Make-up Trend: Barely There Make-up

On the January cover of Vogue India Padma Lakshmi channeled a natural care-free look. To get her look, dust a soft bronze eye shadow lightly over the lids, stopping at the crease. Using a black eye pencil draw a thin line on your upper lashes only. Padma has gorgeous full brows, fill in and slightly darken your brows with a brow pencil that matches your natural brow color. Use short strokes, then run through brows with a spooley brush. Brush several coats of mascara on the top and bottom lashes.For your cheeks, rub on a generous swirl of cream bronzer starting at the apples and blending up your cheekbones. Mix a luminizer with moisturizer and dab the mixture just above the cheekbones, down the bridge of the nose, and in the cupid's bow. Apply a lipstick that is closest to your lip tone directly to lips, then blot lightly with a tissue to make it look matte and stainlike.

Rec: Korres Natural Look Antioxidant Color Collection

Make-up Trend: Turquoise Eye Liner

At the Emmys, Padma Lakshmi rimmed her chestnut eyes with a shiny turquoise liner, it infused her entire look with an exotic, beachy feel. She paired her that with bronzed cheeks and windblown strands, she brought an instant islandish glam factor to the red carpet.

Rec: Make Up For Ever Aqua Eyes in Turquoise 7L

Hair Trend: Glossy, Shiny Hair

For her appearance on the CW Morning Show in New York City, new mom Padma Lakshmi showed off radiant skin and hair. To keep your strands luminous, watch what you eat—studies have shown that foods rich in olive oil, omega-3 fatty acids and protein contribute to the growth of healthy, shiny hair. Supplements containing Omegas 3 and 6 (Borage Seed Oil) increase hair shine and vitamins B, C, and Cystine promote healthy hair and nail growth.

Rec: Phyto Phytophanere Dietary Supplement for Hair & Nails

Padma Lakshmi's Everyday Nude Look [Make-up Breakdown]

 

Padma Lakshmi is known for her gorgeous skin and her beautiful almond shaped eyes, that's why it comes as no surprise that she doesn't have any foundation in this picture. For a cover shoot for Allure Magazine, she looked absolutely beautiful with neutral eyes and lips. To get her look, apply a mink-brown eye shadow over your eyelids, darkening it in the creases and fanning it up toward the brow bone. Thinly line your upper and lower lids with charcoal eyeliner and add black mascara to your top lashes. With a large fluffy brush, dust a soft-brown blush on the apples of your cheeks and blend outward. Apply a creamy lipstick with a lip brush to keep the color from looking too dense.

Padma Lakshmi at the Emmy's 2009

Padma Lakshmi looked like a goddess at the Emmy's this year in glowy skin and barely-there make-up on her eyes. Looks like she has about to coats of mascara on, eyeliner on her top lid, and peachy-pink cheeks. Her lips are a matte pinky-neutral nude.

Watch this space for more.

Allure, You Done Started Somethin'

Peep what Padma Lakshmi wore to the 2009 White House Correspondents Dinner. Yes, you heard me right. Padma didn't wear this transparent little number on a late-night booty call to her man's house. She wore this to party with the President!

I'm sorry, but if I were Michelle, lil miss Top Chef would have seen the bottom of my stiletto as Secret Service and I showed her the door.

What was she thinking wearing this inappropriate dress to such a swank shindig? And before you try sticking up for the usually polished Padma, I want to say that I don't buy the "I had no idea my dress was this sheer" defense. Even Lady Gaga or Aubrey O'Day would have had enough sense to put on something opaque before meeting Obama.

You know what I think? I think Allure Magazine started somethin' with their May 2009 spread of stripped-down celebs. Perhaps it made Padma a little too comfortable in her own skin?

In the interview that accompanies the photo below, Allure asked Padma if she's confident about her body. I believe Saturday's wardrobe malfunction answers that question, but anyway...Padma replied, "Yes; I like the way I look. I think I look better now than I did in my 20s, because I'm more confident about my body - and I don't want to look like anyone but myself."

What's Inside Padma Lakshmi's Make-up Bag?

"I was born in India, where there's a long tradition of lining the eyes with kohl and kajal. As a baby, I was wearing eye makeup!"

1. The Hamptons Honey Company Pure Honey: "I'm big on natural treatments — I slather this on. Honey is great for pulling impurities from pores."
   
   
2. Pantene Pro-V Nature Fusion Smooth Vitality Conditioner with cassia seed extract: "I tried this after an excruciating TV season, and it really soothed my frayed hair."
   
   
3. Henri Bendel makeup bag
   
   
4. Desert Essence JoJoba Oil: "To fight flakes, I microwave a cup of this and massage it into my scalp. My grandmother used to do it on the stove."
   
   
5. Christine Chin Ultra Moist Crème Masque
   
   
6. Neal's Yard Remedies Neroli Essential Oil: "I love to mix scents on my wrist based on my mood."
   
   
7. Everlast jump rope: "I can gain 15 pounds in six weeks of taping Top Chef. I train like a boxer afterward — jumping rope really whips you into shape."
   
   
8. Shu Uemura Gloss Unlimited in BG 952S: "I eat a lot and don't like to see lipstick marks on things — this sheer gloss is perfect."
   
   
9. Maybelline Great Lash Mascara
   
   
10. YSL Long Lasting Eye Pencil #3 Ocean Blue
    
    
11. Rilastil Intensive Face Day Cream: "People forget that eyelashes get dry, too. I moisturize mine with a bit of face cream."
    
