Sacre Bleu! Aaron De Mey for Lancome’s Fall Colors

Yesterday I headed out to Paris for a day trip… something to really cherish as I know it will be impossible to do when I return to the US. The lovely people at Lancome had invited me back for the launch of Aaron De Mey’s new fall makeup collection: Declaring Indigo. Arron De Mey’s who’s done editorial work for several years, and worked on the runway shows for Comme des Garcons and more recently L’Wren Scott, this is his third collection since his debut last year with the black gloss and red lipstick… he continues to bring his artistry and his irreverent spirit to the classic Lancome house.

Declaring Indigo

“Declaring Indigo which celebrates freedom, femininity and audacity found its inspiration in the French Revolution and in the legendary Parisian free spirit. Aaron De Mey’s icons such as Simone de Beauvoir or Brigitte Bardot, are the rebellious, passionate and impertinent heroines of the French avant-garde spirit.”

He went on to note that a lot of countries use the colors red, white and blue in their flags, and that it’s an international color combination. His vision is to design for the world of women, for all age groups, elasticities, and cultures. Which he says is more challenging than catering to ‘Just the American woman, or just the European woman, or just the Australasian woman.’

The collection is an expression of blue-indigo, complemented by flecks of golden light and touches of matte, vibrant red. The goal was to get us to use blue as the new black, or brown in makeup. The palette get the metallic as rich as possible, developing a new texture for eyeshadows. Here’s Aaron working on Swedish beauty blogger Katarina from Bjooti.net (Photo  © Sophie Arancio)

He’s not the only one to be inspired by the French national colors. even I had been affected at some point. Though I did tell my husband that if I didn’t balk at any display of nationalism he would know that the pods got me. So before we go all Donald Sutherland, the notion of wearing blue eyeshadow with red lipstick may not be as cartoonish as we think…

Above German Moyano, International Make Up Trainer Director at Lancome applies the colors with a softer daytime look.We skip the red completely and focus more on the gold in the pallets. Of course, I love gold!

Left to my own devices:

Well, as nice of a job the make up artists did… the reality of the matter is that when I get home, I’m going to wear the make up completely different. Sorry, that’s just how it is in my world. I do go between strong eyes, and red lips or bright lips, and lately I’ve been changing the way I wear makeup for several reasons, one because I’m getting older and my skin is changing. Two, because after the black eyeliner gig that I wore since high school many many moons ago, I think I need to change and try out more things. For many years, I had been a huge MAC fan, and have tried just about every one of their eyeshadows because no other eyeshadow will stay the way a MAC shadow will. I love Lancome, but more their lipsticks which are softer and creamier without losing pigmentation. The matte red, doesn’t disappoint, I really liked the velvety red texture of the lipstick. Here are three different looks I did… gold eyes/red lips, blue-gold eyes/nude lips, blue eyes/nude lips.

Something to declare…

One thing I have to say is that the gel eyeliner is amazing. I had applied it on the inside of the lower lid, a place that usually melts off in seconds, and it stayed! As I’m typing this it’s still on, black as the moment I put it on. The sparkley mascara Virtuose which is part of the collection, I’m not a good person for special mascaras… and this was no exception I can’t get it to show up for the life of me, so I would skip it.  All in all, I loved the layerablity of the shadows, you could go very light and sheer or bold and dramatic, and the blue is so rich. I will definately make use of the gold shadows. As for the blue… well the blue is gorgeous, it really is, but, I can wear it for special occasions, or very sparingly.. my life doesn’t really call for dramatic make up. Luckily, it’s always a good time to wear red lipstick.