Five days, 14 shows, and loads of eye gloss and pasta later, I walked away with quite a few beauty tips, a peek at the fifth product from Pat McGrath Labs, and about two additional inches on my waistline (the risotto's too damn good!). So on this day of rest before the Paris shows begin, I decided to share a few of my beauty lessons from Milan fashion week.
1. A new place to put your barrette.
There are the places where you instinctively know to put a hair clip—at the temple, right above the ear, to the side of a chignon. But at Bottega Veneta, hairstylist Guido proposed a new spot that immediately had us wondering why we hadn't thought of it first. With a deep side part in the hair, Guido slid the jeweled barrettes back behind the ear instead of in front of it, so you'd only see it from the side, not the front. It added an element of surprise—and a bit of edge to the romantic hair accessories.
2. How to get a more natural-looking glow.
At Marco de Vincenzo, makeup artist Terry Barber mixed highlighter—M.A.C. Cream Colour Base in Luna—with face oil and pressed it onto the cheekbones with the heel of his hands. "I wanted the shine to look like it had been done by skin care, not by makeup," said Barber. "Too much highlighter can look grainy when you see the chunks of the frost." This hack fixes that problem.
3. In a pinch, volumizing spray makes a good texturizer.
It's no secret that
is the most used styler backstage, but this season we saw it used in a new way. Usually it's applied to the hair and "dried in," meaning hairstylists blast the hair (wet or dry) with a blow-dryer. At Marni, however, Paul Hanlon misted the spray over dry hair and let it air-dry. "It makes the hair look piecey," he explained. And by the look of it backstage, it created the same tendril-y waves you'd get from a salt or sugar spray.
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4. Pat McGrath is coming out with something new.
This is more of a tip-off than a tip: After the Versace show, McGrath took to her Instagram account to tease that something new would be coming from Pat McGrath Labs. She hasn't released any specific details as of yet, but judging from the posts, it's something silvery and twinkly—sure to be as covetable as all the rest.
5. How to speed up the smoky-eye process.
Not one powder went into the sexy smoky eyes at Alberta Ferretti. Makeup artist Val Garland used only black and brown pencils. With black kohl pencil she traced the waterline of the eyes, then pressed black gel liner into the roots of the lashes and smudged it with a clean domed shadow brush. Then she rimmed the whole eye with brown pencil (
) and buffed that out into a smoky haze around the eyes. "Smoky eyes made with pencil instead of powder look cooler," she said. "But I also do it for speed. Doing smoky eyes with pencil is just much quicker." In real life, set the look with a dusting of translucent powder to keep it from creasing.
6. A blunt haircut is a great anti-ager.
Milan saw an onslaught of blunt haircuts: cropped bobs at Prada; long, layer-less hair at Versace; and a multitude of blunt bangs on models like Carmen Kass, Edie Campbell, and Vanessa Moody. "Right now there's something that feels very fresh about a simple haircut," said Guido backstage at Versace. "And because there's an innocence to these cuts, it also makes you look younger."