Happy first birthday to Yahoo Beauty! What better way to celebrate than with a purple smoky eye? (Photo: Henry Leutwyler)
Today, Yahoo Beauty celebrates its first birthday! When we launched Yahoo Beauty, our goal was to talk about beauty beyond makeup. We wanted a site that was a celebration of who you are, a site that was about beauty from the inside, outside, and everywhere else, and most importantly, a site that would inspire you to live beautifully.
The key to perfect red lips: A super thick lip pencil. (Photo: Henry Leutwyler)
From Bobbi’s interviews with Jennifer Aniston, Kerry Washington, andCate Blanchett to our Beauty Breakdown videos with industry mastersTed Gibson, Angela Levin, and Nick Barose to our nomination for Must-Read Editorial Beauty Site by Marie Claire just weeks after we first launched — we couldn’t have done all of this without you.
The Yahoo Beauty editorial team celebrating! (Photo: Instagram)
Giambattista Valli is launching a collection of lipsticks for MAC on July 9. (Photo: MAC)
Giambattista Valli is the latest designer to collaborate with MAC, and his obsession with colors and flowers provided the perfect foundation for an exquisite new collection of lipsticks. This year, the Paris-based "it" designer who's dressed everyone from Amal Clooney to Rihanna is celebrating 10 years of his self-titled fashion house as well as a decade partnering with MAC on his runway shows. In honor of this occasion, Valli has created five vibrant matte lipsticks and a clear gloss to transform the lipsticks into — you guessed it —10 different combinations. Also big news: For the first time ever, MAC has color-matched the packaging to the lipstick bullets, so you know exactly which tube you’re grabbing. We sat down with Valli to discuss his newest creations. Be sure to scoop them up on July 9.
Joanna Douglas: The first thing I noticed was the packaging matches the lipsticks. I haven’t seen that at MAC before. Is that something that you really wanted to make happen?
Giambattista Valli: Yes, because I think it is practical when you put it in your bag and you can recognize right away the colors that you want to put on your lips. You don’t have to open and check.
When did you start working with MAC?
The beginning of my story was 10 years ago, when I started my first show. We were on from the very beginning.
How did that evolve into saying “I want my own collection with MAC”?
We wanted to do something collectable for the 10 years of Giambattista Valli — we thought it would be nice to have a collaboration and do something impactful. Lipstick can really almost change a personality or the face of a woman. My collections are always colorful. It’s my signature point. I’m not afraid about colors, flowers, patterns. Everybody has his own identity. There are some designers that are known just for the black.
Giambattista Valli x MAC lipsticks will sell for $18 each. (Photo: MAC)
What was your thought process on these shades?
Fetish colors are all the reds and pinks — they were telling the timeless story of Giambattista Valli. So I said to myself, “It would be very nice to dress your lips in Giambattista Valli and have these colors on it.” And then, I wanted to put these two opposite attitudes: Something extremely matte, almost pigmented, that’s very contemporary, modern, and graphic, and then at the same time something very fun. So the same matte color you can turn it into something more pop and do it glossy.
What do you hope to achieve with the collection? Do you want to make your brand more accessible?
I think it was the opportunity to collect a Giambattista Valli piece for everybody. It’s something that can really renovate your wardrobe, really adjust the colors on the lips. It combines both of us because it’s a collaboration, but it’s very different from MAC — that kind of Parisian sophistication of haute couture and everything. MAC is more dynamic and pop, so it’s also to attract even other customers. And for me, to meet new people in the house. I think every time somebody new chooses you and likes what you do it’s like a new friend in the house.
Giambattista Valli for MAC. From left to right: Lipstick in Bianca B, Margherita, Tats, Charlotte, Eugenie ($18 each), Crystal Glaze Gloss in Lena ($23) (Photo: MAC)
Did you know that you wanted to do five lipsticks? Were you deciding between a couple of shades? Yes. It’s 10 years, so you have five colors, but then with this [gloss] it becomes 10.
Clever. How did you come up with that concept of layering them?
