STYLE : Brushing Up or Brushing It Off: Reasons Are More Than Skin Deep

Teresa Fischette lost her job as a Continental Airlines ticket agent because of it.

Postal carrier Nancy Utsler of Orange gave it up years ago.

Roxann Higman of Newport Beach feels naked without it.

“It” is makeup. Those powders, creams and potions in their pretty cases are touted by advertisers for their ability to bestow beauty and restore youth. Yet while many women swear by their foundations, others shun cosmetic counters for reasons that are more than skin-deep.

“We’re socialized to believe women are not attractive without makeup,” says Wendy Lozano of El Toro, assistant professor of women’s studies at Cal State Long Beach.

From the time they dabble in their mothers’ makeup, women are encouraged to wear cosmetics. Today there are several cosmetics lines on the market for little girls. Teen fashion magazines such as Seventeen and Glamour are loaded with makeup ads and editorials espousing the wonders of cosmetics.

“How often do you see a photo in a fashion magazine of a woman without makeup? A natural woman is somehow not seen as beautiful, a woman who has hair, blemishes or even pores,” Lozano says. “Makeup is intended to cover up marks of aging, experience and character.”

Lozano wears a little makeup only for special occasions.

“I don’t wear it every day,” she says. “I can’t be bothered.”

Wearing makeup has become so pervasive that bucking the trend can have negative repercussions.

Fischette was fired from her job at Logan International Airport in Boston for not following Continental’s appearance code that required female employees to wear makeup. Later, after a spate of negative publicity, the airline retracted the rule and offered to rehire Fischette.

Utsler, too, remembers feeling the heat for not wearing makeup while she worked for an assistant manager of a department store.

“A couple of my mentors pulled me aside one day and said, ‘You look like a little girl. Maybe makeup would help.’ ” To appease them she began wearing more sophisticated clothing but drew the line at adding cosmetics.

“I kind of like the way I am,” she says.

Her job as a mail carrier makes it easier for her to justify going natural.

“It’s hot out there,” she says.

Utsler has not always avoided cosmetics. She has fond memories of herself as a teen-ager experimenting with makeup in the bathroom with her sister.

“I gave it up in my 20s,” she says. “It was too artificial. I realized I was wearing it to make people think I’m something that I’m not.”

Now she wears a little mascara and blush just when she feels like dressing up.

“Some of my friends think if they wear makeup they’ll be more accepted. They think it makes them feel better . . . . They even do their laundry in their makeup.”

Elena Montoya of Irvine, a computer programmer, wears a small amount of lip or cheek color only when she thinks her face looks pale.

“If I can get away with it I wear none at all,” she says. “I don’t like to feel weighed down.

“I’ve been to makeup demonstrations at cosmetics counters where they put this stuff on my face. I can’t believe they expect me to walk out of there looking like that. Other women look good with it on, but it’s not me.”

Some women, in an effort to avoid looking overly made up, wear cosmetics in moderation.

Bonnie Holmes, a skin care specialist in Newport Beach, encourages her clients to give up foundations and work on attaining healthy skin.

“Makeup clouds radiance,” Holmes says. “It’s like putting on drapery (over the face). It makes the skin look flat.

“Cosmetic companies promote the image that you’re not acceptable unless you have a face like a model. Advertising money has built a business around perpetuating these myths. It’s an enslavement that gets you buying things,” she says. “If you take it too seriously you’re a slave to it (like) a woman who will not go out of her house without her face on.”

Holmes teaches clients a light makeup routine using a few basic cosmetics.

“I wear eye shadow, blush, mascara and lipstick,” she says. “It doesn’t wreck my day to have people see me without makeup. I reject the notion that we must look like (super-model) Paulina.”

Many women see makeup as an indispensable and harmless tool for enhancing their features. Like Higman, they hate to leave home without it.

“I have fun with makeup,” Higman says. “It makes me feel bright and cheery.”

She uses blush and foundation to help liven her complexion.

“I just don’t have much color definition on my face,” she says. “I look more healthy when I have makeup on. It lifts the eyes and adds color to the cheeks.”

Even the act of applying makeup can give women a little psychological boost, according to Leslie Rabine, a professor who teaches in the women’s studies program at UC Irvine and has conducted research on how fashion affects women.

For some, “the putting on of makeup is more important than wearing it,” she says. “It gives them a sense of creating themselves anew. It’s like being reborn.”

Because makeup allows them to express themselves, women deeply resent being told by anyone how to wear it, she says.

“They want to feel it’s an area of freedom.”

In the workplace, that freedom can be curtailed.

Disneyland, which considers its employees “cast members” who are putting on a show in the theme park even if their role is simply selling french fries, forbids female employees from wearing eye liner or eye shadow.

“Exaggerated makeup detracts from the show. It might look overdone,” says John McClintock, a spokesman for Disneyland.

Disneyland does encourage employees to enhance their features with blush, foundation and a natural-looking lipstick.

“We used to have a sign up in costuming and wardrobe with a picture of Minnie Mouse putting on makeup that said, ‘Remember: Makeup used within the guidelines can enhance your appearance.’ ”

Even if rules regarding makeup are not spelled out in the corporate dress code, many companies have unwritten rules about the acceptable use of cosmetics.

A woman’s place on the corporate ladder can affect even her choice of lipstick, according to Rabine. A woman in a managerial position should wear a more sophisticated kind of makeup such as a darker lipstick, she says, while a secretary can wear brighter lip colors.

Image consultants who help women dress for success say makeup is a necessary component for a professional look.

“If you have a woman who is put together, it’s kind of like she’s not finished without makeup,” says Sandi Clark, president and co-owner of Image Works in Irvine.

“Those women who wear some kind of makeup have a polished appearance.”

Dianna Pfaff-Martin, president of California Image Advisors in Newport Beach, also counsels clients to wear makeup.

“I’m pro-makeup,” she says. “It enhances the natural features of a woman. Coco Chanel said it’s egotistical for a woman not to wear makeup. I think women do so to be more attractive.”

She tells clients to stick with neutral, natural-looking colors for the office and steers them away from bright fuchsia-colored lipstick and magenta eye shadow.

“They don’t want to attract the wrong type of attention,” she says. “I talk to women constantly who get more lunch dates than sales.”

Can sales and promotions really ride on a tube of lipstick? Rabine thinks so.

“We think of fashion as very frivolous,” Rabine says. “It’s not. It’s symbolic. It tells a lot about social relationships.”