AN ELEGANT SHADE OF AUTUMN : While Strong Hues Make Fashion News, New Makeup Keeps the Face in Focus
IN THE MONTHS TO COME, American women--especially those in Los Angeles and New York City--will be wearing more makeup than they have in years. Or at least it will appear that way, according to the world’s leading cosmetics manufacturers. Autumn’s fashions are rich with vibrant reds, purples and greens. The fashionable face will be highlighted with equally intense colors for eyes and lips.
Foundations and cheek colors are of secondary importance to the eyes, mouth and nails, which tell the entire color story of the season. Deep purple eyelids, violet lashes and sumptuously scarlet lips offset complexions lightened with matte bisque, ivory and alabaster foundations. Unless defined by nature, cheekbones are hardly noticeable except for a hint of pale powder blusher.
A subtle detail--the matte finish--may turn out to be the most distinctive and lasting feature of the fall makeup picture. Shine has given way to an all-over smoothness. After seasons of luminous finishes and opalescent glows, why the change? Industry experts say the answer is consumer demand. “Frost doesn’t look as good on older skin. And women with disposable incomes are growing older,” explains Andrea Robinson, who for eight years was the beauty editor of Vogue magazine before she became president of Ultima II, a division of Revlon.
Frosted, glossy and opalescent makeups magnify wrinkles; matte finishes minimize them. It’s an art-school theory put to practical use. When women rediscovered powders late last year, they realized that a matte finish seemed to reduce the appearance of fine lines. Suddenly, matte was the most in-demand look. This fall, even lipsticks will have a no-shine finish.
Some makeup specialists cite other factors behind the move to matte. Nita Silverman, senior vice president of marketing for Yves Saint Laurent Parfums, which distributes YSL Beaute products, notes that matte-finish cosmetics are compatible with fall fashions. “Not only is the color matched, but so is the texture. When a designer shows silk, makeup is shiny. But with fall corduroys and wool gabardines, a matte finish is the texture of choice.”
Like fashion designers, cosmetics manufacturers plan their collections well in advance of presentation. Developing strategies for makeup color collections begins 18 to 24 months before the cosmetics hit the department-store beauty counters. With hope of coordinating their colors to the fashion collections, cosmetics marketing executives and makeup designers meet with trend forecasters and the producers of synthetic and natural fibers to view the fabric colors of the upcoming season.
With trends in mind and dyed threads in hand, these marketing executives report their findings to chemists, whose task it is to create cosmetics that match or coordinate. Nick Mottola, director of marketing development for Elizabeth Arden, says: “All things are possible when a marketing executive and a chemist get together, but you need development time to make the formulas wearable.” Some lipstick formulations don’t work with certain dyes. Some European shades are made with dyes forbidden in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration. So the chemist has to reformulate the product using approved ingredients. All this takes time, “at least 10 months of development,” Mottola says.
The fabrics and colors that influence fall makeup reflect the period in which they were researched. “Costumes for the film ‘The Last Emperor’ were being sewn in Europe. The extravagance of ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ was the talk of European fabric and design houses,” explains Susan Biehn, senior vice president of creative services for Christian Dior perfumes and cosmetics. “These influences led to a fall fashion season rich with baroque color.” At the House of Guerlain, color expert Dominique Szabo says that a display of 18th-Century paintings by Jean-Honore Fragonard inspired her to create a collection rich in deep rose and blue hues.
“We haven’t seen this level of sophistication in makeup in a while. The brighter colors brighten the face,” says Vivian Behrens, vice president of marketing for Estee Lauder. “The luxe fabrics, the sumptuous textures and the paisley patterns of the fall fashion collections were all influences.”
The amethyst, ruby and sapphire palette that emerged is warmed with touches of gold. “There are threads of gold throughout the fall fashion collections,” says Mary Boyette, vice president of marketing for Stendhal. “So on the face, gold accent is the only element of shine in an otherwise matte season.”
Gold, green and orange provide a subtler alternative for women who can’t--or won’t--wear rich purples, blues and reds. At the same time, this makeup palette also reflects a sub-trend in fashion, a counterpoint to the elegant baroque colors. Vibrant shades such as chartreuse and orange have shown up in clothing collections created by design upstarts such as Stephen Sprouse and Rifat Ozbek. “Yellow tones have been growing in importance for two years,” Boyette says, “but this is the first season when green has been such a strong fashion statement.” Ultima’s Robinson concurs: “Everyone was surprised when women adopted electric colors, like chartreuse, so wholeheartedly. When you’re wearing those shades, less color--and more neutrals--on the face look better.”
