Baroque Beauty

Opulent baroque patterns were all over the fall and winter runways; clothing featured golden threads embroidered into elaborate patterns. With such bold designs, it can be hard to find a makeup that can keep up with the look but not compete for attention. Optionally, if you’re not wearing a baroque pattern, you may want to jump on the trend just using makeup. Here’s how to channel the baroque looks from fall fashion on to your face.

Baroque fashion is all about opulence, deep colors, and gold accents. To achieve a stand-alone baroque lip look, you’ll need a deep burgundy lipstick, lip liner, and some gold eye shadow. Yes, the eye shadow will be on your lips – and it will look fabulous. The Beauty Department advises that you fill in your entire lip with the burgundy pencil (it will help the color stay put), then apply burgundy lipstick. Dip your finger into a gold eye shadow (it can be cream or powder) and dot it in the center of your bottom lip. This is the place where a bit of extra shine can create a fuller pout (remember how you dot lip gloss there to enhance your lips?). Because these lips are so dark and bold, it’s best to keep eye makeup simple and minimal. Even just a coat of mascara may do.

How about some standalone nails? Nail art is all the rage right now, and it can let you take part in the baroque trend without the commitment of money and valuable closet space. Bread Butter Champagne achieved a baroque manicure at home by painting nails with a dark nail polish and some gold nail stickers. The writer used Essie Wicked polish, but I think it would look amazing with the oh-so-popular oxblood shades out now. After applying the nail polish, she simply applied Nail Stickers #5 in Oriental Gold from Skinfood. To make this manicure extra chic, she put each sticker near the nail bed but put each a little off center to add more visual interest.

If you’re wearing intricate brocade and other detailed baroque parts of an outfit, it’s best to keep your makeup subtle. At Dolce & Gabbana’s autumn and winter show, the models had just hints of golden tones to let the intricate clothing do the talking. Katie Chutzpah reports that makeup artist Pat McGrath created an understated makeup look for the models starting with a flawless complexion. Foundation was used to even tone, and concealer was used in strategic places to highlight without adding shimmer. McGrath used Dolce & Gabbana The Makeup (of course) like blush in Delight that was delicately swept over the models’ cheeks for just a hint of color.

To achieve the subtly golden eyes, McGrath layered colors from The Smooth Eye Color Quad in Gold and Desert, using the darkest color up to the brow bone and the lightest in the inner corner of the eye, then lined the upper and lower lash lines with The Crayon Intense Eyeliner in Nude. The eyes were finished off with The Secret Eyes Mascara in Coffee. The nearly nude lips actually took the blending of two different shades of The Classic Cream lipstick to achieve. Petal and Mandorla were used to create the soft pink lips with subtle sheen. If you’re looking to recreate this look on a budget (because you may not have a lot of pocket change left after spending on luxurious, baroque-style outfits), you can easily find a golden eye shadow quad, a pink blush, a nude eyeliner, and a pinkish-nude lip color at your local drug store from a budget-friendly brand. Finish off your subtle makeup with some nude nail polish. The best part is it will still go with your outfit the next day, no matter what color it happens to be.

Even if you don’t have the budget of Louis XIV, you can get in on the baroque trend with some very easy makeup. So get in front of the mirror and go for baroque!