For people with a taste for the exotic, the movie “Eat Pray Love” (out August 13) is a grand mid-summer gift.
Julia Roberts plays Elizabeth Gilbert – the author of the massively popular memoir of discovery in Italy, India, and Bali on which the film is based. When Liz is in India, she’s a guest at a wedding. A riot of color suffuses the screen like a huge bedspread. But the pinks – rose petals, turbans, and fuchsia shawls – jump out at you.
Fashion doyen Diana Vreeland once said pink is the navy blue of India. But even though the color may be ubiquitous, it manages to remain unique.
“Many women hear the word pink and immediately think ‘prom!’ but pink is much more than that,” says Jo Strettell, a celebrity makeup artist in Los Angeles. She describes this fashion season as “a hot pink summer,” a natural progression from spring’s taupe-lilac-mauve-toned palette. And the India portion of the "Eat Pray Love" movie plays host to that trend as well.
Strettell knows India’s magic very well – she has visited India and often shops at Southeast Asian shops to get beauty supplies. “The pinks are rich, vivid and shaded, with coral, red, fuchsia and burgundy,” she says.
For Strettell, what makes pink so great to use is its versatility because of all its shades. But, she says, women who “think pink” often miscalculate pink’s power. They’ll take an intense red lipstick or darker blush and instinctively know to apply it judiciously, she says. But, because pinks are lighter in color, women tend to apply them more heavily, not realizing they also make a statement.
Strettell has two suggestions when applying pink makeup. With lipstick, use foundation on the lips. Because paler pinks can be subtle, a lip’s natural color may totally sabotage the color in the tube. She also believes in layering. For example, one of her pink tricks is using a hot pink lipstick applied with the fingers like a stain, and then using a gloss over it.
Another guideline she espouses is using your skin tone to select your pink blush. Darker complexions do well with the darker brighter shades of pink. A pale complexion often needs only a light pink – “much less than you’d think” – to provide a nice rosy glow. But if you’re stuck on fuchsia, Strettell says there’s hope.
“Fuchsia can look great on everyone but, if you’re very pale, make sure you use just a light dusting so that you don’t overwhelm the face,” she says. Sometimes, however, it’s tough to pass up strong contrasts to make a fashion statement. “Hot pink nails against white skin can look vibrant,” she says. “You can also use a light pink face and lips and a heavily mascaraed eye."
If you’ve gotten into a pink groove this summer, the good news is it’s not going away. Strettell says that Chanel’s winter holiday look focuses on pink nails, a pink gold-flecked blush, and hot pink gloss over nude taupe cream lipstick. Whether it's in "Eat Pray Love" or ushering in the new year, the vibrant pink trend sounds good to us.
Coeli Carr is a health and fitness writer in New York City.
Photo courtesy Sony Pictures; photo by Francois Duhamel
