Daily delight: Gordon Espinet & the make-up the models didn’t want to take off

Moving on from New Zealand Fashion Week and its Pam-tastic finale, I’ve been trawling the net for beauty trends emerging from the runways of Europe, where apparently it’s “all about the lip”. The much-travelled Amber D. from M.A.C New Zealand was – as usual – on trend with her look for Trelise Cooper at ANZFW detailed in an earlier post, and it comes as no surprise that she was also on the job for M.A.C earlier in the year in Milan for the AW09 collections. But the look that has been hailed by all in sundry as “the make up that the models didn’t want to take off” was the slicked, smoky eyes and sexy pale pink mouths created by Gordon Espinet at DSquared2 for AW09, which has a different point of focus and is a look that I’m well into right now. Not only is it perfectly on-trend (the smoky eye has of late swapped powdery textures for a glossy finish) but also incredibly flattering, and the way we all wish we looked when we woke up in the morning. Well I do anyway… So how is it done? ‘I started by lining the inner rims of models’ eyes with Kohl Power Pencil in Feline (from the new DSquared2 Collection),” Espinet told Vogue UK, “as it’s the blackest pencil I’ve found”. Apparently Gordon loves Feline so much he has 7,000 of them stored at home, if the rumours are to be believed! Next, he blended Greasepaint Stick in Intense Black on the sockets, smudging it a little underneath the eyes as well. “Then to add depth and interest to the black, I added a little Greasepaint Stick in B [a blue, also part of the DSquared2 collection] to the inner half of the lower rim and in V [a purple, ditto) to the socket.” For the lips, he used Lip Erase all over the mouth, then dabbed Lip Conditioner in Fuchsia Fix in the middle. Once again, too easy! Can’t wait to get my hands on the collection now.