ANDREA JANKE Finest Accessories: Beauty Style 2012 by Fendi & Chanel

Fendi Spring/Summer 2012 Beauty Style - This season's FENDI muse is a bit of an eccentric - the kind of girl given to placing decorative bits of gold (or silver) leaf from lash line to brow - and then throwing on a pair of rimless seafoam green sunglasses and a nautical-striped shirt dress for a stroll down the Via Sant'Andrea. "It's a game of textures," said makeup artist Peter Philips backstage. "Mixing fur with leather with a graphic metallic element." Paired with cool nude lips, the look was resolutely bourgeois, with a dash of Byzantine charm.

Enjoy my 1st Beauty-post with wonderful insights of these Maquillage-techniques and Chanel 'Paris-Bombay' Pre-Fall 2012 Beauty-Backstage video at the end of this post. Please, let me know your comments and suggestions. LoL, Andrea

Makeup: Peter Philips for Fendi

Hair: Sam McKnight for Fendi

Models arriving at the Fendi compound from an earlier show wore their hair in chest-length dreadlocks - which made their transformation into Sam McKnight's "madcap mathematicians" moments later all the more remarkable. Their teased, bouffant bobs were "very considered, very structured ... but a little bit destroyed," said McKnight, who finished by pulling out tufts at random. McKnight gave hair its gravity-defying height with Fekkai Coiff Bouffant Lifting&Texturizing Spray Gel before teasing it into a voluminous froth and pinning the end under in a vaguely sixties-esque "faux-bob". He finished with a misting of Pantene Classic hairspray.

"It's amazing!" said model Arizona Muse - dressed in a black blouse, white skinny pants, and her own Fendi fur bib of the tiny silver bits of foil that Philips pressed into place over her upper lids using adhesive gel (models like Candice Swanepoel and Daria Strokous got the same treatment in gold). He traced the upper lashes with a neat winged line of black pencil (Chanel Stylo Yeux Waterproof), then layered on black mascara (Chanel Inimitable). Then, to create balance throughout the rest of the face, Philips dusted transparent pink blush (Chanel Rose Ecrin) over the cheeks and dabbed a bit of foundation (Chanel Pro Lumiere) on the lips.

Chanel Spring/Summer 2012 Beauty Style - "Everything is under the sea", pronounced Karl Lagerfeld over a tablescape of nacreous necklaces and clutch minaudieres fashioned like seashells.

"Have you seen the space?! asked Peter Philips of the white seashell underwater set, when describing the context for the show's neo mermaids with their wet, luminous lids and glistening lips (not to mention the tiny pearl "piercing" along the earlobes, brow, lower lip, and even trailing down the spine). "Karl always has a clear idea of what he wants for the face. He sent me sketches a few months ago," continued Philips, who worked from one of the designer's hand-drawn renderings, as well as fabrics from the collection reflective surfaces, scale-like appliqués, when translating his vision into makeup.

Makeup: Peter Philips for Chanel
Hair: Sam McKnight for Chanel

Riffing on "that boyish thing" that's a signature to the house - it was Mademoiselle Chanel, after all, who revolutionized the woman's pant - McKnight gave hair a deep side part and sleek groomed quality using handfuls of mousse (Sebastian Mousse Forte) and a conditioning mask on the ends (Pantene Repair and Protect Intensive Hair Repair Treatment).

"We need to keep the ends looking wet until the show starts, without putting actual oil in the girls' hair", he said, raking a wide-tooth comb over the crown to create seashell-like grooves along the head and fastneing it into a ponytail. After winding it into a hybrid chignon-bun, he misted it with Fekkai Advanced Brilliant Glossing Sheer Shin Mist and something called Brilliant Diamant - a lacquer-like pro shine spray the hairstylist discovered in Paris. "You can only buy it in France", he said.

Nearly 800 lustrous pearl hairpins were created by the fashion house!

The collection's twinkling iridescent dresses and metallic-threaded tweeds called to mind the rippling sparkle of sunlight across the water. So, too, did Philip's glimmering lids, thanks to a wash of creamy white pigment (Illusion d'Ombre shadow in Fantasme). "It turns into more of a glow as it fades toward the hairline," explained Philips, who the dipped into a pale peach shade (Illusion d'Ombre shadow in Emerveillé), which he gently rubbed from the outer corners of the eyes toward the temples. A line of black pencil along the upper lashes (Le Stylo Yeux Waterproff in Ebene) and another in beige on the inner rim of the lids (Le Crayon Khol in Clair). He finished with a coat of Inimitable Mascara "on the top of the lashes only."

Tiny Chanel bags filled with varying shades of Illusion d'Ombre shadow and the company's cult metallic green-gold Peridot polish were handed to guests entered the majestic Grand Palais.