The name of the game here is simple: backstage beauty from all angles. ITG's photographer, Tom Newton, will be pounding the pavement all week, snapping models, chatting with makeup artists and hairstylists, and sharing his take on it all. You know the drill, so let's get to it, shall we? Check back all week for more.

PROENZA SCHOULER

Tom’s Take: Frida Kahlo, Cuba, Southwestern elegance. That was the story here and I so wish they'd also done a red lip and bronzer but they opted for just concealer. The hair had an angle though—long tight, tight braids. Sort of avant garde, pulled right from the back of the head.

Anthony Turner (Bumble and bumble): Latin women...there’s a certain passion to them. Very confident. Very strong. And we wanted to kind of bring that to the show, but fuse it with New York. There were pictures of Frida Kahlo on our moodboard, and we kind of wanted to incorporate a braid, but we didn’t want to do anything that felt too literal. So basically what we’re doing is mixing the Bb. Thickening Hairspray and Prep Spray to get this dirty kind of texture, so it feels a little bit lived-in. Maybe it’s like, it hasn’t been washed in a day or two. We’re drying it with the hairdryer, using my fingers, not using a brush at all. And then once that’s dry, a very haphazard, messy center part, so you just get the feeling of a center part but it’s a bit screwed-with. Then what we’re doing is scraping the hair really tight into a ponytail at the nape of the neck. The reason why I’m not braiding it straightaway is it almost felt too romantic, it felt too soft. And we want her to feel tension, to make her feel a little uptight, you know? And we like to see neck. So, pinching it into a ponytail, then the braid isn’t soft or fuzzy. It’s done really tightly so it’s stiff. And finishing off with the Bb. Classic Laque Hairspray.

Diane Kendal (MAC): It’s not about making it look like the face has makeup on it, just looking at it’s best. The brows are really brushed-up and, again, the feeling is fixing them only if you need it, like if there is a gap or something. But really just brushing up the brows to make them look nice and full. Lashes are absolutely bare. Lips are conditioned, but nothing else. We’re pressing Climax Pro Sculpting Crème in on the high points of the cheeks and the eyes so it will bring in that natural radiance. The texture is quite sheer, so it just makes it look radiant without making it look like any extra added texture. On the eyelid we are using the Pro Mixing Medium Shine, which will just add that extra texture, so it’s just like moisture on the skin than adding another colored texture, so it just looks like the skin is absolutely bare. I know social media has really influenced makeup this season and we are seeing that strobing effect everywhere, so that’s what we are doing in a natural sort of way, but with really minimal products and keeping it very, very natural.

ANNA SUI

Tom's Take: Finally...f i n a l l y. I've always wanted to go to this one—I just connect with this brand on another level. It's like whimsy and romanticism and deeply connected to Meisel. It all comes together for me here. The beauty look was very cool as well. It was Pat McGrath using Covergirl—graphic black liner on the lids almost like an inverted detached cat eye, with a slightly shiny berry lip. The hair was a flow-y curl. All inspired by Tahiti/Hawaii, although I'm only getting that because they gave all the girls leis.

MICHAEL KORS

Tom’s Take: The look was the classic beautiful bronzed girl, but this time back from a desert road trip. Apparently bronze all over is in. The hair was wispy and perfectly messy—a loose art teacher-esque bun held together by what looked like a golden chakra dildo...but in a chic way. I ran into Sasha Pivovarova, Caroline Trentini (keep seeing her this season!) and Lindsey Wixson! Always a big star cast here.

Orlando Pita: “So this girl is a kind of traveler, who has a convertible. It’s a dusty terrain, and so we’re putting dry shampoo into the hair. Sometimes we’re putting a little bit of the argan oil in, if the girl has hair that’s really thick. Then we’re putting this amber stick in their hair that’s kind of ‘I don’t care, but I really do.’ I said that at another show, but it’s just that ease about it…it’s about breaking technique. It should really look like a mess, so it’s good that the girls are coming in with their natural texture, a little bit of a wave. If not, I’ll add a bit of a wave but not in your usual curling iron style. OK so, the curling iron, right? Wrap it around, and I pull. Then you have a bend, and you have a little volume. There is no real part. It’s just a side swept. Southwestern, outdoorsy, dusty…'

