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Cuckoo for Coco

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Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, episode 12: there is still no winner

Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, Episode 12

This episode is the worst yet. We have no trouble saying this, because, after the promise of an actual, legit conclusion to the series, we are still left wondering who won. Marcia is up first for judging, and every single judge says exactly the same thing: she’s a great makeup artist, but her two looks do not dazzle. Why on earth does this take five minutes to report? And why couldn’t each judge say something constructive? We don’t see Marcia rolling her eyes, but as soon as Lisa Tant takes her turn to offer her own variation of the hive-mind opinion (she says it doesn’t “razzle dazzle”), our eyes roll for her. At least when Caylee shows up for judging, there’s a somewhat constructed faux rivalry developing between Coco Rocha and Tant. Rocha apparently loves Caylee’s two hairstyles, while Tant is “overwhelmed and underwhelmed.” Caylee’s hair-noose is referred to as a beard several times before the judging is over, and then Rocha drops the bomb: the show is technically not over. The viewers (we’re not the only ones?) now have to vote for their favourite online. Let the record show that this reality web series knows how to appease its sponsors…but not our curiosity. Vote for your favourite »

Cuckoo for Coco

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Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, episode 11: the show must go on (apparently)

Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, Episode 11

Canada’s Best Beauty Talent continues this week, and after last week’s elimination shocker (i.e., there wasn’t one), we were looking forward to finally finding out who won. Matthew and Jenna get the boot in the first few minutes, which leaves Caylee and Marcia to be named, respectively, best hair and best makeup talent. At this point in the episode, we make a triumphant sigh of relief because we think we made it to the very end, despite some moments when we just wanted to stop watching altogether. But we’re wrong: Coco Rocha tells the final two that there’s yet another challenge. Another challenge? Why? Please, for the love of humanity, send them both to Paris and end this thing.

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Cuckoo for Coco

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Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, episode 10: it isn’t over yet (no, seriously)

Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, Episode 10

In this episode of Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, it’s judgment day for Marcia, Matt, Caylee and Jenna, and we finally get to see their red carpet looks. Caylee and Jenna create a Grecian-inspired look with lightly bronzed skin and an updo, while Matt and Marcia go for something softer with porcelain-white skin and a soft wave. However, though the judges are happy to offer up their opinions, we don’t get an actual result, because that’s being reserved for another episode. Why? We have no clue. Sigh.

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Cuckoo for Coco

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Did Coco Rocha look glamorous at the 2012 Met Ball?

Coco Rocha at the 2012 Met Ball (Images: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images)

Sure, the theme for last night’s Met Ball was Schiaparelli and Prada, and yes, Coco Rocha’s look-at-me pink dye job resembles the colour Elsa Schiaparelli is famous for, but for one of the glitziest events on the fashion calendar, Rocha opted for pants. Okay. We do think this vintage Givenchy pant and matching matador-style jacket demand attention, but it’s not because they’re inherently stylish—they’re just shockingly bright. As if Rocha didn’t already get enough press (have you read Cuckoo for Coco?), here are some of the ways she begged the cameras to look at her last night: tossing her pink tendrils over a shoulder; wearing a matching pink top (as if the canary just wasn’t enough); and alerting the world to the fact that Elizabeth Taylor once wore the jacket and that it has a wine stain that won’t come out.

Check out the women who wore colour well last night »

Cuckoo for Coco

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Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, episode 9: how to sell hairspray in 12 minutes, 53 seconds

Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, Episode 9

For the last challenge before the finale, the four remaining contestants—Marcia, Matt, Caylee and Jenna—are tasked with making a red carpet–worthy look. Coco Rocha looks like she’s checked out (seriously, could she sound more bored?), but the hair and makeup artists are eager and ready to go from the moment Rocha says “Ready, set, style!” for the last time. Since both makeup contestants go for a fairly clean look, tomorrow’s elimination may come down to the hair: Caylee opts for an updo, while Matt keeps it loose and lush. Past judges Eric Delmonaco and Eddie Malter return and pace the prep area, making suggestions about specific products the contestants should use. What’s with the hand holding? These people are the finalists. Tim Gunn would never cut a pattern for anyone on Project Runway.

