Heidi Klum was at The Grove yesterday to promote her new make up collection, Very Sexy, for Victoria’s Secret. I was lucky enough to have been able to get an interview with her before she began the personal appearance event. She is as sweet and beautiful as you imagine her to be. And super tall. I took a picture with her and it was quite ridiculous, I am 5’6″ but look 4 feet tall! Well, I was wearing flats and she had these impossibly high platforms on. In case you’re wondering, she is wearing a dress by past Project Runway contestant, Rami Kashou. She says you can tell it is his design because of his signature sweet hear neck line. Hmm, I thought his signature was “draping”. Anyway, it looks great with her wings!
She was at the Women’s Conference, which I attended, so I asked her about that. She was moved by Maria Shriver’s speech, like everyone else, she cried when Maria talked about getting in bed with her sick mother. She talked about how Maria feels like she always has to be strong, she is the rock for everyone in her life and Heidi identifies with that, she says that she is the same way, “It is a German thing”, then added, “But the day was about empowerment and kicking butt!”. At the conference, she was on the panel about being an entrepreneur so I asked whether her looks has helped or hurt her in business. I felt it was topical because it was something that was discussed at the conference. She began by saying that it hasn’t hurt or helped her but then paused and said, “Well, it certainly hasn’t made it any easier. I have to fight the battle that being good looking means you’re stupid. But of course my looks has brought me all the things like Victoria’s Secret, Sports Illustrated and being on TV as a host”. It would truly be the dawn of a new era when someone who looks like Heidi is the Secretary of State or President! I was going to ask her what she does to look so good after 3 kids but I already know the answer. The answer is “nothing”. People like Heidi are given the gift of just looking that way, plain and simple.
I often wonder how working women like her – a model, entrepreneur, tv host, designer, manages to keep it all together. She said that women today wear so many different hats, “We are good at doing many things and multi-tasking. We are the ones who make play dates, remember when to get the immunizations for the kids, go to soccer practice. Like today after this, I have to go home, wash my face and go to my kid’s school for the teacher parent conference. I have to do all that stuff”. And not to mention her career in 5 different areas!! So what about romance? Is there a typical date night that she has with Seal? “We don’t have a typical date night at a particular restaurant or anything like that. Most of the time it is off the cuff. Sometimes he’ll show up and pick me up at work. Or when I jump out of a plane expecting to see my car service, he will be there instead! He’ll say, ‘Let’s go to dinner before we go home’. This summer we took a boat trip, my mom took the kids and we had a chance to get away. We also went to Venice and Paris for a few days”. No wonder their marriage is so wonderful! He is so super sweet and romantic.
I also had a chance to speak to her makeup artist, Linda Hay. She developed this new collection with Heidi. Linda is also the genius behind the Victoria’s Secret runway shows, if you have ever seen how amazing and sexy all the girls look, you will agree with my appropriate title for her. She describes a woman getting dressed as “painting a picture”. She starts with the dress, shoes and then the makeup, which she considers an accessory, “It is the icing on the cake”. The The Very Sexy, Silky Eyeshadow Quad for $20 has an emerald green, silver, peach and charcoal – all generously sparkled (the charcoal being the most sparkly). “Heidi loves sparkles! She is German and wants everything to be big and sparkly.” But she describes the emerald as a “neutral” that can very soft and used for the day. She begins to show me by applying the colors on the back of her hand, “See this green, a little goes a long way”, as she starts to blend it on her hand, “it is all about smudging and blending.” She applies the peach right above the emerald, “and then you put the silver on the inside corner of the eye to highlight. Highlighting is great, it makes contours which is what you want”. She shows me the finished look and then begins to build on it for a nighttime look. “You put black over the top of the emerald for drama and then blend the emerald over it”. Voila! She says that the deep tone of the emerald makes it appropriate for all skin tones. She then points to a color that is not a part of this collection and says, “It is not like this green, this green would not work for everyone”. It is an army moss green.
She offers some tips for the busy woman with only a few minutes to devote to makeup. For a 3 minute, she recommends spending the precious time on concealer, bronzer, mascara and lip gloss. She then looks at my lips and comments on how great it is, how she loves how it looks on me. I had forgotten what I was wearing so I dig in my bag only to retrieve a tube of Victoria’s Secret Beauty Rush ‘Honey Do’ lip gloss! I had no idea where that even came from, I was in a huge hurry this morning and grabbed the first thing I saw. Serendipity, I guess!
For the 5 minute look, she says you can get into penciling, as in eyeliner, one coat of one color of shadow and maybe an extra layer of mascara. If you have 10 minutes, then you can have evening. Add in a darker color, like the sparkly charcoal and that is all you need. I actually spend much more time getting an evening look so I assumed these are a professional’s speed but she insisted that I would be able to accomplish an evening look in 10 minutes. I will have to start timing myself! The entire collection is available for a limited time at all the Victoria’s Secrets as well as online.
I’ll have to swatch these soon:)