I love opposites. I love the idea that with one you can do two looks. And just the gloss with natural lips, I think is beautiful too. And the gloss you can use it even sometimes up on your eyes, and have that kind of natural look.
It’s almost like layering your clothes.
Yes, you can play with it, it’s like that top you can wear it over a pencil skirt or ball gown or you can wear it with a pair of jeans and flats on. It depends on your personality, how you are going to interpret it.
Was there any back and forth on the colors?
We started with a lot, but then little by little we went through them. All the girls in my studio were very helpful. I tested some on them, it was really nice. I love to see reactions from real women at the end, you know. It’s you who is going to wear it.
Giambattista Valli take a bow at Spring 2015 Paris Fashion Week Haute Couture in January. (Photo: Getty Images)
Is there one shade that you particularly gravitate towards?
I can’t say. It depends on the woman. If you gave me like a line of girls I could tell you which one will suit better than the other one!
Are the colors supposed to match your clothing? Some of your dresses are a very close match.
Yes, because they come from pieces of the fabrics. I went through all the reds, all the pinks, and all the tones that were used in the past and we put it all together.
Lately I’ve seen many actresses matching their lipstick to their dresses on the red carpet. Do you suggest doing that?
It depends on the attitude, it depends on if you’re big, if you’re short. I think the makeup is exactly proportional with dress. Everything can suit everybody, but it depends on the proportion.
Rihanna wore a Giambattista Valli gown to the Grammys this year. (Photo: Getty Images)
How do you work with the beauty teams to incorporate your fashion vision into the makeup look for a runway show or a campaign?
I make clothes but then when I do a fashion show for example, I need to visualize the actress that is going to wear my clothes. Is she passionate? Maybe she is in love and she is kissing, so probably she has bright lips. Or if she is more abstract, it’s just about the light and the face, for example. But I love this kind of effortless attitude at the end. It’s predominant in my vision of the woman.
For a woman wearing one of these bold shades on her lips, what do you think should be happening on the rest of her face?
Just beautiful skin, that’s it. A beautiful texture of the skin.
Are there any specific actresses or women you would love to see wearing these colors? The biggest quantity as possible all over the world! [Laughs] That’s the successful thing. It’s not now me choosing them, it’s them choosing me. I wish the best for MAC and for me.
Actress Lupita Nyong’o wore Giambattisa Valli to the Golden Globes this year (Photo: Getty Images)
And for the evolution of your fashion brand, there are tons of trends happening. How do you stay current but still true to yourself in terms of designing?
Because I’m somebody that experiments with style and time. I experiment [while] being faithful to me and being faithful to the woman that I want to dress.
Tulum, Nicaragua, and even Asia can forget about it, fashion has a new love and her name is Cuba. Now that relations with the Cuban government have eased, people are flocking to the country to see its rich and colorful culture, including Havana’s incredible 16th century architecture, the 1950s American-made cars, salsa fun, and the inspiring music of the famous Tropicana club. Sounds like a recipe for the perfect fashion inspiration? Yes it is! Ever since President Obama announced a diplomatic revival with Cuba a few months back, the fashion pack booked and hopped over the Straits of Florida to (legally) experience firsthand what this incredible country has to offer. Designers, who are astutely aware of cultural shifts, took notice. This week the Cuban effect in not one, but three resort collections.
First up was Stella McCartney who went all out and threw a Cuban soiree, even going so far as to invite actors portraying Fidel Castro and Che Guevara to come out and enjoy mojitos and chocolate cigars. The clothes included long and voluminous dresses in bright colors that are perfect to salsa in, while floral prints were a nod to the country’s tropical side. A white dress with white knit with ruffles was perhaps influenced by what the Cubans refer to as “iyawó,” or people who wear all white when initiated into a weeklong Santería process.
Proenza Schouler’s trip to Cuba recently was more than just for inspiration. Designer Lazaro Hernandez has family in Cuba and his time there made a huge impact on their Resort collection. Tropical prints, ruffles, and crochet dresses were their take on the Cuban experience.
