Zac Posen’s new makeup collection for MAC Cosmetics is in! Fresh off of making a splash at New York Fashion Week on February 15 with a bold push for diversity during his Fall 2016 runway show, the iconic fashion designer is branching out into the beauty world and has collaborated with MAC Cosmetics to create MAC Zac Posen.
The debut color collection boasts timelessness and femininity, much like Posen’s clothing, and includes the essentials that range from red and orange shades of lipstick to easy-to-apply eyeliner and an HD-ready transparent finishing powder.
To celebrate the launch of MAC Zac Posen, Demi Moore, Jacqui Getty and MAC Global Brand President Karen Buglisi hosted an exclusive luncheon on Thursday, February 25, in the Hollywood Hills, and were joined by Moore’s daughters, Rumer, Tallulah and Scout Willis; Dita von Teese; Selma Blair and Linda Ramone.
The Project Runway judge took some time to chat with Us Weekly about all things fashion and beauty, and how to get the Zac Posen red carpet look!
Us Weekly: Tell Us about the MAC Zac Posen collection and your partnership with MAC. Why now?
Zac Posen: This is the ultimate red carpet essentials. This is 15 years in the making of working with MAC and bringing our essential beauty [and] glamour essentials to a global public. Colors and palettes that can work on all skin types, working with some of the most luxurious material products here on the market possible and really extending our codes of an empowered femininity through glamour to everyday women. It was time to put the Zac Posen DNA into this limited-edition story, kind of as a tease for the future of our beauty universe, and maybe a fragrance in the future.
Us: What’s your favorite product from the collection?
ZP: The only product that I personally use and is definitely unisex is the HD [Prime + Prep Transparent Finishing Powder]. It takes away the glare, the shine, the flash, the pop, and it just makes you ready. The idea is kind of making you into your own superstar makeup artist to control and self-create. This is inspired by the incredible muses that I’ve worked with over the years, from Rihanna and Gwyneth Paltrow and Natalie Portman, to Dita von Teese.
Us: You’re known for creating these beautiful, feminine and figure-flattering gowns. How does the makeup play into the overall red carpet look?
ZP: These are figure-flattering, feminine, timeless makeup. It’s not pieces where you’re going to say, “Oh, that felt so last year” or 10 years ago. This is about integrity and timelessness and owning the room. This is about, A star is born! Which is an ethos that I always have and I believe that if you put on that great makeup, like putting on a great dress, it brings a sense of confidence, and that is what exudes to the world and then you can accomplish anything.
Us: Are you dressing anybody for the Oscars this weekend?
ZP: I’ll see! I don’t know. … I don’t get angst about it. I’m like, if it happens, it’s meant to be!
Us: The Fall 2016 collection that you just showed at New York Fashion Week had an emphasis on diversity. What inspired you to push that message so strongly this season?
ZP: I think diversity is what makes the world beautiful. … I think that collections and what’s on trend come and go real fast. It’s about two to three months these days with the amount of collections designers do and the media cycle, and the magazine cycle, but a message celebrating these beautiful girls of color lasts forever. The work that I’ve done through the years and being on TV today gave me a really big platform to make this message of beauty and diversity, and hopefully have something that lasts more than what’s in and what’s out for those three months. … The world is beautiful because we’re all in all different colors, and women of color need to be represented on the runway!
MAC Zac Posen is available in select MAC locations in North America starting February 25.
