ($25.00, mallybeauty.com)
For shadows, boho beauty line Pout offers the coolest eye shadows in its Eye Shadow Duo — velvety soft formulas perfect for the season, yet colorful enough to satisfy the artist in all of us. Each palette offers a light and darker version of the shades. Ones to try: Miss Sweden (light and dark pink, shown), Miss October (warm peach shimmer and pale gold shimmer) and Miss November (soft peach glow and light chocolate shimmer). ($18, pout.co.uk, Victoria’s Secret and Sephora stores)
Maybelline New York Color Delights offer a four-pan color collection of light-infused cream shadow with shimmery color that will glide on easily. Celestial Skies (pearl, sky blue, lavender, peach) is a perfect choice in both color and theme. ($5.79, Ulta.com, local drugstores)
Sonia Kashuk offers a fun little palette that will satisfy the light tones for eyes this autumn. Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Dancin’ in Pink Make-up Set speaks to the diva in all of us with three lip glosses and one lip brush, a lip pencil, and an eye pencil — all in wearable pinks and mauves with just a hint of glimmer. ($4.99, Target)
SAYING IT SOFTLY
For your lips, stay light: Store away the russets and other darker lipstains of past seasons and put aside your reds for holiday parties. Sheer or nude lips say it best. Try Clinique Colour Surge Impossibly Glossy formula for pearly color. Beach Bunny (shown) is the perfect dewy color. ($14.50, clinique.com and local department stores)
For tawnier lip shades or if you prefer less pink, opt for the five-palette choices in Lorac’s Paparazzi Palette. The kit includes Sheer Shimmer, Chocolate-nude, Rose-beige, and Rose — a can’t-live-without-it box offering stylish pinks as well as traditional autumnal bronzy hues. ($22, Sephora stores and online)
For on-the-go lip style, check out perfectly paired Stila Lip Glaze and Glaze Lip Liner Sets. The liner goes on sheer and extends the life of your gloss. The ultra high shine of lip glaze gives lips a punch of color with a delicious scent. Available in three blends — watermelon/pink, brown sugar/mocha, and blackberry/plum. ($22.50, stilacosmetics.com)
WHAT TO WEAR
Accessories will be key for autumn fashion — we’ve got great ones to share on pages 14-17 — and the tone stays at once romantic and opulent, with textures from lace to croc to faux fur.
Shoes — or shall we say boots, boots, and more boots — show platform heels as well as croc and other textured leathers with belts and buckles as ornament.
Jewelry is bold again with beads, stones, and vintage looks.
Handbags are bright — very bright — in yellow, orange, and other eye-catching hues.
They’re just part of the season’s choicest color trends, which include inky black (back in vogue), rich navy, and other hot saturated tones like peacock blue and emerald green — perfect for pairing with subdued gray, making a comeback.
Fashion styles include the ever-popular nauticals as well as the romance of flowing fabrics, fitted empire styles — formal, but not frumpy. Outfit the rest of your closet for Autumn with these striking pieces:
Flattering full skirts
Pumps with attitude for the office bound
A structured military jacket
Beaded anything — belts, shoes, bodices
One crisp white shirt
Newsboy cap
HAIR TODAY
The up-do is back, but tousled, not tight. Pull longer hair back and pin up nonchalantly to match the casual feminine styles of the season. Pack away the flat iron — loose curls and natural waves are back, which should help make getting ready in the morning a bit easier.
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