RODARTE

Tom’s Take: They kept it simple this season. There was a look but it didn't have anything glued on jutting out or too avant garde about it. I think this show seals the deal for me about the bronze eye though, it's a trend. Here James Kaliardos used a Nars Dual Intensity Blush on the eye and cheek, while also highlighting a bit and using the Nars Het Loo Satin Lip Pencil on the lips. The hair was very soft-looking and had randomized ornate beautiful barrettes in it—some models had two, some had none. One girl had a barrette in the middle of her bangs—not your traditional clip-in-the-hair. This backstage was a little more low-key than usual though...there weren't any celebrities walking around. The cast was mainly newbies, too. I think it's still my favorite backstage, though. They always keep it a bit dreamy.

James Kaliardos (Nars): “We ended up going with something quite luxurious and smooth and monochromatic, which felt like Arthur Rimbaud or something. It is very pretty with mascara. It enhances you, but it’s neutral in a way that makes you look good. We’re using the new Velvet Matte Skin Tint, and it really does cover, but the finish is more matte than super transparent, and it looks like skin. Then we used the Dual Intensity Blush in Craving. I take the blush brush and sweep it on in one go and you get contour and highlight.”

Odile Gilbert (Kerastase): “We want to recognize the girl, we don’t want the girl to become a robot. So we’re keeping a lot of the natural texture. The final look is a bit like when you dry the hair naturally. We are not using brushes, we are putting a bit of this Spray à Porter and diffusing. And then we have accessories—some girls have barrettes that are designed by Rodarte in gold and silver. They look like a little piece that has fallen down from a crown, and we place them in a really unexpected way. There’s always two barrettes—you know, strange.”

RAG & BONE

Tom’s Take: This backstage was so damn perfect (held in the building in DUMBO that they used to hold Smorgasburg in). It's all built out now and looks amazing; tons of space. The weather was perfect this evening too—New York's cooling down finally. It was around sunset and I ended up being able to pull a few girls outside and just hang around before getting backstage (also there wasn't a crazy amount of press it seemed which might have been due to it being in BK). Either way, that was perfect, and the hair was amazing as well, a very rough and tumble twisty bun, with lots of loose bits. Honestly it looked very easy and quick. The makeup was inspired by Brooke Shields in Blue Lagoon, a dewy bronzed look. Very taupe-y bronze though, not the traditional Versace orange bronzed look. This was a more sophisticated cold bronze. Lovely and simple.

Paul Hanlon (Bumble and bumble): When you think of a Rag & Bone girl, she’s got like an urban coolness to her. I think this time we wanted it to feel like there were military references, like an urban sport-smart. You get the feel that the girl is very physical, very active, she feels very confident in the way she looks. So the hair is almost like second nature, it’s not really important. So we went for this little ratty knot, a bit funky, a bit masculine, the feeling is very organic and not too hairdresser-done. The products that are great for this are the Bumble and bumble Thickening Spray to prep the hair, a rough dry without any brushing, and a bit of Brilliantine for the ends, just to moisturize the hair. At the end, we are using a bit of Sumotech for the roots to make it have that day-old quality. Naturally, when hair is greasy it is always greasier on the roots and drier on the ends. Then we are just pulling it back with an elastic into the middle of the head and tying in this ratty knot. We didn’t want to do it low because it felt a little bit too ‘ballerina.’ It’s more like those tennis pros with their really high hair. And it’s good for the girls’ faces because it gives them a little bit of a lift. On the ends of the hair we are using a bit of the Spray de Mode, which is just a little bit stronger just to hold the tails. When they walk I don’t want their hair to move so it becomes almost savage, in a way. It’s like punk hair, always kind of over-processed, just a little bit more attitude to it.

Gucci Westman (MAC): “So it’s really just a sheer kind of skin, but obviously it’s done. There’s a lot of work that goes into it. We did that with Strobe Cream because it gives a little touch of shine, but isn’t as messy as a gloss The mouth is just the MAC Spice Lip Pencil—we’re doing the outline and then I’m just dabbing it across the lips. On the eyes it’s nice to have a little gold, like you’re on a safari, and a little glamorous.”

