Beauty tips we can steal from Rachel Bilson (because I was a few feet away from her the other day!)

When you get an invitation in a mail that involves a) car service, b) ice cream and c) getting to see Rachel Bilson in real life, there’s really only one way to reply. Even though it had nothing to do with beauty—or health, the other topic I write about—I wasn’t going to miss the chance to do some celebrity gawking when Rach was in town to launch Magnum Mini ice cream to the media last week. (Maybe you’ve seen the commercials? It really is good ice cream.)

Anyway, it was just a small group of us, so I was within only a few feet of her. In fact, I do believe she had to climb over my handbag, which was sitting on the floor, to get to the stage. Oops!

She’s not one of those celebs who looks just okay in real life and then suddenly, magically transforms in front of the camera. This is exactly how tiny and cute she is:

Clearly she doesn’t actually EAT the ice cream. (Funnily enough, she had an ice cream assistant who handed her a fresh bar every time she had to pose for the cameras. Nice!) We sat there chomping away feeling like total cows, of course.

Anyway, as I gawked, I noticed a few things about her look. I’m INTO this.

Her nails

They were nude. Not just fingers…

… but toes as well!

I did a nude toe when I was in New York the other week, simply because it was a toenail emergency and nude was all I had. (A chip in my bright coral required a complete re-do… one just does NOT show up to an NYC beauty event with chipped toenails.)

Anyway, you know what? I loved it. Still do. I’ve been leaning towards nude for some time now—it’s such a nice palette cleanse after all the crazy blues and greens and purples—and something about it on the toes really hammers the point home. This is my favourite nude of the moment, Hi Maintenance by Essie:

I know it looks pink, but it’s really not—it’s actually the perfect nude. (My manicurist actually said this, since I always BYO. She was so blown away that she had to write down the name.) It’s not too beige, not too pink and not too white. Plus, how great is the name Hi Maintenance?

But back to Rachel…

Her hair

So she’s still doing Ombré. STILL! To be perfectly honest, I take issue with how dried-out it looks in the Magnum pix, but this shot (from earlier in May) is pretty gorge:

I maintain that Rachel’s hair is really the perfect Ombré hair, if you’re gonna do it. It’s already brunette, so the lighter bits that start around the jaw don’t drastically change your appearance (unlike when I went Ombré and suddenly had to deal with the fact that my hair was BROWN—abort, abort, abort!). She doesn’t have bangs—also essential—and her hair is both long enough and slightly textured enough to show off the piecey highlighting action.

Her makeup

She’s kind of the master of no-makeup makeup, you know what I mean? Always emphasizes her eyes with liner and lots of mascara, and then goes kind of nudey on the lips.

The liner, done really fine like that, is what dresses it up, if you will.

But just wait for this next pic, from when she was on Marilyn Denis the same week…

Don’t you just die? It’s the same formula—liner and mascara with a paler lip—but isn’t this particular pale lip magnificent? I NEED this colour. How is it possible that in my collection of 1,571 lipsticks I don’t have it?

Paging Marilyn Denis makeup sources NOW. (Stay tuned.)

In the meantime, tell me what you think of Rachel Bilson’s look…

Could you get into the nude nail thing?
Are you feeling her Ombré?
What about this lip colour here—any suggestions?