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Cuckoo for Coco

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Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, episode 8: the great side pony slip-up of 2012

Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, Episode 8

The judges are at odds in this results episode of Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, which is kind of exciting. Coco Rocha loves Matt and Jenna’s wet hair and cat eye makeup, but “the mean one,” Flare editor-in-chief Lisa Tant, is not into it at all. YSL makeup artist  Eden Bluestein and Tant think Marcia didn’t brow block correctly (they feel it doesn’t look smooth because  she hasn’t combed the brows enough), while photographer Max Abadian digs the treatment. Everyone’s full of opinions this week—we even get to hear a post-judging rant from Isabelle, who thinks the judges are approaching the competition like it is some big joke. In full melodramatic mode, she goes so far as to refer to doing hair as her raison d’etre.

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Cuckoo for Coco

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Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, episode 7: Max Abadian to the rescue

Caylee fixes her model’s hair (Image: CBBT)

Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, Episode 7

Let’s be honest: this show hasn’t been great so far. Sure, makeup contestant Marcia has taught us how to make a face beautiful (see here and here), and we’ve gotten a few giggles out of Coco Rocha’s robotic delivery (see here, here and here), but the show has been short on the kind of entertainment that keeps audiences begging for more. (Sorry, but intentionally flubbing the catchphrase “ready, set, style!” by saying “ready, set, don’t style!” is just painful to watch.) We were even thinking of giving up on it—and then internationally renowned photographer Max Abadian came on for this week’s Flare cover shoot challenge, and what a difference he makes. Abadian’s presence adds something to the show that has been lacking: action. The contestants are tasked with the challenge of creating the perfect high fashion cover look, which they have 45 minutes to finish before heading straight to Abadian for the shoot. The six remaining contestants struggle to keep their models’ head still enough to work simultaneously (turns out it’s tricky to do delicate makeup application while someone else is jerking her hair around), and when it comes time for the shoot, we witness some seriously impressive eye rolls from makeup contestant Cait. (We love you Cait!) Find out what we thought and what we learned »

Cuckoo for Coco

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Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, episode 6: we feel a bit eh. It just isn’t wow

Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, Episode 6

On this episode of Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, it’s time for the judges—Flare’s Lisa Tant, Chatelaine’s Catherine Franklin, Lancome’s Lora Spiga and L’Oréal’s Anna Pacitto—to critique Sunday night’s bridal looks. Right from the start, the judges are wowed by Matt and Marcia for giving a woman with dark skin an unconventional colourful lip and shiny hair, and they take forever congratulating them for their moxie—we like Matt and Marcia’s look, too, but the praise is wasting airtime in an already short show. Later, Tant resorts to soundbites like “Overall I feel a bit eh. It just isn’t wow,” which she says to describe Jenna and Roger’s fresh-faced look (come on, if you’re going to play the role of the ambivalent judge, at least take a card from Michael Kors’ deck).

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Cuckoo for Coco

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Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, episode 5: a lack of colour

Andrea and Isabelle work on their bride-to-be (Image: CBBT)

Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, Episode 5

It’s wedding week on Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, and contestants are tasked with creating the perfect look for a real bride-to-be. The premise is good—some of our favourite Project Runway episodes involved real clients or brides. Sadly, unlike that show, which is packed full of drama, this episode of CBBT runs the length of a leisurely trip to the bathroom (10 minutes, 32 seconds), so the drama is underplayed. While we do pick up some tips from Roger (who actually looks as perfect on camera as he does in his headshot—it’s weird), Marcia and Cait, and while Isabelle and Andrea do get paired with a somewhat needy bride, that’s not enough to make it a meaty episode—and no one cries. (Remember when Jeffrey Sebelia made Angela’s mom cry in season three of Project Runway? That’s the kind of entertainment we’d like to supplement our learning with.)