Next up was Adam Lippes who reinterpreted his Cuban dream in a very delicate way. A khaki green leather coat that was tied at the waist and paired with a skirt with bright red heels was an obvious nod to the country’s revolutionary past. A beautiful white shirt was Lippes’ take on the Cuban ‘Guayabera,’ aka a man’s wedding shirt. A jungle print on a long, flowing dress represented the tropics. Feel the heat!
Gigi Hadid may be taking her new kitty Cleo to the gym with her. Photo: Corbis Images
If there is one thing that signifies a particular kind of lifestyle of the rich and the famous — that separates us from them, that denies stars are ever just like us! — it is carrying a tiny animal with you wherever you go. The look that Tinkerbell, may she rest in peace, and her human Paris Hilton achieved and made timeless is one the young starlets of today have begun to embrace.
Gigi Hadid has been seen out and about in the streets carrying a teeny-tiny kitten that she adopted a week after someone found her in a car engine. Cleo, as the little feline is now known, is inseparable from her mom, her savior in stilettos. That Hadid is carrying her tiny kitten around like it’s a dog, despite the fact that cats can just up and scamper away because they don’t care about being held/being on a leash/rules, etc., shows just how committed the model is to her new love. Cleo the kitten also already has her own Instagram account, of course.
Kendall snuggles a white puppy while wearing a Canadian Tuxedo. Photo: Corbis Images
Meanwhile, her pal Kendall Jenner has been out and about with a white puppy, who allegedly belongs to her sister Khloe, but that hasn’t stopped her from carrying him around like a classic venti cup of iced coffee. Jennifer Lawrence apparently doesn’t have functioning arms and has her hot bodyguard carry her adorable, whiskered pooch, Pippi, and her bag. And that’s how we know that Lawrence is on a level above the rest: she may not have millions of followers on Instagram (granted she’s not on it), but her celeb status means she doesn’t even have to carry her statement pooch to make a statement.
Pippi leads the way for his human Jennifer Lawrence. Photo: Corbis Images
Perhaps the next step will be the diversification of the tiny animal. Perhaps Miley Cyrus carrying a pet rat around, or maybe Jeremy Scott custom makes Katy Perry some Moschino-designed portable fish tank made to look like a boom box to bring her pet goldfish with her to front rows and red carpets. How small can your pet get? Come on ladies, give us something to write about!
Have you ever had a friend for a year, ten years or even more and then, out of nowhere, she turned on you? You had her back, supported her and cared about her. You were there for her in her down times and always available when she needed to talk. Maybe you told her your dreams and desires, or perhaps she was more of a surface friend where your conversations didn’t necessarily reach deep levels but there was a true camaraderie there—or so it seemed. Then, all of a sudden, she throws you under the bus, makes up lies about you, accuses you of things you didn’t do, tells you people said nasty things about you when they didn’t. Suddenly, you’ve gone from friends to frenemies and you’re left feeling floored, confused, defensive and hurt.
Her low self-esteem finally got the best of her.
She began to see you as a clear threat to her job, her man, another friend, whatever. The fact is, the explosion of her ego has left you reeling. Or maybe there wasn’t an explosion; maybe it was more subtle—you heard she was talking behind your back or saw her doing something you never imagined a friend doing. Maybe she simply stopped acknowledging your existence, ignoring you completely.
Your friend just turned into a frenemy. How could this happen? Why? It doesn’t make any sense — or does it? Someone else’s low self-esteem can impact your whole world, but you don’t have to let it. Our self-esteem isn’t dictated by other people, but until we learn how to manage difficult situations like this with a healthy level of self-confidence, other people’s behavior can throw us for one heck of a loop and leave us upside down rather than on our feet.
Although the initial shock of the situation may rock your world, instead, look at it as if it were a science experiment. Find a new perspective by looking down on the matter from up high in the stands. This makes the painful part look small (and even unimportant) compared to the huge field of your life, great memories and more time for new, healthier friends. She turned into a frenemy, but that just means it’s time to move on and doesn’t have to taint the whole relationship. “Does this mean I have to constantly be on-guard in my friendships?” you ask. No. Allowing yourself to feel what’s happening along the way and how you’re being impacted by the friendship as it evolves is what your intuition (gut feeling) is for. It’s too valuable of a tool to ignore. Trusting it also brings bigger and better connections and adventures to your life.
