When you think of Middle Eastern cuisine, you might conjure up visions of piping curry chicken, lamb kebabs with bright yellow and red peppers, creamy hummus with pita bread, and plates of Ful medames (boiled fava beans mixed with spices). It's likely that, when you think of the most prominent colors in this appetizing spread, you'll focus on autumn harvest-worthy shades of beige, yellow, orange, brown, and red shades. In truth, however, there's a wealth of colors that you would discover when venturing into a spice market — something makeup artist Bobbi Brown knows first hand, having traveled to Morocco for a week-long bike tour several years ago. During her trip, Bobbi Brown ventured to the open-air markets in Marrakesh and marveled at the baharat, dried coriander, ground cumin, rosehip tea, star anise, pink peppercorn, saffron, turmeric, ginger, white pepper, chili, and green anise packed into wooden buckets, woven baskets, and cloth sacks, and shaped to resemble towering, pyramid-like cones. She also soaked in the rich turquoise, sepia, mustard, navy, and white ceramic platters and bowls; the warm shades of the handmade lanterns; the purple, lavender, magenta, red, and gold silk blankets and throws; and the vegetable dyed, hand-stitched leather thong sandals and slides.
Using her memories of the souks in Marrakesh, then, Bobbi Brown created the color story for her earthy, Bohemian, wanderlust-soaked Bobbi Brown Fall 2011 Marrakesh Chic Collection. The anchors in the collection are the eight heavily pigmented Rich Color Eyeshadow ($24 each at BobbiBrownCosmetics.com): Sand Dune, a dirty beige akin to ginger powder; Wine, an aubergine hue; Rich Kashmir, a golden brown reminiscent of a glass of refreshing Moroccan mint tea; Desert Lily, a mauve-tinged, pinkish lavender; Rich Slate, an intense, smoky gray; Royale, an eggplant purple with red undertones; Coffee Bean, a deep espresso color; and Pink Slip, a peachy, warm pink worthy of pointe shoes.
To complement the earthiness of these eye colors, Bobbi Brown introduced a new shade of her famous, vitamin-enriched, moisturizing, emollient Lip Color ($23 at BobbiBrownCosmetics.com): Desert Plum, a fig-tinged purplish red. She also unveiled a new shade of her deliciously creamy, shimmer-enriched Metallic Lip Color ($23 at BobbiBrownCosmetics.com): Violet Glaze, a bright jewel tone that looks like a subtler version of the natural hue of rosehip tea leaves.
A new shade of the protective Rich Color SPF 12 ($23 at BobbiBrownCosmetics.com), Desert Rose, and two new hues of the long-wearing, shea butter-enriched Creamy Lip Color ($23 at BobbiBrownCosmetics.com), Pale Plum and Pink Blossom, round out the exotic collection.
After the jump, you'll find swatches of the Rich Kashmir, Desert Lily, Rich Slate, and Pink Silk Rich Color Eye Shadows, along with swatches of the Desert Rose Lip Color and the Violet Glaze Metallic Lip Color.
Below, you'll find swatches of the Rich Kashmir, Desert Lily, Rich Slate, and Pink Silk shades. As you can see, the colors are all richly pigmented and have a dusky, velvety quality to them, with just a hint of light-reflecting shimmer to add dimension and depth. As with all Bobbi Brown eye shadows, these blend exceptionally well — in fact, it's the shadows' ability to adhere to the skin, the ease with which they can be diffused, and their capacity for layering that makes them essential buys for makeup enthusiasts.
I'm particularly fond of the Desert Lily shade, since it's reminiscent of a wintry lavender pink tulip.
Next, check out swatches of the Violet Glaze Metallic Lip Color and the Desert Rose Lip Color. The Violet Glaze shade is reminiscent of the cool pink and purple shades of the tea leaves you'd find a spice market, a lighter an more luminous version of the deep fuchsia jewel tones so often found in Moroccan tea glasses. The color does, of course, have a metallic sheen to it, but the light-reflecting spheres are so tiny that the lipstick always looks sophisticated -- never bogged down by overly chunky glitter bits.
The Desert Rose Rich Lip Color, meanwhile, has a fleshy quality to it that makes it rather versatile.
Take a look!
Last, I'm including images of a look I created with a few products from the Marrakesh Chic collection. For the eye look, I swept the Desert Lily eye shadow on my lids and along the crease, then smoked the outer corners out with the Rich Slate color. After two coats of Lancôme Hypnôse Mascara, I moved on to my lips, applying the Violet Glaze Metallic Lip Color (which I simply adore).
Take a look at the final results:
