[ SPRING FASHION ]
RONEN ZILBERMAN / RZILBERMAN@STARBULLETIN.COM
Understatement is the key to spring's fresh-faced looks modeled by Rene Cuhns, 21, and Tammy Tamashiro, in her early 30s, made up by E'Jay Maldonado of Body & Soul. For Cuhns he started with Alison Raffaele's Skin #2 foundation and Sephora All Over Skin #6 powder. For Tamashiro, he started with Body & Soul Glitz moisturizer, sheer foundation and Rouge Madagascar. On both, he used Body & Soul Ceylon Purple and Burma Pink on eyelids, finishing with Raffaele's "Kiss" Lipskins on Cuhns, and Body & Soul's Pink Sapphire Lip Glow on Tamashiro.
Lighten up!
Trash the heavy mask of foundation and go light and easy on the makeup to give your skin the look of youthful health and rosy-cheeked radiance this spring.
Confused? It seems contradictory to say less is more, but according to makeup experts, spring's new cosmetics are working harder than ever to enhance the real you.
E'Jay Maldonado, beauty and international trainer for Body & Soul, a line based in Hawaii and sold internationally, said: "Foundations are getting sheerer. They have a lighter texture and don't give a lot of coverage, but use diffusion to play down pigmentation."
Barely there
Makeup colors are sheer this spring, looking bright and sunny in floral packaging to match their contents:
Radiate the warmth of a Georgia peach with BeneFit's all-over "Georgia" powder ($26).
Julie Hewett's "Bijou" collection features sheer colors like "lulu," "kiki" and "celeste," at $20 each or $55 for six colors served up in a mini hatbox. Visit juliehewett.net.
Stila offers three floral palettes with four colors for eyes and cheeks. Shown is the "blue" palette ($28) and peachy "daisy" lipstick ($16.50)
BeneFit's Shangri-La Sheers ($18) are dressed in a Asian-inspired florals. Shown are "I Lotus'ed You Looking" cheek powder and "You'll Never-Never Land Me" lipstick.
Body & Soul's "Glitz" moisturizer ($35) for face and body gives skin a glow.
Oh, come on. You remember high school chemistry, don't you? Diffusion is defined as "the spontaneous migration of substances from regions where their concentration is high to regions where their concentration is low."
In cosmetics, we're talking particles that reflect light, such as fine mica, that detract from the dark nooks and crannies and fine lines in your face. Some would say, "phooey on science, only results matter," and it's easier to understand when Maldonado said, "The looks out there take you back five to 10 years."
Even so, when it comes to makeup, a makeover is worth a thousand words, especially when explanations only seem to befuddle consumers with contradictions, such as how going sheer will make your lifeless, problematic skin glow.
"Customers have trouble understanding when you say it, but when they look in the mirror and see the results they get it. We're having a lot of good experiences out of the (salon) chairs," said Maldonado, who's back from New York, where he trained makeup artists in how to use Body & Soul products for media and runway shows.
Chief among Body & Soul's offerings is a scarily golden and gold-flecked mica-imbued -- like New Mexico adobe -- "Glitz" moisturizer ($35) for face and body. It's been used by calendar hunks to highlight and define every muscle, and Maldonado says it's perfect for spring's shoulder-baring corset camisoles and off-the-shoulder tops.
When worn under liquid foundation it warms skin like a bronzer for a fresh, sun-kissed look. Brush on a bit of Body & Soul's Burma Pink eye shadow ($16.50), a bit of Rouge Madagascar blush ($16.50) and equally rosy lip glow ($16.50) and you're good to go.
The pale eyelid dusted with lilac, sun-washed yellow or pink is defined by eye-liner that has never been easier to use. Creamy formulas by Nars and Bobbi Brown are easier to control than liquid liners of the past and are virtually smudge-free after drying.
The effect of all this color is to recapture the radiance of youth to the point that women on the mainland are accentuating that girly ideal by drawing in freckles with Lancome's "Freckle" pencil.
Alison Raffaele, CEO and founder of Skin Alison Raffaele, steers clear of such gimmickry, but she is a proponent of the natural look. Her products are filled with antioxidant vitamins and oils so they glide on, protecting and nourishing as they work to create an illusion of perfection rather than artifice.
Raffaele was in town Friday and Saturday to formally introduce her line at Sephora at Ala Moana Center. She said: "I was interviewed for a Japanese magazine a year ago and I finally got it translated. There was a really great quote that said my products strike a balance between 'concealment and revealment.'"
Talk about getting lost in translation, but the writer managed, in broken English, to nail Raffaele's philosophy. She compares the art of makeup to theater. If the production is going smoothly, the entire illusion becomes reality.
"You should never see behind the scenes -- the work of rehearsal, the sets being built, the lights being set up, the costumes being sewn -- all of that is invisible once the play begins, if it's a successful one.
"It's the same with makeup, because when someone does it well, you can't tell they're wearing anything. And if women can't see it, they don't know what it is. They learn so much when they're able to try the products."
Raffaele was the head assistant to renowned makeup artist Bobbi Brown as the company's first National Makeup Artist and International Trainer from 1992 to 1995. In meeting women around the world, Raffaele learned that they want high-performance, professional-quality products that are easy to use, and "they don't want to feel the makeup."
Raffaele believed she could answer the call, and her Skin line includes a "Reality Base" oil-free foundation ($35) "to conceal what they don't like and reveal what's good," and SPF 15 "Lipskins" ($19.50), sheer lipsticks that glide on like gloss, with a silky texture that feels like a second skin.
Lipskins colors such as "Kiss" and "Laugh" appear a bright fruity red and tangerine, respectively, in the tube, but on the lips they impart only a subtle stain and transparency that allows your own lip color to show through, giving the effect of having just polished off a strawberry Popsicle. Lipskins also are full of skin-loving oils, plus antioxidant vitamins A, C and E.
It's still difficult to convince women they no longer have to don a heavy mask.
"Women look at TV, movies and magazines and they think they're looking at another woman who's held up as the epitome of perfection. But they're not looking at a human being. They're looking at an image that's been digitally altered so it's not real," said Raffaele, who has worked with many models. "If you see them in the flesh, they look nothing like their pictures."
Creating the illusion of perfection differs from perfection itself, which Raffaele says can be unappealing.
"It's the quirks that make us human," she said. "Perfection is unhuman; you'd be cold and boring, like a mannequin. The aim is to enhance beauty, not obliterate it."
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