Regarding your friend who became a frenemy, there’s no excuse for treating someone badly, but there are reasons why it happens. In a frenemy situation, there is a feeling of not being good enough to have what you have and a fear of it being taken away. If you don’t feel good enough to begin with (99.9% of us have been there) and you see that someone as a possible threat to what you currently have, the attacker mindset kicks in and you lash out. It makes sense but is still completely unacceptable, even more unacceptable between friends as they are supposed to protect each other.
As crazy as it sounds, people don’t do things to us. They do things for themselves to get their needs met. If someone helps you, they did so because it makes them feel good to help. If they attack you, it makes them feel big and strong for the moment. If we take everything personally, we won’t have any self-confidence at all, which results in low self-esteem, which creates a lack of healthy boundaries to protect us mentally, emotionally and physically. That leaves us where most of us are today—feeling uncomfortably vulnerable with our emotions flapping in the breeze of other peoples’ words and actions. Let’s take a look at your friendship and find out if it is beneficial, headed for a fall, already toxic or fixable.
How To Determine The Health Of Your Friendship:
Do I look forward to the time we spend together?
How do I feel about myself when I’m with her?
How do I feel about myself after our conversations or get-togethers?
Do I feel empowered or drained by this friendship?
How did your friendship score? Is this relationship clearly a benefit in your life? If so, congratulations! If not, is there a way to adjust it to be more positive, fun, empowering or healthy? Perhaps you two need to have an honest talk, new healthy boundaries can be set, less or more time can be spent together, or perhaps ban certain negative topics of discussion.
If you decide the friendship needs to end, here’s how to let the relationship go while still supporting your self-confidence and protecting your self-esteem.
Step 1. Lessons Learned: Recognize what you learned from the friendship. Did you stay in integrity, having your friend’s back even though she turned on you in the end? Were you there to comfort her when she needed to talk or was having a melt-down? This means you know how to be a good friend. Maybe you weren’t as good of friend as you could be and now you know what to do differently in your next friendship. Also recall great times you had together. Those memories don’t need to be tainted just because you won’t be friends forever. Most friendships have a shelf life and very few last forever.
Step 2. Letting Go: Determine if you want to keep your schedule full so you can honestly have a good reason to be unavailable or would you prefer to simply walk away and not communicate anymore? You can also have a grownup conversation letting her know that the friendship isn’t a good fit anymore (of course, frenemies aren’t exactly in their most mature state to be receptive and this could get ugly). Trust your gut feelings and intuition, they will always guide you in the right direction.
Step 3. Grieving Loss: Understand that even when something toxic like a frenemy is eliminated from your life, there may still be a grieving period. Allow yourself to feel it rather than stuffing your emotions. (Stuffed feelings cause physical disease either now or later.) The reason you’re moving on is to stay healthy mentally and emotionally, so if you feel hurt, anger or betrayal write it down. Journaling is clarifying. Note your feelings, reasons for them, lessons learned, what you can do (if anything) to soothe them, what you did right, what you will do differently with a new friend and, finally, what characteristics your future friends should have—being sure you possess those same traits first.
Step 4. Future Friendship Focus: Each time you find yourself thinking about how you were betrayed by your frenemy, switch your focus to what you want in future friendships. Imagine fun activities, meaningful conversations and the comfort of good friends. Keep this positive vision because if you continue thinking about the frenemy, your energy is going to attract more just like her. It’s the Universal Law Of Vibration and is proven by science. We get what we focus on. Practice switching your focus to positive things you want to create more of in your life.
You are now on your way! Enjoy your time to yourself and be open to new, healthy friendships. Become best friends with your intuition. It’s there to guide you in the right direction, always.
Kelly Rudolph is a Certified Life Coach, Hypnotherapist and Founder of PositiveWomenRock. Are you tired of stress, lack of confidence and fear about your future? Kelly can help. Begin getting her free Life Strategies now.
