Pink Has It Made in the Shade

You’ve heard the missives from the priestesses of high fashion: Pink is the new gray. Pink is the hot new color to wear for clothes and makeup this spring and summer.

A few makeup artists think those gushes about pink should come with a warning: Tread very carefully. The correct shade and application of pink can add a lovely glow to a face. The wrong shade and misapplication can have the opposite effect.

“I use pink a lot,” said Bobbe Joy Dawson, a makeup artist with more than 30 years experience in TV and movies. “Pink adds warmth. It adds femininity, it’s a pretty color, it makes you look pretty.” But, she added, makeup artists also use pink to make actors look sick or hung-over.

With the color everywhere at cosmetic counters, a lesson in pink begins with an understanding of the color palette and skin tones. “There is no universal color,” explained Bobbe Joy, who is known professionally only by her first name. “Pink comes in every shade. It can be used all by itself or it can be used as an accent.” Bobbe Joy explained recently at her Beverly Hills shop where she custom-blends cosmetics. She infuses pink with different colors, such as jade, gray and ocher.

Finding the appropriate pink for your skin color is the trick. “Everybody’s skin has certain undertones in it,” said Bobbe Joy. “If your skin has a lot of yellow, chose a pink that is more lavender.”

“Pink warms a complexion,” she said. And people who don’t do well with pink usually have warm complexions with a lot of red tones, as many redheads do. “A tone that’s more fitting for them is apricot or bronze.”

Women with olive tones can wear yellow- or blue-based pinks, depending on their skin’s base. And it’s best to stay away from pinks with a lot of red in them, unless you want the dramatic effect for clubbing.

For some women, muted pinks are not necessarily flattering. Pastels look especially washed out on darker skin. “Pink is not the friend of the black woman,” said Dick Simpson, founder of United Makeup Artists Assn. He has made up African-American actresses Karen McLymont (“Mr. Nice Guy”), Resa Michelle Hall and Pamela Martin, and was the key makeup artist on last year’s Nosotros Golden Eagle Awards for Latino artists. Simpson, who studied under makeup great Reggie Wells, said only light-skinned black women, such as a Halle Berry, can wear pale pink lipstick and eye makeup. Women with darker skin, he said, should travel to the far end of the pink spectrum into more vivid fuchsia, purple and wine.

More mature customers sometimes shy away from pinks, because they remind them of the ‘60s days of frosted lipstick. “Frost is what we remember from years and years ago,” Bobbe Joy said. “Every time that kind of thing returns, it comes back a little better.” Now instead of frost, it’s pearlescence, without the ‘60s chalkiness.

After finding the right color of pink, the trick is to know how to use it sensibly. “A lot of people get far-out and go overboard,” she said.

Pink can help update a look with just a few accents. For example, if you wear a lot of brown makeup, add a touch of pink to the center of your eyelid. If pale pinks are not your color, try a pink translucent lip lacquer over your lipstick.

Bobbe Joy demonstrated proper use of pink on her daughter, actress Portia Dawson, who has very yellow undertones in her skin. She used an almond-beige foundation base, accenting with a gold-pink blush. She also used a lacquer over pink lipstick. “A soft, mellowed-down pink,” she explained.

If you’re unsure how to wear pink, seek out advice at cosmetic counters. And, don’t forget to see how the makeup looks in different lighting.

Once you’ve mastered pink, you may have to move on to what some are saying is the next new color--tangerine.

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Face Time: Latina magazine has a problem. The bilingual lifestyle magazine needs models who, as Editor-in-Chief Sandra Guzman said, “reflect the beautiful brown faces of Latinas.”

The magazine has already used the few Latina models from traditional agencies, she said. So, it will hold its own model search from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, at the Roosevelt Hotel, 7000 Hollywood Blvd., L.A.

Guzman said is looking for young women 16 and older in all sizes. “We don’t want browner, skinny versions of what Vogue has.”

Prospective models don’t need a portfolio, professional photographs or even an appointment. Latina will later choose women for its fashion, beauty and trend stories, and all models will be paid.

“We don’t want to mimic magazines that only feature women who are size 2. We want to reflect the reality out there,” Guzman said. “We want to discover the new Salma Hayeks of the L.A. world.”