JEREMY SCOTT

Tom’s Take: Sensory overload, every time. There's always so much going on, it's fun but I leave needing to decompress. This year's theme was some sort of Barbarella ‘60s sci-fi vixen theme. The girls had giant wigs with rollers in them, graphic drawn-on lashes and a milky neon orange lip. Kabuki did the makeup, with a few MAC Lipmixes and a black gel liner, not much more than that (no blush, for instance). The cast was all stars: Gigi, Bella, Stella, etc. The tricky part was that the hair and eye were so intensive that no one could finish it up in time for the show. When I left, 15 minutes after the show was supposed to start, only a few girls had a total finished look. People were running around and yelling, and Coco Rocha was there promoting some juice brand...? It was a very surreal and wonderful experience. Thank you, Jeremy Scott.

Eugene Souleiman: “We wanted there to be drama but also an authenticity, so we set the hair and gave it a good spritz to dry out the hair and get it ready for backcombing. The wigs are each one color—no subtleties or tones. And they’re all the same shape so they really pop out, but are still dress-friendly.”

Kabuki (MAC): “It’s quite a simple makeup, but it hits those notes within the context of the show, like Desperately Seeking Susan plus some 1960s futurism like the B-52s. So it’s all about eyelashes, like an eyeliner that imitates the lash. Then there’s this very neon lip—we’ve mixed orange with white and beige shades. For the girls with the deeper skin tones we are mixing it with a little bit of red and a little bit of dark brown. We just want the effect to be sort of similar. You know photos from the ‘50s or the colors in a Hitchcock movie? There’s just something weird about the greens and the oranges in the ‘60s. It sort of evokes that, if we want to go down that path, but it is also just a fresh look. There’s not a lot of elements going on, just the eyeliner and the bright lip.”

TOMMY HILFIGER

Tom’s Take: I think the design team at Tommy was inspired by the Jamaican trip Lexi Boling and Binx took recently that took over my Instagram. It was a very stylized Caribbean island vibe. Bright colors, track suits, fresh sunny skin, natural hair—with little friendship bracelet-y things braided in and Bob Marley playing in the background. Oh, and the runway was a pool of water. Lucky for us, lots of product went into this one. Pat McGrath handled the skin: pretty much bare looking but with bits of a very brown (not orange) bronzer, and a little subtle brown liner on the top lid with some taupe shadow to finish it. I got to shoot a girl named Karly Loyce here, she's so major. She's got a beautiful afro, freckles, perfect skin and amazing street-style—she's from Martinique as well.

PRABAL GURUNG

Tom’s Take: Ugh I can't. I CAN'T. I get so emotional here. Maggie Rizer means so much to me. Missy Rayder too. I almost feel like it's an honor to be in the presence of these women—Kirsten Owen and Liisa Winkler as well. They're icons, and in a very specific way. They don't have huge Instagram followings or anything like that. What they've got is more Vogue Italia covers than you can count on two hands, print stories that should go down in history, and some of the most beautiful faces ever. I got a little misty-eyed on the train ride back from this show. You can tell Diane Kendal lives for it too—she does all the older girls herself and really takes her time. She talked about the makeup look as conceptualized with a slightly older woman in mind. It was a sheer wash of a new taupe eye shine product, a bit of the yet-to-be-released Douceur-ish blush (called Impassioned) and a sort of flattened out bold brow. Very much within the realm of things any woman could pull off. Madeline's nails were of note too—a beautiful soft yellow with white curves in and out on certain nails.

Diane Kendal (Nars): “The inspiration is East meets West. Nobody is wearing that much foundation—I knew we’d be doing a lot of girls so I did makeup that would suit everybody, young and old. We’re putting a little shimmer and contour on the eyes for dimension, but there’s no shimmer in the blush. It's the new Impassioned shade, and used just on the apple of the cheeks it looks very natural and flushed. The brow is filled in a little bit darker and squared off—but we used a powder and brush so it’s not too heavy.”

Madeline Poole (Sally Hansen): “This is my first time doing the show, it’s big time. I really like manicures that are about movement, random balance, and shape. Everybody gets whatever works in terms of design and randomness. You start with a swoop in the corner of the pinky and then you just go from there—and then there is the reverse accent nail. Rather than there being just one nail that has a shape on it, there are always one or two nails that are solid yellow painted with a shade called Mum's The Word. We’re only doing one coat because I like when there’s a milky see-through-ness to the nail.”

