Photo by Christiana Molina
Last week Pop Beauty and Fashion Indie hosted a grand finale to Fashion Week at New York's hot new nightclub Citrine. Pop Beauty founder Sara Strand is a Swedish-born singer who learned all about makeup while touring Europe, and has translated that stage look into a ready-to-wear look. She believes in the musicality of color, and preaches that a little color can go a long way in making your face pop. Seen on the runways all week long, bright colors are definitely making a big comeback from eyes to lips to face.
Sara performed for the first time in the U.S., singing some Louisiana-inspired tunes in her signature sultry voice. Guests sipped on POP-tinis and enjoyed free makeup touches while DJ Josh Madden kept the party going. We caught up with Sara to ask what trends she's hoping to see for fall makeup.
Huffington Post: What's popular in makeup now?
Sara Strand: Well what I can see, which is obviously a great pleasure of mine, is that there is a lot of color coming back, which is something that I've been campaigning for, almost for ten years now. So that's always a great thing.
HP: What are the trends we can expect for the Fall season?
SS: Some of the trends I feel is to beautify again, rather than to slap it on. Which is always a good way of going back to basics, and then from there you can start applying lots of color.
HP: Any specific color palettes for Fall?
SS: If we're going to do color, I feel that we're going to go back to real deep aquas rather than just blacks and browns, and just playing with nudes on top of that. I think that's going to look amazing on eyes. But I think everything should play. For trends, it's like, so what. Find out what works for you.
HP: Are there any tips that you should keep in mind when applying color? Is less more?
SS: I think punches of color work really well. I mean, I'm a bit of a circus person so I like to layer it on. But I think that just for every day, a touch of color makes all the difference. If you just do brown, you could end up just looking tired. So if you just add a little bit of a blue or a green, it actually lifts your face.
HP: What are the five essentials that every woman needs in her beauty bag?
SS: You have to definitely have a great foundation, you need a good concealer, a blush is a must for me, and an eyelash curler--I guess that's a tool. Are we on four? Ok, forget about the eyelash curler. Let's just do an eyeshadow and a lipgloss. You'll survive. But I need at least about five more, and then I'm happy and I'm good.
HP: Women buy more lipstick during a recession to boost their mood. Do you see that trend?
SS: Yeah and I think women are interested in exploring. I mean what Pop is about, it's about bringing the really high-end to the high-street. We want to bridge that gap. So I think in the recession like this, it's perfect for women out there. We still want to get a treat for ourselves and something that's fun, but we don't want to spend thousands of dollars. So it's the perfect brand.
HP: And what about going on a job interview? What should a woman wear on her face?
SS: I would wear more "no make-up" make-up for a job interview, but I would still explore in the sense of instead of wearing a black liner, I would wear a deep green, a musk green, or a deep aqua, because it looks fresher and you want to look awake and ready for the job. So that's better.
HP: How do you do pops of color age-appropriately?
SS: I don't believe in age!
HP: So a woman in her 50s can still wear the deep aquas?
SS: She should more than anyone. Women who are actually maturing need more color. See what happens is women who are young, you have more color in your lips, and you just have more color in general. So you definitely need to explore more as you age.
HP: And how important is it to use natural ingredients in your line?
SS: I think it's important to use it when we can. We always use it when we can. And there's a lot of research that goes into finding the right ingredients, but we still want to make it affordable. So we incorporate the two as much as we can.