Back in June, we started hearing rumors that makeup artist Tom Pecheux would be getting his very own makeup line at a major cosmetics company.

According to this morning’s WWD, that company is Estée Lauder. Pecheux will not be designing an eponymous line, but instead has been given the newly created title of creative makeup director.

The last superstar makeup artist to work with the Estée Lauder brand was the still dearly missed Paul Starr. His role as leader of the national makeup team, however, was not one with much product input. Pecheux will have his hands in everything going on at the flagship brand. We think this is a very good thing.

As I was shopping around some of my favorite beauty sites, in hopes of finding a quickie purchase to ease the onset of depression that comes with the sun setting in the middle of the afternoon, I came upon something at L’Artisan Parfumeur that continues to boggle my mind: a $10,000 perfume.

That’s right, for the cost of a used car you can have your own exclusive scent fashioned by Parisian perfumer L’Artisan Parfumeur.

The noses at the haute house have created seven exclusive scents (there’s no number 5 for obvious reasons), accompanied by a certificate of authenticity. Buyers are granted four 100ml, 50 ml and 15 ml bottles at first purchase.

Refills are available for the certificate holder only at $450 for 100ml. The document may be willed or gifted, so the personalized scent can outlive its purchaser. Can you imagine willing someone perfume? That’s just plain ridiculous even in a booming economy.

This begs another question: Does the value reflect market conditions or does it increase with age?

The bleaching of models’ brows was all the rage for S/S 2010 (and actually was fairly popular the season before at Prada, Balenciaga, and Miu Miu). We’ve been fascinated as to how all the girls’ eyebrows didn’t fall out by the end of Paris Fashion Week.

Today, we went to a Cover Girl lunch with the amazing (and always fun) Pat McGrath and got some answers.

First of all, we had no idea that Pat has had a hair colorist on her team for years. While he does many other things as well, brows often fall to him. Very cool. And considering the lady does around 30 shows a season (not to mention countless editorials and covers), it makes a lot of sense to have everyone you may need at the ready.

She told us that she suggested to the models that they not go through the bleaching process more than twice. Instead, the makeup teams would just color in darker versions when necessary. “Of course some girls insisted on always changing back, but what are you gonna do?” said Pat. We’re sure those ladies are regretting those decisions right about now.

Over the course of my career I’ve become rather adept at writing about how to put on makeup or do your hair. But what I’m not amazingly talented at is doing it myself. And really the best way to learn is to watch someone else do it.

The good folks over at Stila have realized this, but also that you aren’t usually sitting in front of your laptop as you get ready. Enter the Makeup Player, launching today.

You simply download tutorials onto your iPhone or other mobile device, plug it in to the portable makeup kit and play away. Plus you can rock tunes while you’re applying.

Happy early birthday to me is what I thought when I opened up this email with V’s latest beauty extravaganza.

My former beauty editor heart definitely starts beating a little faster when a single story contains work by so many of my most favorite hairstylists, makeup artists, and photographers. And the models aren’t too shabby either!

Seriously check out just some of the people who gave their interpretations of what the definition of beauty will be in the next decade: Gucci Westman, Aaron de Mey, Didier Malige, James Kaliardos, Val Garland, Richard Burbridge, Miles Aldridge, Jimmy Paul, Julien d’Ys, Mario Sorrenti. The list goes on and on and their work is completely outstanding.

Michael Kors may have been missing from Project Runway last night, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been logging in some quality time in Los Angeles. Perhaps honing his first color cosmetics collection, Very Hollywood, a collaboration with Estée Lauder (their second one of the designer variety after a couple with Tom Ford)?

Think glowing Carmen Kass and the Kors runway (or Hilary Rhoda in the Craig McDean photographed ad campaign) and you’ll get the vibe of the makeup. There’s definitely nothing heavy, even the lipsticks are called “sheens”.

Frequent Kors front-rower and the cosmetics brand’s SVP and Creative Director Aerin Lauder told WWD, “The Estée Lauder customer is very much the Michael Kors customer: someone who wants a wonderful product, someone who understands fashion, someone who understands luxury, someone who wants quality.” We totally agree that this seems like a perfect match.

Here at Fashionista, we love playing buyer, stylist, beauty editor… the list goes on. If you do, too, Polyvore.com is probably proving to be an addictive guilty pleasure.

On Polyvore, you can create your own fashion layouts or look books with products or images from the web and share them with the world.

