Joan Holloway, played by actress Christina Hendricks

Good morning, chicas! I know a few of you gals are fiends for the TV show, Mad Men. Did you know MAC’s the genius behind the show’s 60s-inspired makeup?

I love, LOVE the clean, fresh and elegant looks the three main female characters — Joan Holloway (an office manager at an advertising agency), Elizabeth “Betty” Draper (a housewife) and Peggy Olson (a copy writer at an advertising firm) — wear.

This morning my friends at MAC sent me an interesting Q&A with lead Mad Men makeup artist, Lana Horochowski. She discusses the creative process (always a fascinating thing to me), along with the MAC products used to create each character’s distinct look. I thought you might enjoy it while you sipped on your morning cup o’ java. Enjoy!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

P.S. The Monday Poll’s coming at ‘cha in just a few. Sit tight!

You’re the new department head at Mad Men for season three. Will you be making any changes to any character’s makeup?

Since we are moving a little forward into the future, we have changed up the color palette for each character to go along with the time period.

When you were preparing for this season, did you do any research for inspiration? If so, what most inspired you?

Weeks and weeks of meetings and research. I love looking through the old magazines. They are a great reference and a huge source of inspiration; however, we do try to keep the characters looking like real people that do their own makeup and not like movie stars with a makeup artist standing by. Magazines and old movies are a great guideline for a basic look and color selection.

Peggy Olson, played by actress Elisabeth Moss

How would you describe the looks of each one of the characters? How do they differ?

• Joan Holloway: Always put together, very sassy and sexy.
• Betty Draper: Although she is a housewife, she is an ex-model, so her makeup is clean but very current for the period.
• Peggy Olson: Peggy is a young and fresh-faced business woman of that period; she [has] very clean, natural makeup.

What are your key products for creating the makeup looks for the main female characters?

• Joan Holloway: We do a heavier eye on Christina [Hendricks], so the key products would be eyeliner and strip lashes.
• Betty Draper: Betty has two distinct looks: her at-home look and her going out/evening look. For home she is very natural — basically a sheer foundation [and] black eyeliner and mascara. Evening Betty goes a little thicker on the liner and [does] a brighter lipstick, [and is always] coordinated with her clothing.
• Peggy Olson: Since the key to Peggy’s look is to appear as though she is wearing no makeup, a great foundation is super important. Also, a natural cheek and lip stain [are] applied to give her a little color.

What are your favorite MAC products for each character?

• Joan Holloway: Cream Colour Base in Virgin Isle, [Fluidlines] in Blacktrack and Rich Ground (brown and black) and Eye Shadow in Soft Brown.
• Betty Draper: Cream Colour Base in Virgin Isle, Blushcreme in Posey and Lipsticks in Vegas Volt, Lip Pencils in Redd and Cherry.
• Peggy Olson: Eye Shadows in Orb, Vanilla and Soft Brown; Blot Powder.

Elizabeth “Betty” Draper, played by actress January Jones

Everyone always notices the lips on the show, but brows seem to play a very important part to the look. Can you talk about the brows on the show?

Women of the 60s had a stricter code of style and etiquette, so people tended to follow the trends closer to the book. Nowadays, women have a variety of different brow styles so we are constantly tweezing, shaping and filling the brows to recreate the look of the period.

Each character has the most perfect lashes framing her eyes. What are your favorite lashes to use to get that perfectly plump line of lashes?

We love the MAC individual lashes as well as the traditional strip lashes.

Do you collaborate with the hair and costume departments when coming up with a look?

Absolutely! We have at least three meetings per episode to create the look as a unit. I could not do this show without Lucia Mace (hair), Janie Bryant (costumes) and my fabulous key [makeup artist] Ron Pipes!

There seems to be a lot of making out on the show, how many times do you have to redo those red lips? Does it get messy?

We do what we can to seal the lip color, but we still have to go in every take to perform a minor clean up.

What can real women take away from the show’s look and incorporate into their everyday look?

Well, a great start would be lining the top lash line only with a gel liner like M·A·C Fluidline. We love this product for recreating the perfect 60s eye.

Also, replacing gloss and sheer or shimmer lipsticks with matte reds, bright pinks and corals help create a more retro look.

Lastly, instead of a powder blush try using creme in pinks and corals to create a flushed looking cheek. For evening, strip lashes are always a bonus.