DIANE VON FURSTENBERG

Tom’s Take: Everyone was lining up outside for this one, and rightfully so. All the Instagirls were there, with curlers in their hair and a disco shimmer blue/green eye. Gigi, Bella, Karlie, Kendall! All very glam—and I hate the word glam but there it is. I'm OK with it when Pat McGrath is there doing that makeup. The execution was perfect every time (obviously)—all of the colors were pure pigments that blended out seamlessly. Sometimes I forget powder shadow can look so creamy and nice. Also there was natural hair everywhere—Anais Mali, Lineisy Montero, Maria Borges, Imaan Hammam, Karly Loyce. I've seen a lot of hairdressers working with the models' natural textures in general recently. It's really lovely.

THAKOON

Tom's Take: Flushed cheeks, filled-in brows, very air dried-looking hair and a bit of white on the waterline. They did that last season as well, and I love how awake everyone looks with that—well-rested, youthful, beautiful.

Odile Gilbert (Kerastase): “The hair is like you're on the beach—she feels very healthy. It's that idea of a very sporty girl that came in the '70s and the '80s who runs on the beach and just thinks ‘I want to swim, I want to run…’ To get that, we wet the hair, spray it with Spray à Porter and then dry it with a diffuser, squeezing the hair as we go. You twist a little bit to get that wave. Then we ask the model to go upside down with her hair and shake it a little—we do not brush. Then in the front, we're pushing it up at the hairline and sculpting it with the Crème de la Crème. That really helps to nourish the hair. You put enough in to make it wet, but once they walk out, it's all a dry look.”

Diane Kendal (Nars): “The inspiration for this season was Gilles Bensimon's work for Elle in the '80s. It's very beachy and sporty. So we've prepped the skin with Nars Multi-Action Hydrating Toner, the Aqua Gel Moisturizer, and then they've got a new product coming out called the Velvet Matte Skin Tint. We've applied that all over the skin, and it gives a really kind of gorgeous, finished feel to the skin, so we don’t have to powder it. And then we’re using Impassioned Blush on the apple of the cheek, giving that really fresh, beautiful, healthy glow. We’re brushing and filling the eyebrows in with a pencil, just matching according to each girl’s natural coloring. With the white pencil, we’re going on the inside of the eye, to the inner corner, and also into the upper inner corner and blending there so that gives that gorgeous opening to the eye. There's also a very light highlighter on top of the cheeks, down the middle of the nose, and underneath the cheeks just to give that overall really luminous effect. Finishing that off with natural lip balm and we’re leaving lashes bare.”

DEREK LAM

Tom’s Take: Spooky accents—that's the story here. Tom Pecheux had a lot to say about it. He used a brown eye pencil on the waterline and smudged it out then went under it with an orange-y peach smoke. Very heavy on the under-eye. At first look, you see just a fresh face (take a glance at some runway shots and you’ll see that you don’t notice much). But backstage it was definitely there. That's nice I think: secret makeup. That, and I'll always love a good under-eye smoke. Also of note: Smile To Go catering (they’re our neighbors) and Alana Zimmer.

Tom Pecheux (Maybelline): “Very often Derek likes to bring a twist with the makeup, sometimes with the color or the application, or both. Today it’s a natural look, but Derek wanted to add a little spookiness to the face. Just under the eyes, with kind of a brown copper pencil—the Color Tattoo Concentrated Crayon [out January '16]—inside the eyes, on the waterline. There's a little bit of Falsies Push Up Drama on the roots just to give definition. We got that peach creamy color with the yellow by mixing Cover Stick Concealer in Yellow Corrects with Color Sensation Lip Liner in Nude and blending down. Just to be gently spooky. It’s subtle. If you want to be more aggressive you do the black under the eye. Then we did Baby Lips on the cheek—very cute; it’s new.”

Jin Soon: “We’re using an oxblood red called Risque—with base coat if they’re wearing dark colors and no base coat if they’re wearing something light. It’s a dark color, but we’re doing it pretty sheer. The shape is short and a roundish square. We don’t want to do too long because then you might look like a witch, and we don’t want to do that. We want to do a modern classic. New girls don’t know how to treat their nails, but girls who have a lot of experience, they know. You can see the difference.”

