Allure, the first and only magazine devoted to beauty, is an insider's guide to a woman's total image. Allure investigates and celebrates beauty and fashion with objectivity and candor, and places appearance in a larger cultural context.
My first wing was a sad, limp noodle of a stroke. I had been tricked—tricked, I tell you!—by the Big Eyeliner lobby into believing that drawing a cat eye was as simple as a flick of the wrist. In my mind, my wings were like hands on a steering wheel—perfectly positioned at 10 and 2. In reality, one was an hour early; the other was an hour late. After dozens of failed attempts, I turned to Internet hacks like Scotch tape, a bobby pin, floss, a business card, and then various stamps and stencils that had hit the market. Mastering the cat eye on my tricky monolids became an obsession. I pored over photos and videos of people wearing the perfect wings as I attempted to reverse-engineer a razor-sharp Adele…
1. DIPTYQUE X PIERRE FREY. These limited-edition candle duos elicit lovely travel memories of a flower festival in the South of France. $130. 2. JOANNA VARGAS EXFOLIATING MASK. It’s a scrub. It’s a mask. It’s glorious whenever you want soft, just-sloughed skin. $75. 3. BROTHER VELLIES SLIDES. I see myself shuffling in these onto a white stone walkway in Mykonos. $285. 4. SOPHIE RATNER RING. A delicate yet interesting evocation of a shooting star that won’t upstage my nail art. $390. 5. ANASTASIA BEVERLY HILLS LIQUID LIPSTICK IN VERONICA. Coffee-cup-proof—and frankly, completely budgeproof. This bold taupe-mauve shade feels like spring. $20. 6. ALTUZARRA SUNGLASSES. Metal frames can reflect sunlight onto cheeks, causing burns. These are chic and more skin-friendly. $345. 7. ONE OCEAN BEAUTY REPLENISHING DEEP SEA MOISTURIZER. This lightweight…
To some, verdant eye makeup is for techno dance floors, magazine pages, and nowhere else. Cut these people out of your life immediately. Green’s cool, low-wavelength tones promote calm and focus, says a nebulous interior design theory. This makes the hue suitable (nay, endorsed!) for the workplace, the classroom, and beyond.…
On beauty school: My mom and my sisters don’t wear makeup, so I learned [about makeup] through work. The most important thing, especially for someone like me, who doesn’t want to look like I’m wearing a lot of makeup, is to prep the skin with a lot of moisturizer or serum so whatever foundation you use looks dewy. On avoiding bloodshed: When I started shaving my legs, there was an article in a teen magazine about how to shave your knees. The trick was to keep your leg straight, so that’s how I did it. I still do. On evocative scents: I love the smell of onions and garlic. One weekend, I was coming home and all the flower shops were closed, so my boyfriend made eggs because he knew…
A good eyeliner, like a four-wheel-drive car, is built to handle tough surfaces (glitter eye shadow, false-lash bands) and oil slicks (your lids at 4 p.m.), all while leaving the crispest, blackest line. You get all of the above in Too Faced’s new Better Than Sex eyeliner—founder Jerrod Blandino thought it the only product worthy of bearing the name of the brand’s best-selling mascara. It was crafted in the same way as pens used in animation (think inky paintbrush tips with a pen’s control), and its tip combines superabsorbent, color-depositing bristles with longer, ultraflexible ones. In other words, you’re in for a smooth ride.…
It’s an improbable time line: Patrick Ta (above) was working at the M.A.C. cosmetics counter in Scottsdale’s Fashion Square shopping mall roughly five years ago. Then, like a lot of unknown makeup artists, he moved to Los Angeles, hoping for his big break. Unlike a lot of unknown makeup artists, he was quickly discovered by actress Shay Mitchell, who saw his work on Instagram and invited him to do her makeup. Within two years, Ta had become the It girls’ go-to makeup guy, with Gigi Hadid, Kendall Jenner, and their ilk turning to him before photo shoots and parties. Ta still does Mitchell’s makeup, only now he fits her in between flicking on Ariana Grande’s cat eyes, filling in Rihanna’s lips, and serving as both Shiseido’s global color artist and…
