Now in technocolor
Ten years ago, makeup artist Bobbi Brown declared war on “unnatural” makeup colors. Blue eye shadow and coral lipstick were banished, and the nation fell into a 10-year brown-out (the cosmetic equivalent of Gray Davis’ energy crisis) from which we are still recovering. The problem with this philosophy, as I see it, is that brown isn’t any more “natural” a color than is magenta, or sky blue. And as if grungy cheeks and loamy eye sockets weren’t dreary enough, why on earth did anyone ever think it was a good idea for women to paint their lips the color of, well, dirt?
The popularity of earth-toned lipstick in the ‘90s had some of my male friends in a state of apoplexy. A short-story writer I know who had idolized Dana Delany from afar finally got to meet her at a premiere. The next day he was in a wretched state, railing against the criminal vandalism perpetrated on his goddess’ perfect beauty by the ugly brown lipstick she wore. Being a poet and a big thinker, he blamed society at large for the phenomenon, and never the angel herself, whom he idolizes to this day--so blinding was the dire impression left by Delany’s lip color, however, that he still feels as if he’s never been properly introduced.
As much as I hate brown, I’ve always been a sucker for odd colors, and I’ve picked up my share of orange, yellow and hospital-green eye shadows over the years, always to be disappointed. While bold in the package, these colors never translated well to the skin. The pink eye shadow made me look like I had an infection, while yellow hinted at jaundice, and that frosty kumquat lipstick I bought thinking it would read as cheerful and snappy made me look like I’d been sunning myself on an atoll during atomic testing.
But there’s finally good news to report on the color front: In the first blush of the 21st century, we have mastered the technology, and makeup counters everywhere are abloom with techno-color. The vivid shades on the market today come to us thanks to the smaller, more focused cosmetic companies that put a premium on such factors as pigment and texture, resulting in colors that are saturated enough that they transfer from palette to face without losing their intensity. Even colors that go on sheer maintain their assertiveness. So while it’s still OK to get your makeup basics at the department store (Estee Lauder makes an eye shadow called Storm that is my wardrobe equivalent of the little black dress), for exotic, intense, idiosyncratic color, it’s best to turn to the boutique cosmetic lines that are flourishing in niche markets everywhere, from Sephora to the Internet.
The newest addition to the small family of makeup brands carried at Fred Segal Beauty is a line from London called Pout. As you can imagine from the name, the overarching theme is pink--pink for cheeks, pink for lips, even pink for eyes. But the effect created by Pout’s pinks is more dramatic than the demure peaches ‘n’ cream aesthetic one would expect. My favorite eye shadow of the season is their frosty creme “eyeslick” called Swing, which comes in a tube with a wand, and which you could mistake for lip gloss--as I did at first--if you hadn’t read the fine print on the package. The color is like nothing found in nature, which by itself precludes the conjunctivitis effect. It’s more like decorative cake frosting, or metallic auto body paint, and its visual impact is unique in being at once dramatic and pretty. (Speaking of auto body paint, Pout also makes a wonderful eye shadow duo called Miss July that is the happy color of a two-tone sea-foam green ’55 Chevy.)
Even a child could handle Pout’s cute, classy pinks, but Urban Decay’s Pleather Pencil in a violent fuchsia called Asphyxia proves that this granddaddy of esoteric makeup lines is still the height of boutique chic. I wore this one for my 40th birthday earlier this month--and I plan to never wear it again.
But just when I thought I was going to be pink all summer, I found what may well be the world’s first flattering yellow eye shadow. It’s made by Fudge, an Australian company better known until recently for its hair products, which include serious, permanent dye in a rainbow of greens, blues, purples and reds (for that stage of life when you’ve grown out of dipping your ponytail in Kool-Aid, but you’re not quite ready for L’Oreal). Their “f2 cosmetics” line likewise includes shadows and liners in intense, raver-girl colors for that Japanese anime look. Citrus Intensity Eye Color is shocking and illuminating when worn alone as a wash over the whole eyelid, and miraculously, it doesn’t clash with my (I’ll be candid here) rather yellowish natural coloring.
The flashiest range of colors on the market was created by a 22-year-old Pepperdine graduate. Hot Pants’ Op Art shadows are plainly packaged little pots of loose powder, all of which appear to be white when you open them. But when brushed on the eye, these plain powders bloom like a light stick, transforming into luminous, iridescent shades with a phosphorescent quality. The Op Art line includes two bases: When applied over the gray base, the colors read as pastel; over the black, they explode like Vegas signage. The copper is the color of a sunset on Mars, while the blue turns into something I can only describe as the color of an intergalactic electric eel.
Much as I love to experiment, to date only one cosmetic line has earned my blind trust when it comes to highly experimental color formulations. Tony & Tina, whose trippy New Age propaganda includes lots of references to vibes and energy fields, seems to have achieved the ocular equivalent of perfect pitch when it comes to color. I learned this in a round-about way: I had become so addicted to the opulent texture and heady aroma of Tony & Tina’s herb-infused makeup products (who ever heard of nice-smelling eyeliner, for heaven’s sake?) that when their new spring line appeared last year, featuring greens almost exclusively, I went ahead and bought it all anyway. To my surprise, I wore it every day: smudgy dark green liner for business meetings, apple green lids for lunch, and black shot through with green glitter for evening. This year, greens again figure heavily, and their spring nymph eye palette features a chartreuse so intensely acidic it looks like it could eat a hole right through the chrome packaging. When I first opened the compact, I nearly fainted. But like I said, it’s a relationship built on trust. Cosmic Destiny is a brilliant, pioneering color, and by god, it works!
This summer I also have discovered proof that Mother Nature, were she to start a cosmetic line, would favor the lurid over the dusty any day. Lori Hart’s pots of pure, powdered semiprecious stones are like something Wilma Flintstone would have worn, and they’re about as colorful as Dino’s purple polka-dotted coat. And since ground peridot, amethyst and tourmaline are the only ingredients--what could be more “natural” than pure rock?--mineral makeup is hypoallergenic, has no shelf life and boasts an SPF of at least 20. Given their geologic origins, these brilliant colors could properly be called the real “earth” tones.
Of course, the exception proves the rule, and this season, there’s a big one to the ban on brown. Hollywood makeup artist Tina Earnshaw has trumped Miss Bobbi with a line that’s heavy on traditional earth-tones. However, Earnshaw’s copper, rust, moss, ochre, beige and chocolate hues are amped up with an infusion of sparkle and depth, and owe less to nature’s true shades of decay than to the colors of an Impressionist landscape. I tried very hard to be bored by her colors, but found that it just isn’t possible.