Today, the site is launching a contest with Lancôme. It’s called “Hypnotize Lancôme with Your Fashion Sense,” and it celebrates the new fragrance Hypnôse Senses. Create a layout that illustrates your sense of style, and one winner will win a $250 lancome-usa.com gift card and a bottle of Hypnôse Senses, signed by Daria. Five runners-up will each win $100 gift cards plus a bottle of Hypnôse Senses.

You can create as many sets as you like that sum up your unique fashion sense, as long as each one includes a bottle of Hypnôse Senses. After all, every fashion icon in the making needs a signature scent.

More details and entry instructions can be found here.

UPDATE: We just heard that Daria herself will be picking the winner!

Basically what John Galliano brought to Dior’s fashion business in terms of genius, color, flair and all-around amazingness, Tyen has brought to the cosmetics side, as its Creative Director since 1980. Just check out those eyes in the picture and the rainbow shot after the jump. Simply incredible.

I’ve always been such a fan of the images created for the brand, and of course the products themselves. But I never new much about the man behind it all until I came upon a profile of Tyen in the latest issue of i-D.

In a nutshell, he obsessed over Vogue while growing up in Vietnam in the ’50s and 60s, moved to Paris at 17, and started doing makeup for the Paris Opera while he was attending Ecole des Beaux Arts. One opportunity led to another and now he’s been at Dior for 30 years.

I’ll let a few of his own quotes give you a taste of what makes him so fabulous after the jump.

Raise your hand if you think Gisele is gorgeous. How about Adriana Lima, the Fernandas and Madonna’s Jesus? Yeah, we pretty much agree that Brazil has bestowed upon us some of the world’s most beautiful people.

So when a friend emailed us this link this morning, we found the recent study cited rather curious. According to this, Brazilians and Americans view physical beauty differently. Researchers pointed to feature position and culture as the culprit in this varying POV. Interesting, as of course cultural differences have always played a part in views on beauty.

But how does that explain the global unanimity on the aforementioned beautiful ones? Our guess: Fashion and all its trappings is its own very stand-alone culture. Just refer back to that quote of the day from this morning.

Paris withdrawal has officially set in. So we find ourselves looking for things that take us back there. We’ve always been big fans of Bourjois’ little round pots of eyeshadow, in no small part because they remind us of one of our other French favorites, treats from Ladurée.

But the photos that just entered our inbox of the new Rendez-Vous A Paris collection are especially mouth-watering thanks to a collaboration with artist and illustrator, Nathalie Lete. The covers depict scenes from the City of Light and look totally chic, and not cartoonish at all. We haven’t had a chance to play with all the colors yet but already we have our eyes on the purply-black shimmer and the pale rose.

Though much like a macaron, we doubt we’ll be able to settle for just one. The collection is only available at Ulta and it’s limited edition so don’t procrastinate.

Also, we’ve just realized that we’re very hungry, thanks to all these food-centric posts this morning. Must get lunch soon!

Rimmel’s signed Georgia Jagger and Coco Rocha.

At the rate she’s going, Georgia might soon be the new Coco. Her Hudson Jean ads just debuted last month, her first Vogue UK cover this month and now, with a cosmetic contract in hand, she’s officially more model than someone’s daughter.

The British makeup brand, most notably fronted by Kate Moss, needs a shakeup, “Rimmel embodies the London look, which is very resonant with young people all over the world who look to London as a center of multiculturalism and freedom of expression.”

The senior vice president of marketing’s words sounded a bit off until WWD made sure to note that by January, they’ll have signed three new not-white faces. For now, they’re hoping Georgia’s provocative edge and Coco’s “sensuality” will spice things up a bit.

Okay, not to beat the dead horse on perfume. But when we read in WWD that both Demi Moore and Fergie are launching fragrances, we must write something.

Let’s start with Fergie. I will fully admit that as much as I wanted to hate Fergie Ferg, The Dutchess had some really catchy ass songs on it. “Big Girls Don’t Cry”, anyone? Do I ever, ever think I want to smell like her? That would be a big old no.

So Avon, I’m not really getting where you’re coming from. Reese, I get. This…not even one little bit. Also, will it have a name as inane and meaningless as Black Eyed Peas lyrics have become? Seriously if there is one called Boom Boom and one called Pow, I can’t be held responsible for my actions.

Sarah Jessica Parker may as well change her name to Carrie Bradshaw.

Sex and the City might’ve ended in 2005, and she might’ve tried for a movie career, but that failed to launch and since then her only successful movie role is playing Carrie Bradshaw.

