LOVE AFFAIRS
SHU UEMURA, SAINT-GERMAIN-DES-PRÉS
In 2010 L’Oreal announced that Shu Uemura would close its US operations leaving ladies in the States with the option of ordering favorites like eyelash curlers, falsies, and makeup remover online. As somewhat Shu Uemura obsessed, I always make sure to hit up their Paris store in Saint-Germain for a proper tactile experience. Nothing beats dabbing some lipstick on your hand and smelling a new cream! Last time I was in town I headed over with makeup artist Michelle Rainer for a little tour of the best products that everyone can use.
THE EXPERT
MICHELLE RAINER, MAKEUP ARTIST
I caught up with makeup artist Michelle Rainer in Paris for a chocolat chaud -- and to find out more about how her lifelong love affair with beauty began. "My interest in makeup goes back to my childhood. I grew up in Vienna, which is a very colorful, beautiful city with lots of art; inspiration was always around me. My aunt had a makeup shop near my school and I spent the afternoons in there, from when I was ten years old and on. I always had a natural eye for color and I can tell the difference between slight variations.... For me, the [beauty] universe was always familiar and later on, it would become a job. The most exciting aspect for me has always been fashion, and with the fashion goes the makeup... Whether I am working for a magazine or a show. It is all so interconnected. If we promote red on the eye in a fashion show, we also use red on the eye in a beauty story later on. In the end, it is the fashion that gives the direction for the beauty. If there is a lot of blue on the catwalk, there will be blue nail polish out next season. It was not so interesting for me to become a fashion designer or a clothes maker -- so I design faces."
I can’t live without my Shu Uemura eyelash curler. And this is one item you can order online but nothing beats the experience of actually testing beauty products ‘on the spot”.