Don’t Shop for Makeup; It’s in the Mail

If you thought the day would never come when you’d order a $4,500 gilded vanity table in the mail, think again. It’s just one item (a $2,200 leopard-print rhinestone handbag by Judith Leiber is another) in the new, Beverly Hills mail-order beauty catalogue.

The company’s roots may be in such middle-brow operations as Avon and Mary Kay, but this is the glitz and glam variety of mail-order cosmetics, with all the showbiz trappings you’d expect of its inventor. She’s Gale Hayman, once a co-owner of the Giorgio boutique on Rodeo Drive, and a co-founder of the fragrance company that launched a hundred-million-dollars-plus perfume business only five years ago.

Hayman calls her new cosmetics line upscale (prices range from $6 for nail polish to $16.50 for makeup base). There is also costume jewelry and makeup-table accessories, the vanity and the handbag to chose from. “The line is for women who don’t have time to shop but get confused about what makeup colors look best on them,” she says.

Hayman got the idea for her new business in the years when she spent a lot of her time in the Giorgio dressing rooms, helping the store’s star-studded clients get dressed. “Women used to ask me what color lipstick to wear with their outfit,” she recalls. “They had a drawer full of makeup at home but none of it looked right.”

She says her system solves that problem. “To get the right shade of any color for you, all you have to do is know the color of your eyes,” she explains. She keyed her entire cosmetics collection to eyes, believing that they tell which shades of eye shadow, blush and lipstick will look best.

That may be her makeup line’s smartest feature. But other things about it are what make it look like fun. Hayman, with her long mane of dark hair, her high-heel shoes and short skirts, envisions a “sexy look, but a quality look” for her customers. To help them along, she’s included “special effects” items such as paste-on rhinestone “beauty spots,” gold and silver gels to streak into the hair, and gold or silver nail polish to wear over color polish for a sort of “Frederick’s of Hollywood for the face and fingers” effect.

Beside that, she had everything packaged in purse-size, leopard-print containers, “so you won’t have to be embarrassed to put on your lipstick at the table,” she says. Hayman’s business number is (800) FOR-GALE.