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"  Not long ago, crystals hit rock bottom, so to speak, with the advent of the vajazzle, a rhinestone-encrusted appliqu\u00E9 designed to accent a smooth bikini wax. Nonetheless, from Christian Dior to Jean Paul Gaultier, the message from Paris this past January was clear: The sparkly stuff is back. &amp;quot;About seven or eight years ago, crystals were big, and then everything went back to basics,&amp;quot; says international makeup artist Pat McGrath, global creative design director of P&amp;amp;amp;G Beauty. &amp;quot;Now crystals have really taken off. It may seem extreme, but it will have a trickle-down effect.&amp;quot; While makeup on the ready-to-wear backstage circuit often incites the same chorus of adjectives\u2014tough! Boyish! Cool!\u2014makeup at the couture shows inspires an altogether different class of descriptors: fantastic, over the top, out of this world. And in that, it aligns with the style seen on some of the most iconic concert stages and music video sets. After all, if there&amp;#039;s one trend in which couture and pop converge, it&amp;#039;s crystals. Both ridiculous and ridiculously glamorous, excess sparkle can skew clownlike\u2014but it can also be ultradecadent (and what could be more pop than that?). One ELLE editor remembers sharing a bathroom mirror at a party with Brit songstress Florence Welch and being enchanted by the tiny clusters of clear crystals the singer wore beneath each eye\u2014the ultimate rock star party accessory. For Christian Dior&amp;#039;s spring couture collection, McGrath transformed models&amp;#039; mouths into multifaceted blooming flowers, using Swarovski crystals\u2014a glitzy, modern foil to the refined, ultraladylike clothes, which designer Raf Simons said he wanted to be &amp;quot;about the very idea of spring.&amp;quot; Meanwhile, Lloyd Simmonds, Yves Saint Laurent Beaut\u00E9 creative director of makeup, delivered a Bollywood-inspired rendition at Jean Paul Gaultier&amp;#039;s couture show the same week, pairing crystals with shimmering charcoal cat eyes. Of course, crystal-studded lips are the height of impracticality. Backstage at Dior, McGrath assumed the role of glam babysitter. &amp;quot;The girls would want to eat or drink, so we were replacing crystals night and day. Some would swallow them!&amp;quot; she recalls. &amp;quot;You don&amp;#039;t realize how much the girls were chatting and laughing and eating and drinking. So there was a lot of replacing of crystals, even though we used theatrical waterproof glue.&amp;quot; Not willing to forgo food, drink, and free speech for bejeweled beauty? Makeup artist Mary Phillips, who keeps Jennifer Lopez glimmering both in concert and on the set of her music videos (she iced Lopez&amp;#039;s lips with rose-colored crystals for her &amp;quot;Goin&amp;#039; In&amp;quot; music video last summer), recommends scaling back the sparkle for real life. &amp;quot;Less is more. Unless it&amp;#039;s for a performance, I wouldn&amp;#039;t have your entire lips crystalled,&amp;quot; she says. Instead, strategic placement &amp;quot;at each inner eye corner is really beautiful and brightening,&amp;quot; she says, &amp;quot;or at the top and bottom points of the lips.&amp;quot; Or pay homage to &amp;#039;90s-era Gwen Stefani with a single rhinestone bindi. Otherwise, opt for crystals&amp;#039; more user-friendly little sister, glitter. Simply dab it over lipstick, says McGrath; &amp;quot;play with the idea of putting metallic pigments on your lips. Using pink or bright red as a base can be a lot of fun.&amp;quot; Still, choosing the right occasion is essential. &amp;quot;I think glitter lips are best for when you&amp;#039;re going to a very special party,&amp;quot; adds McGrath. For 3-D sparkle that&amp;#039;s guaranteed to stick around, nail art is the safest bet. Naomi Yasuda, who creates designs for Madonna, Eve, Estelle, and Alexa Chung, among others, has been using Swarovski crystals\u2014&amp;quot;the most multifaceted&amp;quot;\u2014in her impossibly intricate nail looks for more than 10 years. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s easy to wear crystals on the nails,&amp;quot; Yasuda says. &amp;quot;Just one along each cuticle makes a huge statement.&amp;quot; Liked this article? Get it first when you subscribe to ELLE magazine. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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