Well hello again ELLE Canada readers! I’m back for another week of blogging from the intern desk, and this week we’re all about summer beauty. We’re talking about glowing tans, glossy hair and perfect pedicures as we prep for the hot and sunny weather we’ve been desperately waiting for since the last snowflake fell. Read on to find out what beauty projects I’ve been working on in my last few days in the office!

Pops of colour for your summer beauty palette. Photography by Geoffrey Ross.

Being an intern at ELLE Canada means reaching out to some of the most influential beauty brands in the biz, editing images, writing captions and building the galleries we know you love perusing on ELLECanada.com everyday. From our massive summer prep packages to more simple beauty projects for the season, the lineup for summer beauty is something you won’t want to miss. As ELLE girls, we’re in love with bold lip colours, bright nails and golden bronzers that help us look our best on the beach, and we just couldn’t resist sharing them with you. Plus, we’ve taken your picks for best products in our beauty grand prix that organizes your favourite creams, sprays and more by category and price. Stay tuned this week for our summer prep package and start collecting the must-have products of the season on ELLECanada.com’s beauty channel.

READ MORE

The best sunscreens under $20

Summer beauty: Lighten your foundation load

10 fruity scents to excite your senses

Image courtesy of Keystone Images

One of our favourite celebrities—Gwyneth Paltrow—is gearing up to open her first blow dry bar at a California gym next week. Gwyneth has partnered up with personal trainer Tracy Anderson and hairstylist David Babaii to bring this personalized, blowout service to members of Anderson’s Brentwood gym. The blow dry bar will use all-natural products and will help customers maintain gorgeous hair evening when exercising. Now that’s what we call a good workout! [Refinery 29] [Huffington Post]

More daily fashion and beauty news:

Vera Wang nixes China fees amid controversy [WWD]

Emma Watson’s waxwork dressed by Elie Saab [Telegraph]

Dressing for work: Spring fashion’s chic neutrals [ELLECanada.com]

Greg Wencel, CoverGirl makeup pro, works his magic on a model backstage at Jeremy Laing.

Jeremy Laing first showed his Spring 2013 collection at New York Fashion Week in September, so for his encore presentation at The shOws last night, makeup artist Greg Wencel and hair artist Justin German were charged with taking the original beauty look and giving it a special Toronto twist.

Let’s listen in on how they did it:

MAKEUP LOOK: Greg Wencel, CoverGirl makeup pro

Designer inspiration ”Jeremy wanted it to look quite lived in and handsome. He didn’t want them to look too princessy, or too done or too glam.”

Creating the look “We left the brows and the lashes bare. We combed clear mascara through both to get rid of any unruly hairs and to give them a little bit of definition. On the eye, we used Iced Cappuccino blush underneath the eye and the brow bone. Then we put a clear gloss on the eye—we just pressed that onto the eye with our fingertips. We used the same blush on the cheekbones. We wanted it to be tone on tone—soft focus. We wanted to give the cheeks definition without competing with the eye. Using the same colour softly draws your eye to the eyes.”

Fresh touch ”I think it has a little bit of a ’70s feel, but what makes it modern is the lack of lashes and the lack of a defined brow. Also, the blush—it reminds me of the ’70s too, that high sculpted cheekbone, but because it’s not as angular and it’s not as harsh, it looks more modern.”

HAIR LOOK: Justin German, Pantene consulting stylist

Designer inspiration ”The thing about Jeremy—his stuff is simple but it’s modern. It’s not fussy. [The clothes] go with this look, because it’s linear but it still has a modern edge.”

Creating the look “On either side, we’re doing a two-strand twist instead of a corn row—when you twist it, it looks like a rope, like a coil. Then we gather them at the bottom with a simple ponytail down the back. For product, we’re using a Sebastian Moldable Shine Wax, because it’s a little bit greasy—almost like a pomade, old school. At the last minute, we’ll use a matte putty, so [it will look] more edgy but not greasy. I like the look of the shiny and the dry together.”

Pony up ”[The look is]  a twist on the ponytail. The ponytail is it in the centre of the head one year, then it’s low, a deep side part, a high ponytail. The low pony is classic. Braids have been around for so long, so it’s  a nice twist to make them… twist.”