Now she’s using Carrie to launch her perfume and WWD even titled their story, “Carrie On.” AND, she’s wearing an Oscar de la Renta dress in the ads. Meanwhile, the packaging and bottle for SJP NYC explodes with so many prints and colors that if you combined Samantha Jones and Carrie Bradshaw into one character and placed her in 1987, she’d be overwhelmed.

Coty’s thrilled to release the floral fragrance around the movie and from the way they talk about “leveraging” the movie release we’re pretty sure they’re going to make her dress up and answer to Carrie for promotional events.

And if that’s not enough Sex and the City for you, HBO’s launching these Sex and the City flats mid-November. Though there’s really nothing to say about that.

Elle is hosting a panel discussion at Barneys next week called “The Mystery of Perfume” —apparently it’s fragrance week here at Fashionista.

The theme of the event instantly made me think of the book Perfume, though I doubt a scent-driven murderer will be discussed at all. Though I highly recommend the novel. But fragrance and what inspires it, how it’s made, etc really is one of the most interesting topics in the beauty world.

Robbie will be there, along with beauty director Emily Dougherty and a few perfumers including perhaps the most interesting one we’ve ever met, Frederic Malle. The man has mad skills when it comes to creating scents, and if you can get him talking about Paris in the 70s, you’ll definitely hear a crazy Karl story or two.

All the details and how to reserve your spot after the jump.

The other day I watched Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, a cheeky, cult movie about a girl band written by—wait for it—Roger Ebert.

The story is silly and the cast earned master degrees in schmacting. But it’s a classic for a reason—the costumes are amazing, the makeup is pure perfection and the hair is beyond refreshing. After years of stringy and over-dyed, limp extensions, it was actually inspirational to see overdone bouffants with some serious lift at the roots. It seems like I’m not alone. Madonna’s hair has been getting higher and higher lately as has Janet’s and my fave Spanish actress Penelope (see the video below) always rocks enviably high, sexy hair.

Sometimes the events gods smile upon you and actually hold parties in the same damn hotel. Amazing. After taking in the scene at the Teen Vogue party, I hopped into an elevator to the terrace of the Gramercy Park Hotel to check out Blumarine’s new scent, Bellissima, where the cedar scent of the Rose Bar was replaced by the girly (in a good way) notes of grapefruit, peony, and vanilla.

The new fragrance (and yes, they did give everyone at the party a bottle) is a total break from anything done under the label’s name in the past—their aim is to bring it back to a place of relevance in beauty land. Next up is a Blugirl scent for spring 2010.

Apparently, the night was perfume-themed because much of the beauty/fashion crew then headed down to Donna Karan’s studio for Henry Holland-hosted Six Scents event which featured, um, performance art meets perfume spritzing. It is always interesting to see what people come up with for these fetes.

Then it was onto The Box for the beauty directors to attend the launch of YSL’s new men’s fragrance. Side note to beauty PRs: People are kind of over the whole events at The Box thing. Just sayin’.

Quite a fragrant evening indeed. I wish someone had told me to pack my own coffee beans.

Dear Rihanna,

Hi, it’s us checking in again. Today’s topic: your lips. Because we’re in the market for something new to try and frankly your sartorial choices of late aren’t really office-appropriate, you know with the transparent tops and all.

So imagine our glee (another current obsession!) when you popped up in Paris with pretty purple lips. Those shots of you at the shows in not one, but two, different shades of that royal color made us imagine we could do it too. It’s like an evolved version of the black shades that we’ve already moved on from.

SNL’s Deep House Dish may have been creating a mock rivalry between ultimate icon Madonna and current talk-of-every-town GaGa, but the sketch did illustrate that there are a few requirements to being a dominating diva.

Here, four of the key elements that led to these two conquering the charts and the monde of mode:

1. Eschew pants, of course. After dedicating unlimited hours to yoga, Pilates and the Anderson Method, assets must be placed front and center.

2. Become a blonde. Both Gaga (nee Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) and Madge (born Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone) ditched their brunette roots years ago.

3. Lash Out. Overdone eyes are de rigueur for aspiring performers. Rumors of Madonna sporting mink lashes by Shu Uemura on her R-Invention tour spawned the company’s new Luxe line, a synthetic version featuring criss-crossed strands for a more dramatic effect. Or try applying the individual Make Up For Ever to create a customized look. And the only-at-Sephora fiber-infused Fiberwig mascara promises fluttering—and lengthened—lashes without the hassle of glue.

4. Bestie up with MJ. Duh.