Going Wild (or Mild) : Makeup Artist Helps African-American Women Capitalize on Deep Skin Tones

THIS WINTER, while pale foundation and red lipstick are stealing the show for fair-skinned women, African-American women are capitalizing on their deep skin tones and “going wild, mild or both,” reports Antonio DuBois of Pigments salon in Beverly Hills.

DuBois, who charges $40 for an hour-long session, is one of the area’s few makeup artists who specializes in black clients, including many celebrities and businesswomen. “Lisa Bonet and Vanity represent the mild set,” he says. “Jody Watley and model Naomi Campbell are more on the wild side. Both looks are based in natural brown and bronze tones, but the wild look is decidedly more theatrical. And both looks use more makeup than we’ve seen since the ‘70s.”

For either look, DuBois starts by matching a woman’s skin tone with an oil-free, matte foundation. He prefers matte foundations because frosted and iridescent finishes can highlight wrinkles and make skin appear oily.

With a matte finish, he says, skin appears fresh, especially when large pores, blemishes or blotchy areas are minimized by a final dusting of powder. “There are some 40 shades of black skin, but they all have undertones of red, yellow or olive,” he explains. “The undertone determines what colors to use on eyes, lips and cheeks.”

DuBois insists that there are no hard-and-fast rules for applying color, but he does offer a few guidelines: The darker the skin, the more color can be worn. The shorter the hair, the more crucial the makeup. Use bold colors on either lips or eyes, but not both.

From there, one can go wild. Says DuBois: “Wild is a sort of ‘60s look, especially with upswept hair or a blunt-cut wig with bangs. It’s theatrical, but it’s also a modern look, because the makeup is only slightly overstated.”

To give this look to dark skin, he uses accent colors of deep mahogany, redwood, sienna, bronze-gold and fuchsia on the eyes, cheeks and lips. For medium-dark skin, he shades areas under cheeks, jaw, temples and forehead with medium brown to emphasize bone structure, then finishes with pale colors--cantaloupe, peach, eggplant--on eyes and cheeks. On light skin, which is often olive-toned, he chooses yellow, gold, rust and earthy brown.

But DuBois doesn’t stop there. “False eyelashes are essential to this look,” he says. “They’re glamorous and fun but not in a heavy, ‘60s way, where two and three layers of lashes were applied top and bottom. Using demi-lashes--that is, curling false lashes into your own--then coating both with black mascara and finishing with a bold stroke of charcoal eye liner is very chic right now.”

Eyebrows are an important but often ignored facial feature. They should be defined with pencil and arched. Darker and bolder eyebrows usually call for wild makeup.

For a less dramatic appearance, DuBois has developed what he calls his mild look. He uses the accent colors of his wild look but with a lighter touch. He applies layers of closely matching colors, using the lighter ones on top of brow bones and cheek bones and the deeper ones in the hollows. He also forgoes eye liner and false eyelashes.

His mild look is not totally natural--lips are well-defined. “Line the lips with a lip pencil that is the same color as the lipstick and then fill in with either matte or gloss in a color tone that shares undertones with the skin,” he advises.

“Because there are so many tones of red, no matter what a woman’s skin tone, she can always wear red lips,” Du Bois says. “But no matter whether a woman chooses to look wild or mild, dramatic or more natural, the good news for both of these looks is that they can be chosen for day or night, jeans or evening dress,” he says.

Gown: Margi Kent Studio/L.A.; model: Lysa Regina/Cunningham