German’s all-time favourite pony look? “I always love me a good old-fashioned high ponytail. Kind of Madonna-ish. Tight, tight head and really hot.”

Read the rest of this entry

Image courtesy of IMAXtree.com.

It’s never good when the white noise of backstage (a veritable hum of hairdryers, chit chat and cell phone ring tones) suddenly goes silent.

At Phillip Lim 3.1 Spring/Summer 2013, Brit hairdresser Paul Hanlon (dubbed the Ryan Gosling of hairdressing due to his affable demeanor and good looks) was hard at work his creating the intensely teased, bedhead ‘do. Even before the power went off, it was a pressurized environment. The call all makeup and hair teams hate to hear, “5 minutes to rehearsal!” had just rung out down across the messy, crowded aisle of workstations. And then, suddenly silence. Don’t you love how I’m dragging this out like I was witnessing open heart surgery during a electricity failure?

Though I had been hovering nearby watching Hanlon work under a dense, rising cloud of hairspray, when the lights went out I beat a hasty retreat. Let’s put it this way: Watching such a hugely talented artist interrupted from his work when under tremendous stress, watching him rush around frantically trying to restore the electricity, a glaze of panic-sweat beading on his forehead and the occasional swear word being barked loudly towards the ceiling was too much. I liken it to seeing your dad cry for the first time.

I hit the catering area and stocked up on Madelines.

Read more of Vanessa’s NYFW dispatch….

The beauty look at 3.1 Phillip Lim.

All spectacle aside (the power eventually did go back on, and disaster was averted), the beauty look for Phillip Lim 3.1 was one of my favourites of the week.

Francelle Daly, who used NARS makeup to create the lash-heavy look, summed it up as “a very modern rocker chick, with elements of early Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth), Lita Ford, Joan Jett. A tiny bit of sunkissed bronzer, a matte bronzer– as if she’s been at a music festival all day. It’s a fun effortlessly ‘rocker’ look.”

Image courtesy of IMAXTREE.com

This season, like many of you I’m sure, the bright and punchy floral prints seen on the catwalk inspired me to update my style.

While I am lusting after the punchy tropical tops at Proenza Schouler or the “Sunflower” dresses (inspired by painter Vincent van Gogh) seen at Rodarte, it’s this new and limited-edition Amika x Cynthia Rowley ceramic styler ($115, available at Sephora) that’s given me spring fever.

This graphic and modern styling tool lets you create wavy or pin-straight styles, while the ceramic plates (and infrared heat technology) help prevent frizz so you’ll look like you just stepped off the runway.

Is this not one of the prettiest hair styles you’ve seen in a while? It is in my books. As soon as I saw this picture of an update on the classic French braid, I instantly thought about how many times I could wear it in the summer. Weddings, the office, beach days, summer cocktails on a patio … and thank goodness I’ve decided to grow my hair out longer so I can actually try this hair style out! It’s the braid trend we’ve seen over the past few seasons (remember Alexander Wang’s messy side braid from spring 2010?) with a sweet and sexy spin thanks to this Valentino knockout originally created by Redken Creative Consultant Guido Palau.

Currently loving this pretty take on the French braid at Valentino. Image courtesy of ImaxTree.com

Our tips on how to recreate this pretty braid yourself come courtesy of celebrity stylist Susana Hong who is also a spokesperson for TRESemmé. If you’re not an expert braider (like me), you might need a bit of assistance until you get the hang of it.

“I love it because once you’ve achieved it, it’s pretty low maintenance,” explains Hong.

The look works best on long, straight hair with very few layers. “If you do have curly hair, just blow dry straight but do not use a flat iron because that will flatten the cuticles too much making the hair harder to grip for the braid,” recommends Hong. And nix the flat iron, since it can make hair difficult to work with. “Hair with heavy shorter layers might prove difficult to style for this particular do. Though it can be done, it will take more product and hand strength to ensure the layered ends stay put in the braid,” says Hong.

