By Hannah Fox
“From the deepest caves, up from the graves, bringing her soul into the light. The heartbeat of the dragon did fight. Fire, coal, disintegration. A moment of love is her resurrection.” This is what designer Mark Fast said was his inspiration for his AW17 womenswear collection.
Fast and his team wowed us this weekend when we got to go backstage and get a first look at the hair and makeup process. The brand had joined forces with Benefit Cosmetics to bring Fast’s inspiration to life.
Lisa Potter-Dixon, Benefit Cosmetics head makeup artist and brow expert, was nice enough to take some time from the busy day and talk us through the process and how to perfect the look. Her inspiration for the accompanying outfits, was “She’s frozen under a rainbow with the soft reflection of the colour wheel embedded into her skin, with her frost bitten brow quiff framing her face.” Potter-Dixon went on to explain each step to get the look with Benefit Cosmetics and why any woman can wear this face, on AND off the runway:
Potter-Dixon started talking to us about the look by pointing out the model’s smooth complexion, which was achieved using Shy Beam with Hello Flawless Oxygen Wow! and blending it all over the face with her fingers. Where needed, she used Boi-ing Concealer.
The next step, Potter-Dixon explained that she was very fond of, was the model’s eyebrows. “I decided I was going to create a new brow trend called the “Brow Quiff” which again, goes with the hair,” she explained. “I’ve just put product (Gimme Brow Volumising Eyebrow Gel) at the front of her brow and kinda make it feathered and brush up so it’s overexaggerated.”
Potter-Dixon was very innovative with the look when it came to the colors she used, and how she used them. The third step was to take the Majorette Cream Blush and “turn it upside down” so that the blush starts actually in the hairline and goes just to the top of the cheekbone.
For the eyes, bright pastel pink was used but not in the way we would think. Potter-Dixon used GALifornia, a blush, to create a bold lashline. By dipping a damp brush into the blush, it created a fine paste that brightened the eyes and complimented each outfit. “If you think about it too much, yeah we could do a brown smokey eye and maybe that’s going to go with everything, but this is fashion, it’s fun and creative, and Mark’s collection is beautiful and creative,“ she said. “We wanted to make sure that what we’ve done is almost clashing.” Clashing in the sense of adding blue They’re Real! Lengthening Mascara for a memorable look on the catwalk.
The final touch was on the lips, with They’re Real! Double the Lip, in a shade that Dixon-Potter chose specifically for each model and her outfit, so that again the concept of “clashing” was prevalent.
While this look was created for the runway, specifically for Mark Fast’s AW17 collection, Potter-Dixon was quick to say that this is actually very wearable in the everyday world. “Makeup is personal now, everyone can do what they want, it’s not necessarily about a trend, it’s about what suits you. Even if it’s just one part about this look, I think every woman can rock a certain part of this look.” We love the creative liberty Potter-Dixon took with this look, and we’re feeling a little inspired to try it out on ourselves!