M.A.C Ungaro Collection with Sharon Dowsett

From a Paris couture house long celebrated for its romantic use of pattern and colour, to the modern evolution of Ungaro today, it's an exciting debut! Live from backstage at the Fall 2008 Collections, It-Boy designer, Esteban Cortazar, and M.A.C have comoe together to create a special colour collection as dreamy, refined, and, well Parisienne as anything this side of the Avenue Georges V, exclusively ours! A limited-edition for lips, cheeks, eyes ... chez Ungaro, only for M.A.C.

If it's not immediately obvious from the opening paragraph, the house of Ungaro has collaborated with everyone's favorite makeup brand, M.A.C, to create an absolutely stunning limited-edition collection. Launching in early October, it encompasses a wide range of products -- including this beauty chick's fave, Lipglass, in a gorgeous pastel pink! Check this space over the next few days for interviews with the masterminds behind this amazing collection, including Esteban Cortezar himself!

Next up: Sharon Dowsett, Key Makeup Artist for M.A.C! Read on to find out more about how she helped to develop this amazing collection.

How did you work with the M.A.C team backstage to ensure they understood the feeling you wanted for the look?
Backstage I had to keep reminding the team to make it look less professional -- I wanted it to look like shadow rather than eyeshadow. Like Monet's Water Lilies, it looks better the farther back you stand ... there's not a lot of makeup but a lot of thought's gone into it.

At the Atelier day you had a whole collection of post-its on your mood board listing inspirations. What were these?
I wrote down all the words Esteban had used to describe the Ungaro woman so I could keep her in mind. They read: strong, free spirit, spontaneous, open-minded, modern, siren, organic, artistic, erotic, feminine, happy, effortless, passionate, self-assured, natural, alluring, exotic. He also said there was something unexpected about her.

How did you work with M.A.C on the products to get the colors and textures exactly right?
I asked the M.A.C Product Development team to make a few changes to the products I'd used at the show since I'd created bespoke mixtures to get the shades exactly right. I requested that the orange eyeshadow be less yellow, the brown be warmed up and the violet more vibrant. Fortunately you can make anything by combining pigments and mixes from the Pro range and we also looked at some of my favorite theatrical products for inspiration.

The orange eyeshadow is interesting -- what made you want to include it?
The orange eyeshadow is an unexpected pop of color on this palette, otherwise it could look a little too romantic. I was also thinking of Ungaro's reputation for eclectic mixes.

The house of Ungaro is known for its signature pink hue -- did you feel that you needed to try and get this in the collection and in the makeup for the show?
I certainly wanted to include the signature hot Ungaro pink into the makeup at the show, but it didn't feel right to have such a strong color on the face. I must admit, however, that my first idea stemmed from the striking pink blush worn by Guy Bourdin's models! Then I remembered that M.A.C used to have a wonderful blood color stain and asked if we could create one for the collection -- an intense wet translucent flush that could be worn on the cheeks or lips.

As a makeup artist it must be a complete dream to be able to create your own products, especially with M.A.C's product development team and all their expertise at your disposal. Were there any constraints put on you by them, though?
It's such a dream to collaborate on a collection of products, and M.A.C was incredibly free with me, there were no marketing constraints or anything to limit my creativity. They said, "be an artist and we will do the rest."