Text by Vivian G. Kelly
Photographs courtesy of Chanel USA
Chanel summer beauty, Tropicana style!
As the weather gets progressively hotter, Chanel’s Copacabana fruity color palette looks just like an island sunset. That alone makes it the perfect choice for the blazing hot days to come. Back in March, we’d already seen some bright coral lips on the New York runways. Those sightings and the idea of wearing a more toned down version of orange are what drew us to the Chanel Counter this spring. The first item we picked up was their latest nail shade, “orange blossom”, which is THE perfect shade of coral, and looks good on different skin tones. Fortunately for us, we picked up one of the last three bottles at the counter; it was sold-out the following week.
A few weeks later, we attended an in store event at the Chanel Counter in Lord & Taylor, in Danbury, CT., promoting Chanel’ s new summer collection. The event, organized by the incomparable Mona Tassone, the store’s counter manager, exceeded our expectations. Ms. Tassone is a rarity, she is one of the few beauty counter people we’ve encountered at any department store who places customer service before a quickie sale.
We underwent a complete makeover under the guidance of star makeup artist, Mario Fenailillo, who’s worked on famous faces including Claudia Schiffer and done makeup for the Chanel fashion show, as well as for spreads in W and Vanity Fair magazines. So, when he suggested a polished “Hollywood Glamour look” we were game. Michelle, who administered the makeover, applied Hydramx + Tinted moisture boost lotion, SPF 15, in lieu of foundation, which we flatly refused to try. The “sunlit” shade Mario recommended gave us the light of-the-moment tan in seconds we were hoping to achieve this summer.
30 minutes later, we finally got to look in the mirror and were astonished to see that the result was remarkably similar to Nicole Kidman’s Chanel No. 5 ads. While we skipped the 4 Ombres Quadra Eye Shadow in ”shimmering dunes” and the “horizon” pale coral blush, we left the counter with three items and a lot of samples of skincare products.
We bought:
- Chanel Precision Hydramax + Tinted moisture boost lotion, SPF 15 in “Sunlit”
- Chanel Aqualumiere lipstick, SPF 15 in “Hawaii”
- Chanel Brilliant lumiere lip shine in “fluorescent”. This was the one item we insisted Michele use in the makeover, and yes, it really DOES glow in the dark!
We spent: $105
The Chanel summer collection is currently on counter and chanel.com
Michele is available for special events and can be contacted at mcsky247@yahoo.com