Dior Creative Director Tyen says that two fashion palettes are essential to any cosmetics collection. Ultimately, he says, fashion is dependent on the personality of the woman. “Two choices of looks allow individuality to come through,” he says. But with colors as intense as the ones featured this season, Californians who still embrace the no-makeup look may have trouble expressing their preference for the ultra natural. Kathleen Walas, national beauty and fashion director for Avon Products, says that women often get in hair-and-makeup ruts. “The biggest mistake a woman makes is not changing her makeup as she ages,” Walas says. “There’s a time when we need to change.”
LUXE LIPS
The American woman’s positive reaction to clear, bright red lipsticks has given the green light to cosmetics manufacturers who were hesitant to offer intense colors. “Women are becoming more confident about the makeup they wear to work; they’re not afraid to wear color,” according to Walas. “Women are suddenly seeing that red makes the face come alive.”
In addition to true reds, fall’s newest lip colors are in the plum and berry families. Intensities range from Guerlain’s deep Torcello, a split lipstick combining blood red and fuchsia, to Lancome’s Rose Artiste, perhaps the palest plum shade of the season. Carole Maisano, vice president of new product development for Max Factor, predicts that orange will follow true red as the sophisticated color choice.
Lips are rouged with powder at Princess Marcella Borghese. The same powder is used as eye shadow and is applied sparingly to the cheeks. Violetto and Rubino, two shades of blue rose, suit the season’s amethyst palette, while D’Oro, Bronzeo and Ambra are beige, brown and pink powders with gold. “We tend to watch the colorations of the Italian couture, not the French, and gem tones were important,” says Maria Corbiscello, director of creative marketing and product development for Borghese, which is a division of Revlon. “We’ve taken the accent colors that (Italian designers) use and put them on the face.”
The depth of color used on the lips is determined by the amount used on the eyes. The two should be in balance, drawing attention to the entire face, rather than to one or the other as in seasons past.
BRIGHT EYES
When women started changing the color of their eyes with contact lenses recently, cosmetics manufacturers took careful note. They learned that their customers like to experiment with their looks and will contradict nature when they want. “It’s newer to complement your outfit than to worry about complementing your eye color,” Stendhal’s Boyette says. “Since purple is the most important color of the season, purple will be the dominant eye shadow.” For the strongest statement, shades of intense purple will be used all over the lid and will continue up into the eyebrows, she says.
Green will be used as an accent with purple, as in Dior’s five-color compact that includes four shades of blue and violet, plus a shade called Nile Green. Or green can be the primary color, with purple and gold as accents.
“For years women shied away from green,” Walas says. “They associated it with their grandmothers wearing frosted pistachio eye shadow. That look was aging and difficult to wear. Now it’s a deeper, richer green that is much more appealing.”
Maisano adds that the news value of green “has been growing for about two years. This is the season green will become a new neutral like gray or brown.”
Fall lashes are colored with violet, blue and green mascaras, and eyeliner will be smudged. The overall effect is soft and feminine, yet extremely colorful.
Behrens says: “Women who are secure in their identities, who feel they have found their place in society, don’t need to make a statement with their cosmetics. They wear color because they feel comfortable with it. That is the key this season.”
TAILORED NAILS
Just as lipstick colors are divided into two color palettes, so too are nail shades: berry/plums and golden reds. But more interesting than the shades themselves are the philosophies of how to wear the colors.
For the first season in several years, people are talking about matching nail polish to lipstick. “It isn’t essential,”
Walas says, “but now that there are one-coat enamels, it’s simple to change polish when you change lip color.”
She notes that many women have a tendency to coordinate one polish color with about three different lipsticks. “They usually start out buying matching lip and nail color, then use the lipstick more than the polish,” she says.
Ultima’s Robinson says there are two schools of thought when it comes to color on the nails: “Some professional women wear naturally sheer polish for a very business-oriented nail; others want a finished nail in deep, rich colors. It’s important to have choices because many women are not comfortable wearing intense color on the nail.”
Hair and makeup: Casey Gouveia/Celestine-Cloutier; styling: Karen O’Neal; model: Caroline Hepburn/It Model Management
