Bright, bold beautiful

The year that���s fast drawing to an end, was the year of bold, psychedelic colours, of drama and of glitz.
Indeed, Miss Plain Jane was nowhere to be seen. The seductress, the glam goddess and the Bollywood diva looks ruled the ramp, parties and even college campuses! Here���s a re-look at the look that ruled 2008.
The ���I���m not there��� base
For the base, the idea was to keep the look as natural as possible, because drama was following in the form of mysterious, heavily done up eyes.One needed a clean canvas to work on. ���The base was kept natural and sheer to give a dewy and translucent effect in springs,��� says make-up expert Shalini Vashisht. ���In summers we switched over to a matte base to absorb all grime and dust. It was kept extremely natural. Winters were all about the rich, creamy bases that gave a pearly glow on the face,��� says stylist and make-up artist Laxmi Chauhan.
The ���Mysterious Girl��� eyes
���Eyes were indeed very dramatic. There was a lot of colour play, we kind of recreated the eyes, made them large and wide using whites inside the eyes,��� says Vashisht. The hot eye colours in 2008 were blue, neon green, fuchsia, magenta, hot pink and turquoise. ���There were multiple coats of mascara, eye-brows were well defined and structured, even false eye lashes were used,��� says Chauhan.
The contoured cheeks
We saw lots of shading for cheeks to make them angular. ���Spring cheeks were flushed ��� we used pink just on the apples to create a look as if you are just coming out from a gym. Summers were all about terracotta, brick red and bronze dusted on the sides of cheeks,��� says Vashisht. One saw lots of experimentation in the winters of 2008, which is in fact still on, working more on countering on the side of the cheeks using creamy blush-on. ���Maroon, plum, bronze, red and pink made the cheek bones stand out in winters. I even sparingly used some gold dust for an upscale look,��� says Chauhan.
The perfect pout
Lips ranged from bold and dramatic to natural and bee stung. ���In summers we stayed away from lip colours and lip liners, using liners only if the lips were not very shapely. The emphasis was on nude lips or gloss filled lips. Pinks and beiges were in,��� says Vashisht. Winters gave a reason to play with lots of dark colours so we saw aubergine, maroon, red, gold, browns and purples. ���Gold and silver were also used for some more drama. Plumping gel was also used for that enhanced pout,��� says stylist Dolly Gupta.
The glorious mane
Hair too saw lots of creativity and ���bending the rules��� kinda stuff. There was a lot of influence from what we saw in 60���s, 70���s and 80���s in Bollywood. ���Back combing was quite in. It created lots of volume. A high pony like the one sported by Sri Devi in 80���s worked well for a sporty look,��� says Chauhan. However, big, soft curls that fell down the shoulders in a sensuous way and thick waves aka Sonam Kapoor in Sawaariya were also quite a hit. Hair extension were not plain boring black anymore but had exciting colours that created suspense and mystery. You had hair touched at the ends and where it frames the face with colours like blue, gold, silver and even white and grey. ���This was something that college girls loved sporting the most,��� says Gupta.
Make-up and beauty expert Vidya Tikari says, ���I worked on a very clean, structured and bold look in 2008. That meant matte bright red that went very well with strongly constructed eye-liner for me. So I kept the hair very neat to highlight facial features.���
Buns too were quite a hit. ���Sixty���s style puffs, low and a little off centre buns all created very striking and different looks. 2008 was also the season of hair extensions ��� thick, long hair was what everyone desired and therefore thick hair extensions came into play. Slightly wavy extensions worked better than straight ones,��� says Tikari.
The hottest snips
City based stylist Jassi Chabra says that in hair cuts, round, square and graduated layering was quite in. Nature inspired colours like sunset, choco berry, walnut and honey were all used as hidden highlights.