Colour that's a little "off" wears surprisingly well. Shades with a bruised or bloodied tinge take neutrals into more interesting territory by subtly picking up on the cooler natural tones found within the shadowed areas of skin, especially around the eye area. This means that, although unexpected, they don't jar. Twinned with a glowing complexion, such shades are edgy and sophisticated in their subverted style.
Dutch makeup artist Ellis Faas has built her whole brand around the colours that by nature exist in the human body. M.A.C has dubbed the trend "Off Colour" and mentions shades such as bruised plum, polluted pink, dull rust, dingy violet, veined blue, dusty ochre, dirty khaki and unwholesome brown as typifying the new neutrals.
These shades showed up first on Northern Hemisphere runways early this year and then at New Zealand Fashion Week last month. Sepia and taupe were shades that stood out in Auckland, at directional shows including Nom*d, Lela Jacobs, Zambesi and Coop. They were repeatedly used on eyes, lips and nails.
Before you turn to the usual summer cosmetic brights for the warmer days ahead, try exploring these moodier colours to get ahead of what promises to be a strong look for autumn-winter next year. The moody colours are already filtering through to makeup collections, as you'll see on this page. Think of it as a trend to glammed-up grunge, rather than anything as dark as goth.
Try the look by choosing a taupe, sepia or mauve shadow with a greyish cast or go bolder with a strong sweep of russet or burgundy. The striking tough girl with attitude look (above right) from the autumn-winter Philosophy show in New York was softened with glossy skin. Another way to take the edge off, is to build in some burnish on the lids and stay nude on the lips.
