Looking luminous with MAC

With spring – or in Thailand’s case – the hot season – just a few short weeks away – Bangkok’s fashionistas were recently treated to some professional predictions as to the beauty trends for spring and summer 2012. Romero Jennings, senior makeup artist from MAC New York, spoke enthusiastically about bright pink lips that he says will create an instant “Wow!” factor.
A makeup artist with MAC cosmetics for 20 years, Jennings creates lavish, exotic and handsome looks for celebrities as well as for fashion shows from New York to Milan. Last week, he stopped off in Bangkok to present the four trends that the ladies cannot afford to miss.
Athelite is a minimalist, ultra luminous nomakeup makeup that’s clean, healthy and chic.
Romantic and delicately glamorous, Nouveau draws on the nature–inspired shades, sinuous shapes and sensitive colouring of 1920’s Art Nouveau and is all about tinting the skin with washes of colour. Lips and cheeks get a lookin with stains of fondant peach, apricot and strawberry tones.
Beautifully buffed metallic accents for the lips, cheeks and eyes reference the idea of a summer tan with OreInspired. Go easy on base and build in an athletic bone structure with metallic highlights
Last but not last, the Neon” look is dynamic and urban. Neoprene shades get a contemporary rethink while lips are effortlessly edgy coated with Jennings’ favourite, the Neon pink lipstick.
We ask him for his tips.

So what’s “in” and what’s “out”?
Neon pink lips are definitely “in”. American girls love it. Even though it was snowing in New York when I left, they were wearing it and loving it. So the Neon pink look is really “in”.
The key thing not to do is to do too many colours, otherwise you end up pretty much like a rainbow. To make the look sophisticated, it has to be just one focus, maybe with the brightest colour you can but only on the lips. I’m sure somebody will say “wow! So what is ‘out’ is wearing too many colours.

What is the fun part about doing make up for a fashion show?
All of it is fun! I guess the most exciting part is meeting the designer for the first time and having them telling you about the inspiration for their collection, and then designing the makeup with him or her, the hairstyles, looking at the models and the collection. It is so much fun, and it’s great for me. It doesn’t feel like work because I enjoy it so much. And I love being backstage at, say, a Vivienne Westwood show. When MAC does her show, there are so many elements, but for the last couple of season, instead of the models having the same look, each has had a completely different look and that makes it very interesting. It’s about individuality and your own style. The designers might give make up three colours and they can work on the model.

What’s the best look for a makeup beginner?
The easiest one is Nouveau because it’s tone on tone. Before makeup was so popular, women used to stain their lips with beetroot. So you would put on the same colour and make it work on the lips, eyes, and cheeks.


What makeup technique do you recommend?
Tapping really helps because you never know about the skin texture underneath. Some people might have very dry and sensitive skin or pimples, so using a brush all the time can irritate the skin. Tapping causes no damage and feels comfortable. People do make up differently and sometimes it is kind of painful. I’m trying to think about the person behind the brush.
Skin is varied so by tapping, you kind of smooth it out and you don’t remove the layers you already laid on.
Other important techniques are prepping and prolonging make up. Doing make up for a fashion show or magazine shoot is very different from the red carpet. It could take about 20 minutes but for the red carpet, you need prolonged makeup. It makes a big difference when you want that beauty to last. I mean, you want to eat but you want your lipstick to stay on. It’s like doing makeup for a bride. Every bride wants to have her makeup stay perfect for as long as possible. These days, if you do makeup for a celebrity, her publicist will have her scheduled for a whole day of appointments and they don’t want to waste time with makeup so they want it to last.

In the world of cosmetics, what item can’t you live without?
The lip pencil. I do the line, and then put some lipgloss on. I feel like the lips look fluffy.