PUBLIC SCHOOL

Tom’s Take: Lots of negative space here. The ponytail was pulled tight, then twisted (Sade-inspired). The makeup was simple, thin white lines across the lid (super graphic with a closed eye; more wearable when the eye is open). White skid marks looked a little like nail graffiti on the fingers. Those were all the accents—the face otherwise was very ‘finished’-looking with Maybelline foundation, brows, and a barely-there contour. All of it was meant to echo the fabrics going on in the collection. There was kind of a lot going on when you think about it, but in a very minimal way.

Allen Ruiz (Aveda): “The inspiration is Sade. We prepped the hair with the Pure Abundance Style Prep, which gives me a nice bit of strength in the hair as I’m blowdrying. If the hair is heavy, it needs some help holding itself up when we pull it into two ponytails. After that, we went through and used a bit of Smooth Infusion Nourishing Styling Cream and this really helps shrink the hair. The whole look is very matte and not super shiny. Then we twist the pony in two sections—both clockwise. Then we wrap them around each other, going counter clockwise. We are going to finish it off with a little bit of Air Control Hairspray. It keeps the whole thing smooth, and again, very matte.”

Grace Lee (Maybelline): “The Public School girl is a little bit more grown-up this season, and we’re mimicking a bit of the fabric that’s in the clothing. So there are hints of, or slashes of, white on the eye. But again, it isn’t about getting those strong linear shapes and see-through fabric mimicked when the eyes are open. So, it’s about making the skin sing, having a good, groomed brow, defining the lash line, giving the girls a bit of mascara, and then three thin lines across the eye. It really isn’t about how the girl looks with her eyes closed—it’s more about open with the tiny flecks of white around the eyes. We’re using the Gel Eyeliner in Cashmere White, the Brow Drama palette, and the Falsies Push-Up Drama Mascara. Then we kept the lips very natural with just a little bit of Baby Lips.”

Deborah Lippmann: “There was a lot of inspiration from travel and architecture and space and volume while also a kind of a minimalism. So, when I was talking to Dao [Yi-Chow], I was thinking about a nail that was almost all negative space. There is a fabric in the collection that has little pieces of feathers on it that are just kind of floating away. So we took a bottle of white nail lacquer called Amazing Grace—it's a very very opaque white—and we almost got almost all of the polish off of the brush and then we just kind of swipe it across the nail from the bottom to the top and leave a negative space on either side. And we've primed the nail with Genie In A Bottle, which is color correcting for nails that have gone a little yellow from over-polishing. It dries like a base coat. And there's no top coat on this one. Leave it as is.”

ALEXANDER WANG

Tom's Take: Zero makeup, one Nars moisturizer, NO LIP BALM ALLOWED. Damn. The girls looked beautiful though—lots of first-timers walking around a giant, dimly lit room. There was a lot of haircut inspiration: every girl seemed to either have something choppy, blunt, asymmetrical, boyish, shaved, or just insanely long. No perfect non-descript/hidden layers cuts here. Kasia Struss was here, hair shorter and redder, looking amazing. Guido made the chop earlier that day. A lot of new girls also had specific cuts for the show, you could tell—I saw some girls comforting each other for sure. But everything looked right on the money for the show (there’s always Viviscal if not…). Then there were the “knicked” eyebrows on the boys. Inspired by boxers in the '80s, it looked raw. And really, really cool.

Guido Palau (Redken): “Alex very much wanted to sort of emphasize the realness of the girls. Almost like she just walked up the street in his clothes, and onto the runway. It’s an unmanicured feeling. So I basically looked at the own girl’s texture, and to give it a little bit more oomph, I used Redken Windblown Dry Finishing Spray, which is a great product. You’ll see me use it because it gives it a little bit guts and a little bit of earthiness. It brings out the texture more and lifts the roots. It’s something I use all the time to create that kind of natural, downtown feeling. We’re also pulling out a boyish feeling in all of them. There are no hard lines—we’re parting everything with our fingers. We didn’t do any blowouts, we didn’t curl anybody’s hair, we just emphasized what they came in with. It’s not pretty.”

