All the excitement of the 85th Academy Awards is here and apart from the amazing talent up for nominations, there is just one thing that little bit more exciting, that being the Red Carpet!
The entire Red Carpet season we have seen quite safe beauty looks, surprisingly not as many bold lips as I would of thought. But, what we have seen are some perfectly executed ‘natural’ beauty looks showing off elegance and class – a true Hollywood beauty trend.
Keeping to the current trend of natural beauty, here are my Top 5 Beauty Looks from the 2013 Oscars Red Carpet;
My Number 1 beauty look goes to Jessica Chastain – Stunningly Elegant! She wowed me at the Golden Globes wearing pops of colour on the lip and with her dress, but today showing how wearing complimentary colours to your skin and hair can work a treat and keep all on eyes on us – as Brittany would say!
Ultra classic, ultra feminine is what a Hollywood actress is all about and I love this look.
Perfect skin with contouring across her socket and lifting her cheekbones gives shape, while her liquid black liner across her top lash line gives an elegant and defined eye, slightly flirty!
A stunning illuminating gold pop is applied across inner eyelid for contrast and who cannot love that lip?? A great bold lip with out being too loud as it has a great depth complimenting her hair and skin tone, giving a classic, yet brightness to her overall look.
Her hair, as Jessica seems to love, classic waves giving a modern barrel curl, looking soft and swept to one side to give balance and showing her fab earrings.
Look Number 2 for me is Naomi Watts – Playful Chic! Apart from absolutely loving her custom made Armani Privé gown, I think Naomi teamed her makeup very well with this gown. Being silver based and a deeper shade of dress, some would go smokey, but I love her playful pink influence.
Simplicity in makeup is definitely a big trend right now, and I love that Naomi kept the eyes defined, but not overly made up wit a lot of dark eyeshadow – it could if overpowered the overall look.
The playful pink pops are perfect to freshen up the blonde 44-year-old beauty look complimenting her fair skin tone and giving colour that works well with the metallic material from her gown.
A lot of women are only wearing bronze, taupe style shade of blush these days, so I love when the apple of one’s cheeks are plump with a hint of colour like Naomi’s – gives such life!
The loosely sectioned back hair is perfect to come across soft and fun rather than severe and also gives some height, which is always nice when wearing such a figure hugging dress. A hit from the front and a big hit from the back showing a modern, loosely styled French role.
Number 3 this Oscars for me is the young star, Jennifer Lawrence – Princess Beauty! Jennifer has really matured recently in all her appearances, showing real elegance and class in nearly all her outfit choices. Her makeup look does tend to be very similar each Red Carpet, but it is always applied beautifully and suits her face structure.
Jennifer loves a smokey eye, but it is always applied quite softly and never overpowers the look, opening up and giving a rounder look to her eye socket that does have a lot of space – this can sometimes close eyes up if left skin colour.
A strong lash will always give a touch of femininity, plus allowing a deeper eye shadow such as Jennifer’s to appear more blended, not placed. Skin, lips and cheeks to me screams fresh, youthful and flawless – so important with such a stand out gown and pulled back hair.
This style of princess gown definitely needs hair off the face, but as most are this year, a loosely pulled back style is very popular to appear effortless which is big in beauty in 2013.
Next on my list is my Number 4 beauty look, Adele – Contoured Glam! Adele, as I heard and agree with Kelly Osbourne, always has such perfectly applied makeup! She is a fan of a highly contoured makeup, giving her face such great structure that works both for the Red Carpet and on stage during her performance.
Adele loves a big false lash, really opening up her eyes and giving a slightly winged outer edge for lift. Her complexion is always applied so smooth looking, giving a flawless approach to her skin.
Contouring is huge under cheekbone giving lift and shape and again across her socket bone.
I actually loved how her beauty look evolved from the Red Carpet to her performance of Skyfall, showing a smokier eye adding some drama, contrasting that to her classic shade, bold red lip – she looked incredible and perfect look for the shimmering setting on stage.
I love her usual half up/half down do, but I loved her performance hair style, lots of volume and a lovely loose, textured wave giving a much more modern, very 007 style hair look. Go Adele!
Last but not least, Number 5 goes too Anne Hathaway – Barely there trend! I sometimes look at Anne and think, you could do much more!! But then I think, everything is always in place, she is rocking her new short hair and balance is one thing that we all sometimes need to think about.
The barely-there makeup trend is so popular right now and who couldn’t agree that Anne definitely owns that trend.
She often sports a very similar look, especially with her liquid liner and soft rose colour lip, but it is always fresh, feminine and a show stopper proving you don’t need to pack on the makeup to be red carpet ready.
Those big brown eyes don’t need much defining as they capture so much with or without makeup, keeping lashes and liner simple works well with such a naturally bold eye shape. When keeping the eye makeup simple, the brow’s need to be perfect and yes, Anne does this well with a great thickness to balance out the overall look.
Skin is always fresh and illuminated. Colour does not have to be heavily applied, but if it isn’t, you want to make sure there is a lot of light within the skin to give a Hollywood glow.
Anne’s new pixie do has been hot topics ever since first spotted, not much she can do wrong this style and today seeing slight volume and a little texture, keeping everything soft to be in line with the ultra ‘Ribbon’ like, feminine gown.
I must give a special mention to Catherine Zeta Jones!
I loved her beauty look, applied by Kim Kardashian’s makeup Artist, Scott Barnes.
The contouring master definitely delivered today for Catherine, especially in the inner eye area using golden-based tones giving a wonderful glow.
Some reports have mentioned the heaviness of her foundation, but she also performed hits from her Musical Film, Chicago, adding a red lip and being a stage look, it worked well for both appearances.
My only Fail today that I have to mention is Jennifer Aniston’s hair! With such a puffy, princess style red gown, I really think un up do, or pulled back side chignon would of bee perfect and more elegant. For me, it ruined the look, which could have been quite striking.
So Ladies, natural beauty is still the way to go.
As Jennifer Hudson mentioned on the red carpet, choose your accents, is it eyes or lips? Keep everything balanced and light into your skin to appear fresh and flawless. A few ladies may of need a little ore powder in their T-Zone, – Don’t forget, shine is different to sheen!
By Michael Brown
Twitter: @mbrown_beauty
Facebook: facebook.com/michaelbrownbeauty
MORE FROM THE OSCARS 2013:
Alex Perry’s Best Dressed
Josh Flinn’s Best and Worst Dressed
Award Show Wrap Up
Full Winners List
Book your tickets for the Rescu. Me! Event to see Michael Brown live!
