FALL BACK!


The Pros agree that our favorite time of the year is between the months of September and November, thus we begin our search for new wardrobe items, both clothing and makeup. 

During our quest, we couldn’t help but notice the touch of feline femininity seen throughout the colors and textures that definitely make Fall 2010 our most favorite season. Bold, striking, and maybe a little high maintenance, the sassy trend is one to sink your claws into.



IMPO sent Makeup Pro, Cathi Singh, out to investigate and report on all the latest Fall trends.  She says, “it’s all about clean skin, long lashes, dramatic shadow, rich velvety colors, and soft luxurious cream blushes and lip colors.”




Your first step to achieving a new Fall look begins with Foundation because healthy skin is always in, but this season the focus is refined and polished, with a less dewy sheen.  Our picks are Chanel Pro Lumiere for a semi-matte silky finish and NARS Sheer Matte foundation.





Nothing screams sex kitten like a fierce cat eye using liquid liner and new user-friendly products give this classic a helpful update. Felt tip liner pens give beginners and Pros alike the benefit of a perfectly smooth line with just a flip of the wrist.



Our favorites are; NARS Stylo Pen, Benefit Magic Ink and Smashbox Liner Pen from the Heartbreak collection.





Pro Tip: When shopping for your felt tip pen, make sure to check the size of the pen tip as it will affect how defined or dramatic it applies onto your eye. Not all pens are created equal. Also, add a modern twist to your cat eye by applying a jewel toned soft pencil around the rim of the liquid liner or smudged over it.

We sipped on pumpkin spice lattes while viewing the Fall 2010 eye shadow collections - bronzes, coppers, smoldering browns, grays, and blacks.  Green tones are usually a part of every fall/winter season, but this is the year of the humid, khaki green. The military jacket, moss colored, shade with a hint of gold for that chic finish.

Pro picks; Guerlain Terracotta Fard Indien Mineral Eye Shadow in Jungle Dust is a deep green with gold shimmer that has a built in sponge tip applicator. Perfect for the get up and go lifestyle. Also check out their shadow quad called Bronze Dore 481, which has a beautiful olive green and complimenting colors.




Indulgent, dessert like chocolate browns are also a must for Fall and the Pros are head over heels for llamasqua’s Cream Eye Shadow in Destroy, which has a satin finish with a rich terracotta pigment. Delve and Inhale are two more decadent and delicious colors to add to the autumn palette.



 


Urban Decay gets a huge gold star for their Naked Palette. It’s stocked with the gamut of bronzy browns and a deep pigmented black, as well as two eye pencils to finish off the frisky feline set.




For the ultimate in luxurious shadow, Dior has created the Minaudiere Clutch for the smoky eye enthusiasts. Amenities include classic Dior hounds tooth pattern, gold accents, and two warm glossy lip colors. This clutch is exclusive to Dior's Holiday Collection 2010 not yet available in stores.




To line your eyes, try Stila’s Smudge Stick Waterproof Liner in Moray, which is an intense olive green with blendable texture. For understated color, mix bluish green colored pencils with charcoal shadows.




Lashes are all about length this season, so the Pros suggest Make Up For Ever’s Aqua Smoky Lash Waterproof Extra Black Mascara with an elastomer high-density brush, which makes reaching lash roots easy and creates incredible separation.




Just like fashion, brows have trends too and this season, brows are taking a back seat to prominent eye or lip color due to the rising trend of lightening, highlighting and erasing brow hair. If you don’t want to dye your brows, try a lighter application with your brow pencil, or even a shade or two lighter with a powder.




Understated and soft cheeks that have just a kiss of color are a must this season and at the top of our Fall 2010 list is Senna’s Cheeky Cream Blush in Petal.  We also love Senna’s new color Hue from their latest collection, which is a sheer matte blush.




Lady GaGa isn’t the only one embracing an orange lip; this feline look rocked the runways. Tangerine lips worn with bronzer, black eyeliner and mascara will immediately make your look current and fresh.



Not to mention the orange tones warm up the skin and help maintain that tan we are desperately trying to hold on to.  Sisley Hydrating Long Lasting Lipstick in L30 or L11 is our choices when rocking this trend.




  
Burgundy lipstick is another one of our favorite trends this season. Nothing says cozy like a rich berry stained lip, fluffy sweater and good book. In our case the book is usually a fashion mag, but tomato tomahto.

The Pros love Dior Addict Lip Color in Pinstripe Plum, as seen below on French actress, Marion Cotillard in Vogue Magazine.




We also are smitten with MAC Lipstick in Kittenish from the Fabulous Felines Collection exhibit some of the finest burgundy wine shades.  NYFW was laced with wine stained lips this season, like a 1930’s prostitute on the L.A.M.B. runway created with MAC cosmetics.





PRO TIPS AND TRICKS:

Fall 2010 is all about smoldering, sensual lips in jewel toned colors and we love the fact that lipstick is making a major comeback, but the Pros are so over trying to coordinate lip liners and lipstick colors!  We recommend trying Cargo Cosmetics The Reverse Lip Liner, which comes in two shades, Light or Medium/Dark.  This liner is a natural colored pencil that adds definition and fullness to the lip line and locks color in place.  Check out Cargo’s great how-to instructions below:





Products of the Month - September




Is it Fall already?  The Pros at IMPO think it still feels like summer, at least it does in So Cal!  Fall is our favorite time of the year because not only is it time to add to our boot collection and put up our Halloween decorations, it’s also time to shop for new makeup!

This is a good time of year to consider purchasing a new bottle, tube or compact of your foundation because the stuff you have been using since Spring is getting old and skanky!

It is also not a bad idea to invest in a new concealer and powder too and if you have a powder puff in your pressed compact…it is way past the gross, stinky stage and has collected enough of your DNA to make even the most sturdy FBI agent or crime scene investigator cringe! Time to chuck that and invest in a powder brush and blot papers for on-the-go touch ups!

So to help you embrace the Fall Season (even if you still have summer weather in your neck of the woods), here is a list of products the Pros love for the month of September:

Orlane Paris Anagenese 25+ Serum – statics show that aging begins at age 25 and becomes visible towards age 35-40.  By effectively fighting against signs of aging, you can delay the transformation of the skin.  The youngest member of the IMPO Pro team, Cathi Singh, swears by this product and thinks that it is an ideal product to begin your morning skincare routine with, plus it gives off an immediate healthy glow effect.  This serum will also help to even out skin tone and texture.  Try mixing it into your liquid foundation and then apply, Cathi swears this application trick works to minimize large pores!



Osmotics Blue Copper 5 Firming Eye Repair – another favorite in Cathi Singh’s Pro skincare arsenal is this creamy-gel formula product that contains peptides and anti-aging proteins that help boost collagen levels lost due to aging.  Big bonus: it even helps makeup around the eyes stay put!



Smashbox Eye Beam Double-Ended Brightener – this innovative brightener delivers the look of big, bright eyes quickly and easily!  Use the “highlight” end inside corners of the eyes and beneath the brow to make eyes appear bigger and wider.  Use the “rim” end on the lower waterline to brighten the whites of the eyes and make them pop!



Senna Cosmetics Eye Shadow – in Fixation and Blend are amazing colors from Senna’s Fall 2010 collection.  IMPO Pro Celeb MUA, Melissa Street, can’t get enough of these colors!  To achieve Senna Cosmetics' creator, Eugenia Weston's bold eye look below apply Fixation (a deep green hue) to the outer corners and in the crease, while using Blend to blur edges, infusing the colors together.  Gorgeous, sexy, sultry and perfect for Fall!






Illamasqua Precision Ink – this liner is incredibly pigmented and long lasting!  The fine tip applicator allows for perfect line drawing along lash line, waterline areas (tight lining) or for creating artwork on the body.  Totally waterproof and dries in seconds, this product comes in two colors a deep black called Abyss and an antique gold called Alchemy.



Smashbox Cream Eyeliner Palette – in Proof this palette is packed with 10 shades of mini cream liners.  Colors include: Lava (deep slate shimmer), Picasso (deep ink blue), Midnight Purple (deep violet), Midnight Brown (dark chocolate), Putty (medium brown), Caviar (true jet black), Thunder (mossy gray), Midnight Green (deepest chalkboard green), Deep Bronze (chocolate shimmer) and Cameo (russet brown).  Great for all eye colors!



Maybelline The Falsies Volume Express Mascara – all the Pros agree that Maybelline has knocked it out of the ballpark with this mascara.  We love a false lash and this product helps create length without the hassle of applying an actual full-strip false lash.  Two coats on upper lashes are recommended and check out the unique brush!



Smashbox Brow Tech To Go – the geniuses at Smashbox created this amazing portable, travel-friendly version of their iconic Brow Tech.  Double-ended component includes an angled, longwearing, waterproof pencil for precise filling and defining of the brows and a soft hold gel with a brow brush applicator to groom brows perfectly into place.



NARS Douceur Blush – another Pro fav, this blush is a flawless soft pink-brown hue that can be used to pop the cheeks, contour or warm up the forehead, jaw line and nose.  Sheer, natural hint of color that gently adds a delicate kiss to the cheeks!



Bobbi Brown Lip Color - in Black Maple from Bobbi's new Black Velvet Collection is a stunning, deep, rich shade of black, red plum!  This lipstick is Bobbi's original formula that treats lips to color with a soft-matte finish.  This is a limited edition color so stock up!



OPI Lincoln Park After Dark nail color - to match those sensuous lips try a dark plum nail color for both your fingers and toes!



OSIS by Schwarzkopf Freeze Super Hold Pump Hairspray – we don’t normally talk about a ton of hair products on this blog, but we just had to let our readers know about this product.  A very high performance hair spray that is long lasting and can perform under adverse conditions of temperature and humidity.  It won’t leave your hair feeling crunchy or leave you with a layer of white build up when you brush it out!



TIGI Wax Stick – do you all get those crazy flyaway hairs from static or when there is low humidity or when you pull a sweater on over your head?  Us too!  The Pros have found the perfect hair wax that, when used sparingly, concurs bed head, static head and unruly hair in general!



PRO TIPS AND TRICKS:

We know we don’t need to keep telling our readers this, but…you should be cleaning your personal makeup brushes at least once a week or more.  IMPO Pro, Melissa Street, keeps ColoreScience Brush Cleanser right next to her brush holder for a quick and easy clean.  Sanitizing your brushes means that your skin will be healthier too and this product will help prevent build-up of bacteria and makeup residue on brush bristles!



* Photo credit - V Magazine Fall 2010