Boyfriend brow
Gone are the days of zealous plucking to force a shape. Instead, it's about following the shape of your brow bone. The thicker brow demands care, but it's a great focal point for the woman who likes it au naturel.
"Now it's about finding your natural shape, letting it go a little more and not overplucking," says Patricia Alfonso Tortolani, beauty editor for In Style magazine. "Once you get there with the eyebrow grooming, you can keep the rest of the face very bare, and make the brow the focus of your look."
A thicker brow can take years off, too. "It's younger-looking when you don't do so much to it," says Gerald Belanger of Chanel. He likens the over-tweezed look to the aging effect of too much makeup.
As for colour, "it's not about your brows matching the colour of you hair," says Tortolani. "It's about your brows being a shade that complements your skin
tone. Look at Carrie Underwood. She's blond, but her eyebrows are a warm tone that complements her skin."
To accentuate your brows, MAC senior artist Jane McKay suggests using an angled brush and a powder. "Use short, little strokes to fill in, and add a touch
of highlighter in the apex
of the brow."
Simple doesn't mean played down
Call it an early sign of the consumer diet. Despite the steady stream of new cosmetics pouring into the fall shopping basket, beauty experts are preaching the gospel of simplicity.
"Women are looking for one quick and easy thing they can do to recharge their look without having to spend a lot of time on it," says Patricia Tortolani, senior beauty editor for In Style Magazine.
Even the season's closet is about paring down. This fall, designers favoured structured shapes with a minimalist tendency. Statements are no longer loud, but subtle and self-assured.
"The clothes aren't super-feminine; they are more structured and serious," says Gerald Belanger, national makeup artist for Chanel. "So the makeup has to be really strong to complement that. People want to have more fun with makeup, to be more feminine and dramatic. It's like an accessory."
Simple doesn't mean played down. The approach is to pick one feature and go all out. Be dramatic: deep, smoky eyes, where traditional greys and blacks are switched for blues; dark burgundy lips that look like you've been sipping merlot all night; strong eyebrows that demand you go light with the tweezers.
Keep the rest of your face clean. Use foundation only where you need it; remember that showing some skin is sexy.
And it's not just a matter of maturity: Regardless of what your age is, you can tweak these looks to flatter. It's about attitude, too.
"If I see a woman with a dark lip, sunglasses and heels, I think, 'That's a powerful woman,' " Belanger says. "The lips describe a woman a bit more. This is for a woman who is sure of herself."
The smoky eye is a classic; this season, the difference is in the colour.
"The smoky eye has been around forever," Tortolani notes. "But the new incarnations involve a shot of colour. Its not just the grey and black. Blue is important for fall."
And while you're borrowing your boyfriend's blazer this season, why not borrow his eyebrows as well? The strong brow is a statement in and of itself.
"The eyebrow is a huge element in framing the eye and face," MAC senior artist Jane McKay says. "And a fuller brow flatters the face. If you have a strong brow, you need less makeup."
And what could be simpler than that?
Burgundy lip
"The burgundy lip is huge, but what makes this trend so wearable is that there's a lot of different textures," says Tortolani. "You can go for a really opaque lip using a matte or creamy texture or you can go for more of a translucent stain, which is a great way to ease into the trend."
Tortolani points out that wearability is not so much about age, but where you're going to wear it. A stain, for instance, is less extreme and perfect for work and won't need touch-ups throughout the day.
McKay stresses the importance of finding the shade that's right for you. "Fair skin tones can carry the dark really well, while olive undertones should look for purple bases or red-pinks to enhance it. And dark skin tones can pull off this lip beautifully."
Finally, ditch the liners and other accoutrements when it comes to the deep lip. You don't need them. "We're not seeing the liners, the lipstick [and]then the gloss on top. That's a lot of products," Belanger says. "It should look more real, so go with as little as possible on the lips."
Blue smoky eye
Here's the good news: A smoky eye works on everybody.
"Whether your eyes are big or small, I don't know anyone this wouldn't suit," says Belanger. "It's all in the way you do it."
If you want to play up your lids, use blue to update.
"People are afraid of blue shadow because it brings back all these frightening memories of the eighties," says Tortolani. "But if you do your eyes with a grey base and then dust blue shadow on top of that, it adds a depth to your smoky eye and you're also bringing in this new, fresh and interesting element."
In terms of age, Tortolani advises to go darker as you get older. "Turquoise eyeliner is cool and fun on a woman in her early 20s. As you get older, you want to go toward the midnight blues, so you're still getting the effects. It's just a bit more subtle and classic."