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Cuckoo for Coco

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Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, episode 4: Audrey Hepburn’s “smooth look” and other mysteries

Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, Episode 4

It’s becoming increasingly obvious that Canada’s Best Beauty Talent has no clue what it means to be a reality TV show, because, though last night’s broadcast was the longest yet (a whopping 15 minutes), it possessed no tension, no hubris and no celebration of the fact that a program like this is not a great place to make friends. We’re sticking it out because we’d like to learn something about these talented Canadians (we’re calling it—hair contestant Matt and makeup contestant Cait are our favourites), and we’re hoping that in some distant corner of this fairly drama-less program, there lies a few kernels of beauty knowledge to make it all worthwhile.

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Cuckoo for Coco

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Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, episode 3: gone in 10 minutes, six seconds

Hair professional Eric Del Monaco and makeup artist Eddie Malter with contestant Marcia (Image: CBBT)

Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, Episode 3

All 10 remaining contestants are competing in this week’s episode of Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, and they’re tasked with updating classic Hollywood icons, from Grace Kelly to Elizabeth Taylor to Brigitte Bardot. With such a juicy challenge, and given that last week’s 12-minute episodes proved too short, we were disappointed to see this week’s episode clocks in at just over 10 minutes (with the regrettable “ready, set, style!” catchphrase not uttered until the 3:45 mark). It all amounts to a remarkably swift webisode where we’re left wishing the guest mentors, like hair professional Eric Del Monaco and makeup artist Eddie Malter, had time to offer up industry insights. But showing a challenge in a rushed six minutes means they can only throw out beauty industry jargon without explaining what it actually means. 

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Cuckoo for Coco

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Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, episode 2: please tell us something, because we want to learn

Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, Episode 2

When it comes to creating a web-based reality series, there’s a lot of trial and error before a show gets things right—at least that’s what we’re seeing with Canada’s Best Beauty Talent. Every week, the show will have one 12-minute challenge episode and one 12-minute results show, which should leave very little room for filler—yet in its first two episodes, CBBT has unfortunately included quite a lot. Host Coco Rocha and expert Vittorio spend a great deal of time talking, when we’d rather see what the contestants can do. This week, for instance, there’s no concrete information as to how Patrick and Léa achieved their hilariously dubbed Marie Antoinette–meets–J. Lo” creation (which lost, despite the name) or which products made for Isabelle and Cait’s fresh, “layered” look.

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Cuckoo for Coco

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Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, episode 1: approximately 12 minutes of nothing

Canada’s Best Beauty Talent, Episode 1

Rogers Media launched its web series Canada’s Best Beauty Talent last night, with host supermodel Coco Rocha swapping her hammy ways for robotic movements and script reading. In the series, 12 beauty professionals (six hair artists, six makeup artists) vie for the opportunity to win a trip to Paris to “experience the world of L’Oréal” (kind of vague), guest blog for Chatelaine (okay) and get two-page features in Flare, Hello! Canada and Loulou magazines (that’s one way to become overexposed). In typical reality TV form, expect zany hi-jinx, like a beauty expert awkwardly wandering on screen and telling two contestants they’re the least attractive of the bunch. Find out some ugly truths about Canada’s Best Beauty Talent »

Cuckoo for Coco

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Watch overexposed supermodel Coco Rocha dance (again) in The Room’s latest video campaign

Coco Rocha, whose dance modelling career is starting to look like an extended So You Think You Can Dance audition, stars in The Room at The Bay’s spring 2012 campaign. The footage from Rocha’s “still” photo shoot reveals that she has a very different definition of “still” than we do, because she moves constantly (maybe that’s why she’s so much healthier than us). We’re not quite sure why they shot bright seasonal hues and flower prints in black and white, but with Rocha’s overexposure as of late, maybe it’s best to leave some things to the imagination.

Cuckoo for Coco

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Coco Rocha is a hot mess (er, an haute mess) for Steven Meisel in Vogue Italia

Supermodel Coco Rocha sports a weave and long curly nails and hangs out in a convenience store with cheap snacks full of refined sugar in Steven Meisel’s latest editorial for Vogue Italia. She’s so versatile.

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