He's raising eyebrows
Jay Manuel's new cosmetics line, Manual Override, offers products that complement what a woman already owns.
drawer, Manuel declares. This is designed to shift women out of automatic into manual – hence the name.
foundation primer, a lip-gloss enhancer and a kit that promises exquisite brows just like its creator. The brow pencil, clear brow gel, precision tweezers, salon scissors and ultra fine brow brush comes with a fully illustrated, step-by-step guide. The kit sells for $44 at theshoppingchannel.
com.
It starts with the eyebrows – a perfect pair if ever there was one. Each hair is separated by just the right amount of air, as if an artist scrutinized the landscape and placed it there.
The brows are topped by a flawless forehead, a smooth expanse of caramel skin framed by erect strands of silver. With all Jay Manuel has on his plate these days, the brows probably landed there with a speedy swoosh of a comb. Not so for the metallic coif which requires frequent bleaching to maintain.
In some of my contracts I'm not allowed to go back to my natural colour, Manuel explained. It's become my calling card.
Like he needs one.
Manuel is the dynamic host of Canada's Next Top Model, which premieres Wednesday on City-TV. He also hosts the makeover series Style Her Famous, is creative director/producer on America's Next Top Model, and works for E! covering the red carpet at the Emmys, Grammys, Oscars and Golden Globes.
It doesn't stop there. There's his new makeup collection, Manual Override, with products designed to enhance the makeup women already own. The line premiered on the Shopping Channel on the weekend and is scheduled to hit stores in the fall (manualoverride cosmetics.
com).
Also new is Manuel's role as host and executive producer of the second cycle of Canada's Next Top Model. He brings to the show all the razzle dazzle he learned as a makeup artist to stars such as Jennifer Lopez, Iman and Tyra Banks.
But like Banks, who is the creator, executive producer and judge of America's Next Top Model, Manuel's gifts stretch far beyond lips and brows.
He is an inspirational speaker, visiting women's shelters to share the story of his path from student in a wheelchair to television star.
Manuel was born 34 years ago to a South African father and Italian/Czech mother in Springfield, Ill.
The family moved to Toronto when Manuel was 2. By high school, his passion for fashion was already clear. My bedroom was covered in magazine ads and I lived to watch FashionTelevision on Saturdays, he says.
Manuel also orchestrated the fashion shows at Dr. Norman Bethune C.I.
in Scarborough, begging for clothes from Yorkville retailers, an achievement he is still proud of today. Our fashion shows were covered on the cable channel and we raised money for the Hospital for Sick Children.
After high school, Manuel thought he might try pre-med.
His father is a kidney specialist who lives in Thornhill and his sister, who joined him on the red carpet at the recent Fashion Cares gala, is a doctor in the States.
But Manuel had been singing in the Mendelssohn Choir and went to New York to audition as an opera singer. He did so well, he moved there at 19.
At that age, most kids who move to New York would be going wild and crazy, partying. I was training vocally every other day and going to diction school, learning Italian and German. And I was going to the opera three nights a week, sitting in the fifth ring where the seats were $20.
I had my regime and I stuck to it. I was such a serious kid.
Manuel enrolled at NYU, and was focused, as usual, on getting good grades.
Then one morning I woke up and I couldn't walk.
Manuel was diagnosed with sac- roiliitis, an inflammation of the sacroiliac joints, which connect the spine and pelvis. It was completely debilitating.
I was in a wheelchair for three months and crutches and canes for seven. I had terrible pain down my legs. But I honestly believe I would not be where I am today without that experience.
That was the turning point for me, accepting and pursuing my dream.
Once Manuel was walking again, there was no holding him back. The makeup artistry he had been doing as a sideline blossomed into a full-on career after he primped Pavarotti for an album cover.
In 2001, he helped Iman launch her cosmetics line, and when Banks debuted Top Model in 2002, her good friend Manuel became the show's makeup artist and photo director. The next season, Manuel art directed Top Model's photo shoots and graduated to producer. America's Next Top Model is now into its ninth cycle and Manuel has become a fashion icon.
It's a position he clearly relishes, whether in person, dressed down in jeans, a T-shirt, and a Roberto Cavalli leather jacket at the City-TV offices, or glammed up on the billboards around Toronto advertising the show.
When I was in school, the cool people were called the preps, Manuel recalls. They did bad things, like smoke.
But those cool, rebellious kids ended up not doing too much later in life. I studied and made the honour roll. I wanted good grades.
So I guess I was a bit nerdy. But when you are not part of that accepted crowd like the preps, you become comfortable with who you are.
That self-acceptance, Manuel says, has kept him grounded, a quality he thinks many of today's celebrities lack.
In this business, you need an ego, but you also need to realize that you're a brand. And you need to be able to step away from that. That's what I want to teach these girls (on Canada's Next Top Model).
You need intelligence to keep that separate.
Keywords: Top Model, Next Top, Next Top Model, New York, City Tv, Jay Manuel
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