Choice Makeup : Cosmetics Makers Are Letting Each Woman Choose the Fall Face That Suits Her Own Fashion Direction

DESIGNERS HAVE hemlines skyrocketing, but the news from Europe and New York indicates that many of the same trend setters--including Guy Laroche and Yves Saint Laurent--are also offering a longer style or two for fall. Likewise, the beauty industry is straddling the fashion fence, at once featuring a face that has a pale mouth and colorful, obviously made-up eyes and a look dominated by a vibrant mouth and smoky, muted eyes.

Beauty experts contend that women who wear skirts thigh high will probably adopt the pale-

mouth / powerful-eye combination. Although the look sounds like a throwback to Twiggy and Peggy Moffitt, the famed Rudi Gernreich model, the new face is not a rerun of the mod ‘60s. The ’87 mouth isn’t chalky and opaque; rather, it is created with pale, glistening pinks that highlight the shape, texture and sensuality of the mouth. The mouth may look quiet, but its sheen makes an important statement.

Vibrant shadows and liners force attention up from miniskirted legs, back

to a woman’s eyes. Forget the doe-eyed,

innocent-child look of 25 years ago, however. The new eyes are wide with color, sophistication and confidence. “Women who wear short skirts feel good about themselves,” says Linda Harris, assistant vice president of product development for L’Oreal. “They’re going to experiment with vivid colors. Some will wear as many as five on their eyes.”

Eye liner is also colorful and intense. The point is not to have a defined black line a la Carnaby Street circa 1962, says Tony Michaels, Lancome vice president of marketing and advertising. “It’s a smudged line that looks thin and intense at the root of the lashes and then fades a bit, to look like shadow.”

Although most cosmetics companies are advocating colored liner on the upper lid and perhaps a subtle stripe of colored shadow under the lower lashes, YSL rims the lower lid with Hot Pink kohl pencil, exaggerating the rose to a violet cast that keys not only the Beaute collection, but also Saint Laurent’s fall fashions.

Women who wear slacks or classic-length skirts will opt for makeup that’s as sophisticated as their clothing, cosmetics experts predict. For those women, eyes are smoky, carefully blended with gray, black, brown or green shadows. The underplayed eyes are offset by a vivid mouth in scarlet, rose or berry. Harris adds that strong lip color makes it easier for some women to wear the grays and browns that dominate many fall lines.

L.A. makeup artist Jeff Angell, whose clients include Barbara Walters and Kim Alexis, cools down the red mouth with blue, turquoise and green lip “toners” from Merle Norman. “It sounds bizarre, but these shades add a rich look. Lips still look red, just cooler,” he explains. Angell adds that blusher will be pale, worn high on the cheekbone, often extending up the temple.

There is one important look that is consistent whether eyes are subdued or extreme: long, thick lashes. And fashionable women are once again going to wear false eyelashes. Unlike the dense, black fakes worn by Twiggy and Tammy Faye Bakker, the stylish look for fall is “long and soft, not spiky like they were in the ‘60s,” says Angell.

“In Europe young women in miniskirts and sophisticated women in conservative clothes are wearing false lashes on the street,” says Michaels, “but nobody’s talking about wearing them. It’s supposed to be a very natural look,” he continues, adding that Isabella Rosellini wears false lashes in some Lancome ads. At Shiseido, however, the look is far from natural. Fashion director Serge Lutens, who is known for his futuristic makeup designs, dramatically rings the entire eye with thick black liner, dots the lid with color and finishes with a long fringe of faux eyelashes.

For women who don’t want to glue on fakes, lash-lengthening mascaras are back in traditional browns, blacks, blues and greens with the addition of some tradition-breaking hues. Borghese’s shimmering Allumino is an eye-catching silver, and Maybelline’s Blooming Colors line includes a palette of pastels.

Choice--rather than a single look dictated by the cosmetics industry--could make this one of the most interesting seasons in recent history. Women who are switching to minis can match the look with makeup, and those who won’t shorten their skirts may decide that dramatic new cosmetics are a better way to face fall.

Makeup and hair by Wendy Osmundson / Cloutier; model: Dena Goodmanson / Elite.