Raf and Hedi

So I dropped off the blogging grid for about a week... Sorry for the lack of posts but I have been busy keeping up with school and traveling and truthfully felt a little uninspired.  While I have been loving the Paris fashion shows, I didn't want to inundate you with fashion and wasn't feeling much inspiration from other sources.  So of course today what shall I write about? Fashion.

The big news this season (and for months now really) has been the new designers for the houses of Dior and Yves Saint Laurent.  Raf Simons left the Jil Sander brand after the Fall 2012 season and debuted for Dior as a couturier this summer.  But his first ready-to-wear line for the historic brand has been much anticipated.  Just as the arrival of Hedi Slimane at the helm of YSL.  Slimane hasn't been designing for a few years now (leaving Dior Homme for a move into photography) but he's been given completely creative control over the YSL brand.  First order of business, changing the name to Saint Laurent Paris.  He's also redesigning stores and coming up with concepts for and shooting advertising campaigns.  While Slimane did create a collection for resort, it was only viewable by buyers.  So his Spring 2013 show has been much anticipated.  Here are how both amazing designers are bringing their iconic houses into the future.

Dior Spring 2013

Raf went back to Christian Dior roots with sleek, ladylike tailoring.  He also demonstrated the beautiful minimalism he is known for, but never in a stark way.  

Saint Laurent Paris Spring 2013

Slimane channeled some classic Saint Laurent shapes while injecting his years spent in Los Angeles.  The feel was very California bohemian with the rocker chic of the '70s.  

(images via Style.com)

Lips As Red As...

One of my favorite trends for fall, and life really, are red lips.  They are so bold and make such a statement.  I've always been a little leery of trying to pull off a red lip not at a black tie event, and maybe that was because I hadn't found the right red.  There are many out there and each skin tone and hair shade need something different.  But I think I finally found my red!  It's Yves Saint Laurent's Rouge Pur Couture The Mats lipstick in Rouge Rock.  After applying it, the makeup artist said I looked like Snow White.  In love!  And it's definitely something I'd like to start rocking during the daytime.  Here is some amazing inspiration for a rouge pout.  

What's stopping you? Go find your red!

(images clockwise from top left via 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

Lighten Up

As a self-proclaimed beauty junkie, I've tried a lot of foundations from various brands throughout the years.  But in the past few years I've been using formulas from Yves Saint Laurent, namely because I was finding other brands to be too yellow on my skin.  So as a lover of all YSL products that help me to create a flawless base (teint radiance foundation, anti-cernes concealer and the famous touche éclat as an under eye highlighter) I'm excited that there is now another amazing product to throw into the mix.  Touche Éclat Foundation.

The reason that touche éclat is so renown as a concealer is its light reflecting properties.  In its twenty years on the market it is one of the most recommended and sold beauty products.  The new foundation, Le Teint Touche Éclat, uses the same light reflecting technology to make skin appear flawless and luminous.  Apparently, the skin scientists over at YSL have been working on this technology for 10 years now.  Ten. Whole. Years. That's a long time to spend perfecting a base.  But it was worth the wait.  The new foundation has just launched in the U.S.  In fact, I could not find it on the YSL Beauty's U.S. site yet.  I actually only have it already because I stopped by the YSL counter at Saks this weekend to replace my cure-all concealer, anti-cernes in #1.  The sales woman showed me her secret supply of Le Teint Touche Éclat which she had gotten in the day before.  There wasn't even a display for the new product yet.  I feel very in the know.  And did I mention I'm loving it.  It goes on light, which is perfect for the summer heat but makes my skiing dewy and all around perfect looking.  I'm officially a fan.  According to WWD, the product should be in all American retail outlets by the end of July so keep an eye out!

Jourdan Dunn and Ginta Lapina for Le Teint Touche Éclat

(images via WWD)

Buy Touche Éclat highlighter and other YSL products at YSL Beauty

Polished to Perfection

I'm a beauty product junkie.  Or recovering.  Well, trying.  I have a thing for beauty products and wanting to try every single one out there, but then sticking only to a few basics and letting the rest pile up in my drawers.  This especially goes for lip gloss. Just ask my mom.  Over the course of time I have owned every shade of pink imaginable.  To the point where it was hard to differentiate my many Chanel glosses because they were just slightly a shade different from one another.

While I am trying to reform my ways and buy much less lip gloss I did have to indulge in the new YSL gloss I've been hearing about.  It's called Rouge pur Couture Vernis à Lèvres, the last part roughly translated is "polish for lips".  Vernis is typically the word used on nail polish bottles, therefore it is to be noted that this is not truly a lip gloss.  As the makeup artist at Neimans explained to me, the product is really more like a lipstick that feels like a gloss (and is applied with a wand) but stays like a stain.  Kind of crazy, right?

Well it's all true.  My lips were glossy to begin with but when that faded (as all glosses do), it still felt creamy, like a lipstick.  BUT hours later, the color was still perfect.  Thus, a stain.  I am officially deeming this the perfect lip product (let's go with product, because gloss doesn't quite cut it) for going out.  I hate when you pick a stand-out color and then have to keep re-applying all through the night.  Not with this.

However, I also recommend that you don't hastily re-apply while walking or stopped at a traffic light.  Be very careful with the application because wherever it goes, it's staying.

(images via YSL Experience)

I'm using #14 Fuchsia Doré - if you're going to be bold, go all the way right?

$32 wherever Yves Saint Laurent makeup is sold