International Icons : The New Faces of Prestige Makeup Have World-Citizen Sophistication

PRETTY FACES ARE very expensive these days. Consider Paulina Porizkova, the actress-model who earns more than $5 million as the Estee Lauder woman. And sweet-faced Christy Turlington, who, for $3 million, evokes the Eternity image for Calvin Klein. And Vendela Kirsebom, the new Elizabeth Arden model, who will bank millions during the run of her contract.

These women, icons of cosmetics and fragrance, symbolize perfect beauty to consumers and big-buck profits to the cosmetics industry.

In today’s $23-billion international cosmetics market, it’s not enough to look like an All-American girl, such as Cheryl Tiegs or Christie Brinkley. The look today is that of a cosmopolitan woman whose face can sell beauty products all over the world. Actress Isabella Rossellini, with her full lips and dark eyes, personifies Lancome, a company with European cachet. Since Rossellini started appearing in Lancome ads in 1982, the firm’s sales have increased each year.

Czechoslovakian-born Porizkova replaced Estee Lauder woman Willow Bay, whose looks are as wholesomely All-American as her name. And Kirsebom, a Norwegian, takes over for Elizabeth Arden’s Jacki Adams, a model who for three years was the embodiment of Arden’s Park Avenue image.

“Willow was right for America,” says Leonard Lauder, head of Estee Lauder Inc. “But what was right for America wasn’t right for the world.” Porizkova has proven to have selling power internationally, Lauder says, “yet people in the United States relate easily to her. Men like her, and women aren’t threatened by her--that’s very important.”

Evelyn Lauder, a frequent spokesperson for the Lauder company, says that international beauty Porizkova is not “perfect. Paulina is startlingly pretty, but she has a slight overbite that makes her face more approachable.” Combined with huge, clear eyes and a high forehead, Porizkova’s minor imperfection, Evelyn Lauder says, helped win Porizkova her contract.

Joseph F. Ronchetti, president of Elizabeth Arden, admits that cosmetics companies are “always aiming to go younger than the customer base” when they select a model. Twenty-one-year-old Kirsebom, for example, is “glamorous and active-looking at the same time.” By contrast, Jacki Adams, he says, is “prim and proper, a portrait kind of beauty.” Lauder says that before Porizkova, his firm’s image was too demure: “Change is what keeps a company vital. We needed it.”

At Revlon, Senior Vice President Dan Moriarity says that the idea of having one woman representative--such as former Revlon models Suzy Parker, Barbara Feldon and Lauren Hutton--has passed. “Today there is no one standard of beauty,” Moriarity says. So instead, in its “Most Unforgettable Women” campaign, Revlon is using some of the world’s most famous faces--including Brooke Shields, Iman, Jerry Hall and Audrey Hepburn--to demonstrate that range. Now the company is sponsoring a consumer search for America’s “most unforgettable woman.” The winner will receive $25,000 and appear in a Revlon ad.

“We want women to understand that beautiful women exist all around us,” Moriarity says.