    
12. Phyto Phytovolume Actif Volumizer Spray: "During downtime, I keep it simple — just shampoo, conditioner, and a bit of this spray."
    
    
13. M.A.C Iridescent Powder in Golden Bronze
    

Padma Lakshmi on the Art of Make-up

I was raised shuttling between southern India and the United States, from my grandparents' home in Madras to my mother's apartment in Manhattan. In India even children are made up with kohl around the eyes, so my relationship with makeup started very early. I loved delving into my mother's red Samsonite beauty case every time she came to visit. The box seemed to contain the mysteries of her glamorous life in the States. She lined her suitcase with back issues of Vogue so my aunts could get a glimpse of the sophisticated world of Western fashion. It was at the bottom of my mother's suitcase that I first saw Kim Alexis' face: The last winter of the seventies, Alexis landed three covers in a row. At that time, for most middle-class Indian women, makeup consisted of eyeliner pencil, Pond's talcum powder, and some vampiric lipstick. Mom brought back palettes of eye shadows and lipstick with names like Robin's Egg Blue, Candy Apple, and Wine with Everything, and a blush called Raspberry Mist. I had never seen a candy apple or robin's egg, let alone tasted a raspberry.
Later, I moved to America to join my mother. She and I lived in an apartment on New York's Upper East Side and yet, on her nurse's salary, we were miles away from Madison Avenue. But we could still look exactly like the faces in Vogue. On sunny Saturdays, we'd go to Central Park and have my face painted by the clowns (something I quickly outgrew). On cold or rainy days, we'd stay home and pore over fashion magazines. My mother allowed me to use her face as my practice canvas, and I spent hours doing her makeup; those afternoons are some of the happiest memories of my childhood. I soon became so good at cosmetic artistry that my mother often used my services before she went out for a date.
By the age of ten, I was practicing on myself. I couldn't wait to copy what I saw on those covers on my own face. Often I found I could replicate the same look on my darker skin by increasing the pigment intensity. If they used a baby-pink blush, I'd try something more fuchsia. If Kim had a medium-blue eyeliner, I used cobalt. I learned the important skill of adapting what I saw to fit me. Vogue became my first how-to manual of beauty.
For me, fashion started with the face. As young girls, we become interested in our hair, our makeup, and only then, after attending to accessories like ribbons, headbands, and earrings, might we notice that our clothes are all wrong. I looked nothing like Kim Alexis, and neither did anyone in my family, but it never occurred to me that I wasn't blonde or blue-eyed like Kim. It would be years before I heard the labels ethnic and exotic in reference to my own face. In those carefree days of girlhood, I had yet to see myself as the world saw me. I just recognized a beautiful girl and wanted to look like her—even in her Chantilly perfume ads, in honor of which I tried very hard with curling iron and hairspray to will my own hair into the tousled, tumbled-out-of-bed look Kim portrayed with such apparent ease.
We had two makeup drawers in our bathroom. The top one was for items my mother couldn't fit in her makeup bag, usually brands like Lancome and Estee Lauder, and the bottom one was for bits and pieces I had inherited—usually Revlon—and products I had splurged on in the local dime store, like Cover Girl or Maybelline. Things would often move back and forth between the two drawers. My mother had a serious makeup habit in those days, which meant she bought about five versions of the same color of lipstick or eye shadow, so I usually made out quite well and amassed a large array of cosmetics. I earned my allowance by doing chores, vacuuming and dusting, but the biggest money came from charging my mother a whopping $5 for shaping her eyebrows every week. I became an adept beautician and used my profits to reinvest in my business.
Years later, when I began my career as a model, I couldn't wait to quiz the makeup artists for their secrets. I picked up all sorts of tips at shoots and backstage at fashion shows. I learned about Joe Blasco and Make Up For Ever from Kevyn Aucoin, studied how to highlight my cheekbones with Mary Greenwell and how to make my eyes look bigger with Bobbi Brown. (And was taught how to contour my nose by the model Tyra Banks.) I rummaged through all the kits I could talk my hands into. Eventually, if I found myself working with a lesser makeup artist, I could gently tell him or her what might work better. Or, many times, I finished off their work for them, allowing them to move on to the next girl. I'd suggest that the more peachy or apricot tones looked better on my olive skin than the cooler shades of pink. I found a fabulous beauty case at a vintage store and filled it with my many treasures.
That case is still one of my most prized possessions, although now it has numerous scripts piled on top of it. As my career ambitions moved from fashion to TV and film, I found that less is definitely more. What works well on the runway does not exactly translate well on-screen, and I've had to curtail my more flamboyant tendencies. In the movies, makeup is dictated by the character one is playing, and everything shows on-screen. So I've found that the more natural my makeup, the better I look.
Which takes me back to Kim Alexis in the eighties: It's no accident that beauty and fashion trends rotate in 20-year cycles. The ethos of those clean, groomed covers is coming back, especially among young Hollywood actresses. Just a bit around the eyes, a ripely colored mouth, some drippy earrings, and our faces are ready for the red carpet.

Make-up Trend: Silver Eye Shadow

This is a very soft, youthful look for Spring. Everyone can wear it, because silver is universally flattering and not harsh.

Use a cream shadow (rather than powder), because if it creases in warm weather, you can quickly reblend with a finger.

Rec: Bobbi Brown Long Wear Cream Shadow in Galaxy