Diane Kendal (Nars): “The look is about street credibility. We just toned with rosewater and then using the Nars moisturizer to prep the skin. We’re putting concealer if there’s any spots and any blemishes…brushing eyebrows and filling in when necessary. And that’s basically all we’re doing. Sorry! There isn’t anything else to say.”

ALTUZARRA

Tom's Take: This show is infamously brief with the time slots—you gotta get in and out. I always get in a little too late, bump into the designer himself (he and Vanessa Traina are very hands on), try to talk to Tom Pecheux + Odile Gilbert, all while trying to grab some nice photos of a girl before I'm shooed out of the way. This time, I got one out of three. The important one though—I ran into the three most beautiful Frenchies right by the door and some lovely window light. Thank you Josephine, Ophelie, and Aya! The look was what I call princess hair: two little rolled pieces on the sides of the head pulled to the back in an almost-half pony. Simple and romantic. The makeup was an orange wash of color on the eye with peach on the lip—both in creamy MAC formulas. The skin was finished with some gold strobe cream that hasn’t hit the market yet. No packaging yet though so I'm guessing it's in the early stages.

LACOSTE

Tom's Take: Lacoste was very clean—the story here was the cast (see our newfound obsession with male models). But if there was going to be a beauty angle I'd say it was the hair part. All the girls had a very clean, “rich girl hair' side part when I arrived. But after the walk-through, they all ran back to the Bumble hair stations. The hair was “too coiffed' looking. They were right though. Something about a side part screams, “I need to let loose!” And they did: Center parts for all, natural texture enhanced and finessed with some of the Invisible Oil line.

Laurent Philippon (Bumble and bumble.): “Lacoste is a very organic approach. Doesn’t mean we are not working their hair, but on a lot of girls, we don’t do much ever. It’s just about putting the right product that’s going to bring a little bit of texture. We’re starting with the Hairdresser’s Invisible Oil Primer, which is a kind of a liquid conditioner that you would put once you wash your hair and you’re going to let it air-dry. It’s very light and good for thin to medium hair. For heavier hair, we put our Don’t Blow It, which is a cream that kind of brings this blow dry quality without blow drying it and letting it air-dry. That’s the whole vibe—something that is very raw and doesn’t look coiffed.”

CUSHNIE ET OCHS

Tom's Take: I showed up late to this show and paid the price. When I got to Milk, all the girls were gone, the artists were gone, and it was just like...dead silent. I found manicurist Alicia Torello, who was painting a round of press-ons for four models who were added to the line-up last minute (using Louboutin colors La Favorita and Sevillana). The scene was throwing all the beauty people behind a bit. Bless Shanina and Aneta for making time and most likely pissing off some dresser/coordinator types and letting me take a quick beauty shot. The look was what I'd call vampy. This was the second Maybelline show this Fashion Week and they're turning it out. Here they used The Nudes palette and one of the Lip Studio Color Blurs in Plum, Please to great effect on both counts, with a heavy coat of mascara on top. The eye was super beautiful and the lip very bold. The hair was a double pony—the second so far this fashion week, but too early to call it a trend. I'm all for it, for the record. It's fun—even here where it was a sleek and minimal one.

JASON WU

Tom's Take: Nude nails, p-e-r-f-e-c-t red lip, messy bobby pin-less bun. Very to-the-point and kind of sexy. Deborah Lippmann handled the clean nude nail, which on some girls were a bit long and glamorous (point to you Anais for keeping those up). The hair also, I could rave about—Odile for Kerastase skipped the bobby pin bin this time and opted for clear elastics, all wrapped over and around a beautiful semi-tousled bun right in the middle of the back of each girl's head. As she put it, “The neck is very sexy.” Yadim, Mr. Dark Glamour, reeled it in a bit with very bare skin and a very precise lip created with two liquid Maybelline colors and perfected with lots and lots of concealer around the edges. The final step for the lips was some pure powder pigment. Yes, Maybelline makes pure pigments; but no, you cannot get your hands on them—unless you are Yadim.

