Exotic Looks From M.A.C For The 16th Annual IIFA 2015

The two lovely Emcees for the night, the dashing Vivek Oberoi and beautiful Neha Dhupia

We were super excited and honored when M.A.C Malaysia extended a special media invitation to LUMINNEJ recently to enjoy a night of Fashion Extravanganza Show in conjunction with the 16th Annual International Indian Film Festival 2015 (IIFA2015) and a chance to go back stage to take a closer look at the looks that M.A.C team has put together, specially for the 3 famous Indian fashion designers for the night.

M.A.C Cosmetics is the official sponsor of IIFA15, celebrating the brand's 10 years of support of the event globally - Dubai (UAE), Yorkshire (UK), Bangkok (Thailand), Colombo (Sri Lanka), Macau (China), Singapore, Tampa Bay (USA), Toronto (Canada) and the latest addition this year, Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). 

The day started off really long and early as we had another event to attend in the morning, by the time we headed over to have our makeup done by the M.A.C team (thanks for the kind arrangement by the way) at The Westin Hotel in the afternoon, we were a little lethargic but nonetheless could not wait for the show to begin later at Shangri-La Hotel. Super excited *_^

Upon arriving at the event location at Shangri-La, models were busy backstage, gathered together for makeup and hair done before the show already. The Green Carpet was being prepared. The stage is looking awesome. This was about 6pm. We headed backstage to snap some pictures. Though we did not catch the sights of Hrithik Roshan, Shahrukh Khan or Anil Kapoor in person that night (they were not present for the Fashion Extravaganza), we were contented just to be at backstage to catch all the makeup action there!

Conceptualized and produced by Wizcraft International Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. and supported by the key members of the Indian film fraternity, IIFA is the most appreciated South Asian film academy and a global platform that gives the Indian film fraternity an opportunity to reach audiences in the international territories. In short, it is a glitz and glamour kind of event where you can spot the top-notch Bollywood stars entertaining you for the weekend.

Led by M.A.C Senior Artist of Malaysia, Haritha Shan, she basically conceptualized and was responsible for creating makeup looks for performers, presenters, dancers, models and celebrities for Green Carpet, IIFA Rocks, IIFA Fashion Extravaganza and IIFA Awards. This would not have been possible without the support by a dedicated team put together with all total of 24 M.A.C artists from around the region like India, China, Taiwan, Philippines, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Malaysia. Well, one thing for sure, these makeup artists could definitely work wonders and if you had seen the super tight backstage makeup space that they had to work with (with all models, makeup products, bags, and artists all cramped together!), you would be amazed how professional these makeup artist are. We could barely moved around in there (myself and the other official photographer guy, to be precise). We had to take turns to snap the pictures *_^

The three fashion designers that M.A.C had the privilege to work with were Gaurang Shah, Masaba Gupta and Rocky S. According to Haritha, she had to keep the makeup looks for the night flexible and strategic as all three designers shared the same models. The eye makeup was consistent for all three designers. Keeping the eyes kind of mid tone smokey brown was an ideal choice, lip colours for each designer were changed. Nude brown taupe (for Gaurang), strong orange pop of colour on the lips (for Masaba) and deep rusted wine red (for Rocky S). The lip colours transitioned from lighter to more deeper shades.

Haritha also pointed out that for base makeup for Indian models (due to pigmentation and at times, unevenness of the skin tones), her team worked a lot more on the base, incorporating orange and peach undertones to correct and even out the canvas before applying other colour makeup.

The only qualm that we had was the fact that the Fashion Extravaganza show was supposed to start at 10pm but got so delayed that it only kicked off close to midnight! The organizer should really look into this issue and not let everyone attending the show waited for 2 hours! We were super lethargic by then.

Luckily, this self-taught fashion designer, Gaurang Shah's Collection called The Umraojaan was so intriguingly colorful and beautiful that we managed to feel a little alive all over again *_^ Super love his traditional handlooms and woven pieces.

Masaba's modern take on the Indian sarees with bold colours like red, black, white and gold really did stand out for the night. Too bad we were so tired that we could not stay back for Rocky S's show. You can check out more visuals via twitter with the #IIFA2015 hash tags here if you are keen.

All in all, it was an eventful day for us and the two fashion shows that we caught did somehow made up for the shortcomings by the event organizer. The models' makeup by M.A.C could only enhance and compliment the beauty of the collections even more so for the night. A huge thanks to M.A.C Malaysia for having us and gave a special dinner treat at Lafite that evening. It was a great experience to see how the professionals worked to deliver the best work that they do, on a big event like this one.

All backstage makeup visuals (apart from the runway shows) courtesy of M.A.C Malaysia. We decided to use the other photographer's visuals instead as they look so beautiful but if you have the slightest curiosity to see what we have captured instead (not up to par, we feel), you can still check them out here via our flickr platform *_^

Thanks again M.A.C Malaysia for being such a gracious host. We shall look forward to your next event soon *_^

Have a great week ahead, lovelies *_^

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