MAC Nymphette Lipglass and I met at a MAC counter some 10 years ago when a friendly MAC makeup artist introduced us.

You know how it went — SPARKS! We had great chemistry from the start, and the shimmery golden pink lipgloss went on to become one of my all-time MAC favorites. To this day it’s a staple in many of my looks with smokey eyes.

Because Nymphette packs a lot of pigment, I can use it without layers of lipstick and/or lipliner beneath.

For me, the result’s an easy, breezy, neutral lip look that stands the test of time.

Have you met Nymphette?

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen

There’s something moody about the polishes in the new MAC Nail Trend F/W ‘09 by Jin Soon collection — not PMS moody, but Joy Division/black lipstick/angry love poetry kinda moody.

The bulk of the colors in this eight-piece collection feel dark, serious and hard-edged. The closest to puppies-and-flowers is Cool Reserve ($12), a creamy grayish purple.

Coincidentally, it’s my favorite!

Cool Reserve

I’m drawn to Cool Reserve’s softness and femininity. Some of the other colors, like Dry Martini (a creamy dark khaki), feel almost masculine to me. They’re cool, but not my style at the moment.

There are different strokes for different folks, though, so take a look at the rest of the swatches and let me know what ya think…

For Fun

Dry Martini

Beyond Jealous

Continue Reading…

Believe it or not, there are a few positives to accidentally hacking off your left eyebrow.

Besides discovering the psychological healing power of long bangs, Raul’s provided the opportunity to solve interesting new problems, like figuring out how to hide a partially bald brow while sweating like a pig (no offense, Miss P!).

Yesterday at hip-hop class, aka sweaty Karen central, I discovered a great trick to keeping filled-in brows put with the help of Too Faced Shadow Insurance ($17).

Normally, I use this invisible primer to lock eyeshadow down. Before heading to class last night, on a whim I patted some primer directly onto the sparse patch before filling it in with the Clarins Eyebrow Kit Pro Palette.

I figured the worst that could happen would be beads of black sweat streaming down my cheeks (ewww). Fingers crossed and hoping for the best, I went about getting my booty shake on.

You know what? It totally worked. As I Cabbaged Patched and Robo Copped my way through yet another old school routine, the filled-in spot miraculously refused to budge. And even though I was drenched at the end of the 90-minute class, Raul totally stayed on the ‘low. Yes!

While I lurves me some Too Faced Shadow Insurance, I’m guessing any invisible eyeshadow primer could work. A few to consider: Urban Decay Potion Primer ($17), Tarte Lifted Natural Eye Primer ($20) and Benefit F. Y. Eye ($22).

MAC attack!

In two shakes I’m heading over to MAC to check out the new Nail Trend F/W ‘09 By Jin Soon collection.

I’ve been testing the polish for durability over the past week, and so far it’s held up really well. Here’s an updated photo of Dance All Night (a creamy brick red):

Continue Reading…

I wanted to say hi before dashing out the door for an early dance class to shake my groove thing, shake my groove thing (yeah, yeah). How’s your weekend coming along? Mine hasn’t been bad so far — just a lot of paperwork (more condo stuff, trying for an FHA loan), a little beauty reading (In Style!) and a few Sex and the City DVDs.

Before I roll, how about a Sunday giveaway?

The prize

One lucky lady will take home one tube of MAC Plush Lash Mascara in Plushblack (a $13 value).

Plush Lash is all about fatty-bo-batty drama. It thickens, lengthens, hella holds a curl and stays put on me all day long without smudging.

I first heard about it back in 2007 and have loved it to this day.

How to enter…

Entering is easy. There are two different ways, and you can do both of them for two chances to win.

First, you can enter by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post — a comment about mascaras or anything at all.

I have wimpy, straight lashes, so I like mascaras that add dramatic volume and length — the more drag queeny the better!

Second, enter by following me on Twitter and retweeting (RT) the following message:

RT @karenmbb: RT to Win MAC Plush Lash Mascara in Plushblack http://bit.ly/1Ty6RE

Recap…

1. Enter by leaving a comment at the bottom of this post, and don’t forget to use a valid email address so I can reach you if you win.
2. Follow me on Twitter and retweet the following message:
   
   RT @karenmbb: RT to Win MAC Plush Lash Mascara in Plushblack http://bit.ly/1Ty6RE

I’ll pick the winner at random from among the people who enter by 11:59 PM PST on Monday, August 24.

Shubhakaamana!

Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,

Karen