Odile Gilbert (Kerastase): “Only rubber bands. No pins. We want it to kind of, to be more modern fashion. It’s a bit of the way they do the chignon themselves. They don’t use bobby pins. They use only elastics. Me, I have no hair, so I’m not a good example. [Laughs] We are using the new product from Kerastase called Crème de la Crème Blow Dry Control Cream. We are wetting the hair and putting a lot of this in. It’s not greasy, but it’s not dry. Grab all the hair together and put in an elastic—twist the whole thing. Do another elastic, another elastic nonstop. It’s very important that the chignon is perfect right above the ear. Keep it as small as possible.”

Yadim (Maybelline): “I love using my finger for a lip. I feel I get a really, really precise application. Sometimes for me—with a brush—it can look a bit off sometimes. Far be it for me to deny someone else wanting to do that, but if you have a way you like to do it, like straight from the bullet or if it’s with a brush, or a toe—if it works well for you then absolutely do it! There’s no rules! After mixing Color Sensational Vivid Matte Liquid in Rebel Red and Berry Boost, I’m using a really loose, dry, powder pigment—a red one—and just pressing it into the middle of the lip. It’s going to be this really interesting velvet highlight. It’s not very comfortable for the models to wear though, which is why we are doing it in the lineup right before the girls go out.”

ADAM SELMAN

Tom's Take: Stuff girls can actually do! I heard this at least five times backstage at Adam Selman. Maybe that'll be a theme this season—the fashion world does like to take it from over-the-top to nothing-at-all and skip the in-between. The Adam Selman girl is very real though, and I think the beauty look reflected that. The collection seemed to be inspired by some sort of vacation—I saw tropical shirt prints and hazy Venice Beach colors. Jimmy Paul for Bumble did a very cool but simple double ponytail, twice tied with colorful shreds of fabric from the collection—all sort of untouched looking. Emi Kaneko for MAC created a very effortless 'boy-ish' makeup look. If boys were good at contouring and subtle highlighting. I think what made it boy-like was the flat brow. Think the opposite of an old Hollywood-esque (or Jack Nicholson) very expressive, arched brow. This one's a grumpy, flat brow. Brad Pitt sorta comes to mind. The nails by Madeline Poole for Sally Hansen felt like a riff on last season's rick-racking. She used a pencil with a nail in its eraser to create little navy-colored dots on each nail for a very 101 Dalmatians feel. Madeline also mentioned the dots looking like little bugs crawling across your nails. The end look was playful but understated.

Emi Kaneko (MAC): “So the look is really about the skin. A lot of highlights and a very strong brow with a little bit on contouring on the cheeks and the eyes. We are using a little bit of this Studio Sculpt Defining Powder, the new Veluxe Brow Liner, and then the Cream Color Base in Pearl and Climax just on the cheekbones and the inner corners of their eyes. We finish it off with a flush colored retro Matte Lipstick. It’s matte, but there’s still a little bit of a shine. Also, no lashes. Just putting a little bit of Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream so we give it a bit of shine. It’s a tomboy kind of vibe just to balance out some of the sweet, girly clothing and marry it all together. It’s more masculine than feminine with that tougher, thicker brow. I feel a straight brow is more of a badass look.”

Madeline Poole (Sally Hansen): “It's a navy blue dot in Dark Hue-mor that is placed randomly on each nail. And then we made this tool out of an actual nail to make the dots. It's stuck on the back of an eraser to make a better utensil. You stick into the color and you lightly tap it onto the nail. It makes a perfect circle and then we topcoat it so the whole nail is encased in clear. The best tip I can give is to not press too hard. You just have to have quite a lot of paint at the end of the nail and really lightly tap it so that it doesn’t smush the color and bleed out. You can do it, it just takes a bit of finesse.”

Jimmy Paul (Bumble and bumble.): “The look is very, very real. We didn’t use any extensions or dryers or curling irons. The two products I used were the Bb. Prep and the Bb. Thickening Hairspray, and that was just to coax the natural wave. Then we just did these really simple double ponytails. It’s supposed to be a 'look' in the same way as you’d pull off a crazy hat, if you’re that kind of woman.”

NYFW S/S '16 shows photographed by Tom Newton. Post updated as of September 16th, 2015, 8:00pm EST. Follow ITG on Instagram, Snapchat (@glossier.irl), and Periscope (@glossier) for real time updates.