“Undone But Polished” Beauty, Backstage At Balmain
March 1, 2012
The Balmain beauty look is pretty much as consistent as it gets—which is to say you’re never going to see a statement lip and an avant-garde eyeliner application here. Hair and makeup with a little rock chick, devil-may-care-attitude is more like it. “It’s even rawer than we’ve ever done this season,” Sam McKnight said of Fall’s slightly texturized strands that, for the most part, he wasn’t really tinkering with. “I do need clean hair,” he emphasized, starting with a good lathering of Pantene Pro-V Repair and Protect Shampoo, which he followed with little else. “For the girls with super-dry and frizzy hair, we’re using Magic Move,” he said, producing a jar of the Japanese hair wax that imparts a piece-y, smooth finish. “But for most girls, we’re not doing anything at all!”
Tom Pecheux’s face-painting effort was meant to look similarly modest, although even the barest of makeup looks benefits from an expert’s hand. “The collection was inspired by Fabergé eggs—so true luxury,” Pecheux explained of Olivier Rousteing’s clothes, which compelled him to keep things simple as a way of balancing out the extravagance. “Skincare is very important [with a look like this],” Pecheux explained of the toned, well-moisturized base, to which he applied select swipes of concealer where needed, as well as a “veil” of contour and a concentrated swipe of powder along the T-zone to control shine. “Balmain always gets the 25 most beautiful girls in the world, so they don’t need much,” Pecheux admitted. The one place that he did use purposeful pigment was on the brows, re-coloring the remaining few models who are still bleached from Milan and filling in sparse areas with a two-pronged approach. “The pencil corrects the holes if there are any, and the mascara paints every single hair and keeps them in the right place,” he elaborated, dipping a clean wand into light brown, dark brown, or black mascara tubes to color-match each individual model. “Even if she’s undone, she still needs to look polished.”
