January 2010 - Beauty of the Month: Rachel Weisz

Get her look:

Eyes: Use a neutral base color from lashline to browbone. Place a light sheen, highlighter color in the inner corners of the eyes and along upper/lower lashlines. Use a soft, pointed round shape brush, like Kevyn Aucoin's small eyeshadow/eyebrow brush, for smokey placement of deep brown or black along the outer corners of the lids. Blend this color along the upper and lower lashline. Tons of mascara is applied to both the upper and lower lashes. Don't forget to fill in and define those brows.

Cheeks: Instead of using a warm color to highlight the apples, the blush is placed along the cheekbones to help emphasize this feature. Try Julie Hewett Los Angeles in Sun or Bronze.

Lips: A liner is very important to define the features for this look. Blend colors into the lips but keep the middle lower lip light. Lightly brush and finger blend a medium-tone lip color to the lips for a soft, warm effect.

Products can be found at Fez Studio, located at 205 NW 10th Ave, Portland, OR 97209

I hope you enjoy this series on my personal reflections on beauty. Yes, there is a scientific explanation to what we are supposed to find beautiful in terms of the spatial arrangements of features but, to me, beauty is so much more complicated than that. Beauty is something that is also tied to a sense of character the individual portrays, a unique sense of emotional expressiveness and how these relate to your own emotions. Because of this, what is beautiful to some may not be beautiful to another....despite what science says. Agree? Disagree? Good.

Rachel Weisz is someone I have been entranced with since her role as Evelyn in Universal's The Mummy ...a role that made her famous to mainstream American audiences. Yes, I am not ashamed to admit I enjoyed that movie. There was a sense of quirkiness to her actions and upon first reflection, she is someone that I might call "cute" or "pretty". However, upon a second look, she grabs you as something much more. Her features may not be perfect but there is something about the arrangement of these imperfections that give her a relatable sense of character....a curious complexity.

There is no doubt she is an intelligent woman in the steps she has chosen in her career. However, to me, I do not see cynical intelligence, but one that tends to come from an emotional place. Hers is a non-narcissistic beauty of which she seems quite unaware. Look at her eyes and you could almost see a sense of wonder. A sensuality (as opposed to sexuality) that draws you in. Of her role in The Constant Gardener, for which she won an Academy Award, she says, " That's the beauty of this film. It has fast pace and excitement, but it also has heart and soul." To me, this heart and soul is what makes her extremely beautiful.

Rachel Weisz can currently be seen in Paramount's 2009 drama, The Lovely Bones (an adaptation of Alice Sebold's 2002 novel of the same name), co-starring Mark Wahlberg and directed by Perter Jackson. 

IN HER OWN WORDS:

It [Botox] should be banned for actors, as steroids are for sportsmen.

Acting is all about expression; why would you want to iron out a frown?

I think London's sexy because it's so full of eccentrics. There's not much room for eccentricity in Hollywood, and eccentricity is what's sexy in people. L.A. makes you feel ugly. People find out I'm an actress and I see that 'whore' look flicker across their eyes. In L.A., unless you've just won an Oscar or you're Mr. Studio Head, no one talks to you. Even at parties. I'm not one for parties and stuff like that. I get a bit nervous around lots of people. Being invisible is what I really enjoy. That I find quite entertaining

I find Hollywood really toxic. I prefer being as far from the center of celebrity as possible. I think actors have a choice of drawing attention to themselves or living on the outskirts. I actually think if you are an actor and you're working and you're doing pretty well like I am, I feel you really have no right to grumble. I don't think you do. Obviously I could think of things that piss me off sometimes, but it's such an amazing job. You get to travel, you get to stay in beautiful places, meet incredible people. And every time you do a different role you learn something new. Frankly, if you don't like it, you should stop and do something else.

As a child I was the best tree climber in our neighbourhood, I was like a little monkey. I've never been afraid of hurting myself or a little physical discomfort. If I'm just in dungarees, I don't think I would intimidate anyone. The older you get the more capable you get at managing life.