Spring beauty report 2012: Slippery slope

By Lesa Hannah and Sarah Daniel

It was sink or swim backstage, where wet hair and glistening skin were major beauty themes to surface this season. At Bottega Veneta and Diesel, Guido Palau crafted dripping chignons and misty ponytails. At Alexander Wang, models looked like they had just hopped out of the shower. The sopping effect wasn’t achieved with H2O but with argan hair treatment “until you really get it looking wet,” says Palau. Super-hydrated skin with a healthy sheen was reminiscent of an Olympian post-workout, or in the case of Missoni, a girl who had been up all night flamenco dancing—the models’ dewy complexions achieved through artful placement of metallic cream shadow. That shine could also result from plenty of Botox, according to makeup artist Val Garland, who simulated that supernatural skin for Giambattista Valli by strategically applying a pink-gold pigment on the planes of the face.

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