BEAUTY

Dark Nature

Gareth Pugh’s collection for MAC.


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More than a year ago, British designer Gareth Pugh began constructing an elaborate inspiration board of butterfly wings, feathers, and photographs of thunderstorms (among other things). But what looked like the run-up to another runway show were in fact the early stirrings of his first makeup collaboration, with MAC Cosmetics, which launches later this month. “I like to pair opposites when I design my clothes to create friction, energy,” Pugh says. “For the ­makeup, I looked to the natural world. The silvery, ­fragile-looking side of the collection is the lightning in a storm, and the dark, deep purples are the black, hazy sky.”

Most intriguing is Pugh’s take on faux ­lashes. “These are a lot more ­graphic, ­almost like horse blinders,” he says of his winglike Flight Lashes. Other notables from the collection include Halo nail ­polish—an iridescent blend of green and purple—along with a pearlescent gloss and an intense loose silver ­shadow. “I didn’t want the collection to be all black—that’s what people ­expected,” Pugh says. “I ­wanted it to be both un­expected and beautiful.”

Pugh: Courtesy of subject