Short hair tip: “You can use extensions, but the traditional ones that are clipped in most likely won’t work. You can use ‘braid’ hair – hair that is not attached to any sort of weave, it’s just loose hair. You would add that at the start of your braid, but it’s pretty advanced stuff for the average gal. But the best thing about this look is that it doesn’t have to be perfect,” says Hong.

To get the step-by-step on this hair style … Read the rest of this entry

It’s been a busy few days at NYFW and already some key hair trends are starting to emerge for fall. One of the most interesting ones is a return to super straight, flat hair – usually with a dramatic centre parting.  The ’90s are clearly back, but without the grunge and the recession! Oh, no. Wait, scratch that. Well, at the very least, the sleek, pin-straight styles that caused hair straightener sales to fly through the roof are back.

So far, the look has emerged at Prabal Gurung, where Paul Hanlon (working for TIGI) added extensions to create his piecey, slick look (seriously, look at this hair!), Victoria Beckham, where Guido Palau (for Redken) created a glossy, “uptown, rich girl” style, and at one of my favourite shows — Alexander Wang — Palau (again, using Redken products) added hair extensions to the models so that hair could have a clean line cut straight across the bottom. It looked like classic Wang to me — modern and minimal with an edge. Read the rest of this entry

If you haven’t received a slew of party invites yet for the holidays, I’m sure you’re about to any day now. I already have a few weekends filled, so that means I need some easy, fresh hair ideas, stat. Like most of you, I need options that I can easily do at the office for après-work fetes and be able to switch up the looks from party to party.

I might attempt these three celebrity hair style options that I have been drooling over the past couple of weeks. And if not, at least they provide some pretty eye candy to look at for inspiration during lunch.

Holiday hair a la Lauren Conrad. Images by Michael Tran/FilmMagic and David Livingston/Getty

Lauren Conrad
This girl is my celebrity hair crush. Yes, I even put her above Jen Aniston, and I talk about her hair a lot. Her hair always has a perfect wave, looks soft and is super healthy. If only I could get my hair in such good shape. I also love that she’s willing to try out quirky and fun twists on classics. Take this look: Love the old Hollywood glam vibe, but if you look at the back, it’s an intricate swirling of wavy hair braids. Definitely will need some help with this hair style, but the end result would be worth it. Read the rest of this entry

I’m in love with this fall hair style. It’s so polished, smooth and chic for day or night. I attempted to recreate it on my own, but after many failed attempts (just couldn’t get my hair smooth ans shiny enough!), I enlisted the help of Charles Baker Strahan, hair stylist for Herbal Essences. Here are his tips for getting this impeccably smooth hair style.

Backstage at Ferragamo. Image courtesy of ImaxTree.com

1. This look is all about being sleek and touchably smooth and the first place to start is in the shower. To create the right base for styling, I recommend Herbal Essences Touchably Smooth Shampoo and Conditioner that has a built-in smoothing serum to help control frizz and maintain smoothness.

2. Next, work styling gel (try Herbal Essences Set Me Up Styling Gel) through your wet hair and blow-dry your hair straight using a boar bristle round brush to smooth down the cuticle layer.

3. Then pull your hair back into a low ponytail.

4. Next, apply Herbal Essences Long Term Relationship Leave-In Split-End Protector to the ends of your hair and separate the pony in two and twist each section into opposing directions allowing the sections to twist around one another and down upon themselves. Then secure the ends underneath with bobby pins.

5. You can artfully manipulate the coils and secure areas with pins for extra hold.

6. The last step is to finish the look with a bit of hairspray to smooth down any flyaways (Try: Herbal Essences Set Me Up Extra Hold Hairspray).  Read the rest of this entry

Fresh and clean is what you can expect from the hair and makeup at Joe Fresh and the look last night was no exception – which we love as it’s totally wearable.

Fresh and easy hair at Joe Fresh. Image by Noah Lehava

Eric Del Monaco, L’Oreal Paris Official Hair Stylist and Colourist, was asked by the designer to use no product to keep the look fresh and sporty, so hair was simply brushed back into a natural ponytail (not too high or low) with the front given a short side part. If doing the look at home, he suggests giving your hair a fresh blow dry first to smooth out the cuticle. Read the rest of this entry