Fashion’s Night Out was a major production this year. Retailers, large and small, offered up some seriously exciting events–from a ferris wheel on Rodeo Drive to Justin Timberlake‘s meet-and-greet for his William Rast clothing line at Nordstrom in the new Santa Monica Place (more like palace) mall. There were tons of events to choose from, but the one that excited me most was happening five feet away from William Rast. Sorry JT, but I wanted to meet the man behind the makeup line Smashbox–Davis Factor! The grandson of Max Factor and brother of Smashbox co-founder Dean Factor, Davis offered an impressive gift to FNO customers–the accomplished photographer (he’s shot Angelina Jolie, Robert Downey, Jr., and so on) gave a mini photo shoot to any customer who spent $150 or more on Smashbox goodies. The minimum purchase was not hard to reach, seeing as their photo-friendly line has added a new collection: Masquerade. This bevy of shimmering, jewel-toned products offers up the company’s trademark blendable textures in a multicolored eye palette, lip glosses, eyeliners, and more.
Somewhere between my Masquerade makeover and pseudo-celeb photo shoot, I chatted with Factor about FNO, the new collection, and his latest beauty obsession:
BATF: As a photographer who captures some of the most beautiful faces in the world, what do you believe is the key to looking amazing in a picture?
Davis Factor: There are so many different elements. I always think a great makeup artist is going to make a big difference. Sometimes, the models do their makeup better than the artists do because they’re so used to it. It starts out with a great primer, I believe, and that’s one of [Smashbox’s] best products. The camera sees everything and we make products that help hide some of that. For example, Photo Finish Foundation, Photo Op for under the eyes, and our Lid primer are fantastic. Those are good products to put on before your makeup–they fill in lines, help makeup stay on your face, and make colors pop.
BATF: What Fall beauty trend do you think is most beautiful?
DF: I’m so all about red lipstick right now. I can’t help it. I’m just feeling a little bit of the holiday spirit.
BATF: What was the inspiration behind Smashbox’s new Masquerade collection?
DF: The inspiration was taken from a masquerade ball. I thought we should come out with colors that were deep and saturated–moody purples, etc. I thought that was a pretty and fun fall look. We were adding some color to the collection. It’s a little different than what we saw from last fall. You have some choices of going lighter or darker with [the palette]. There are two different looks that you can create with it–one has a lighter lip and one has a darker lip. But it’s about using a lot of deep colors.
BATF: You are offering such a unique gift to customers tonight. What gave you the idea to do this?
DF: We’ve been doing the photo event for 15 years, but I haven’t really done too many of them lately. Vogue’s Fashion Night Out was a good opportunity to do the photo event again. It’s a unique experience to be able to bring the studio to the makeup counter. I used to do them all over the world, actually, when we first opened the company. It’s great to be back in Nordstrom and to be part of FNO. It’s also great to let the customer experience what the celebrity experiences at the studio.
Though I don’t look anything like Angelina Jolie, here is one of my Davis Factor photo shoot frames. In my defense, I was not prepared to take part in the shoot. I should have run a few miles, and then actually done something to my hair. Oops. Try to focus on the expert camera work and makeup application!
Love the photo…and the eye makeup is gorge!