New faces for spring
A lipstick, legend has it, was the last thing a woman would go without in the era of the Great Depression. The priorities of today's woman are not necessarily the same and she has a far wider range of much more refined products from which to choose. No matter how meager her budget, she will in all likelihood manage to stretch her recession dollar to accommodate a cosmetics purchase or two.
Besides being spirit-lifting, cosmetics have become an expedient and relatively inexpensive means of keeping in fashion. If spring styles are a heterogeneous mix of romantic English country garden, desert nomad, Deauvillesque seaside, and spare modern, you may be sure that new makeups are not far behind. The cosmetics industry is hot on the heels of fashion trends - sometimes a few steps ahead. Colorings, textures, and techniques of application change every season to complement the clothes that have been seen on the runways at advance showings in Europe and America.
What was observed this time was white with black and with brights, as well as a preponderance of stripes. The Estee Lauder crew came up accordingly with a line called Great Regatta Colors, which features clear reds and corals, and a range of sea blues and greens running from cobalt to turquoise.
White, both tinted and pearlized, is suggested as a highlighter for eye shadings, as a new translucent nail lacquer, and an overgloss for the lips. Topping a lipstick color with a second coat of lightly frosted gloss is an idea that other companies are endorsing. Elizabeth Arden's polishes are transparent glosses with a hint of bronze.
Other new faces of spring 1982 could be characterized as hothouse flower or sun-kissed out-of-doors. The pale matte-powdered look with shell pink or pastel coral cheeks and matching shiny lips is much in vogue. So is the healthy look of burnished skin. Arden's Primitives presentation gives a sun-drenched effect (strong reds and tawny earth tones) and would be the appropriate accompaniment for ethnic and exotic turnout.
Whether frail or hardy-looking, current makeups emphasize the eyes as the focal point of a fashionable face. Fragile, romantic shadings tend to begin with lavender and bluish violet and deepen to plum. Desert types of colorings include ranges of green, blue, and bronze. Most eye shadows are now packaged as palettes of several tones that are meant to be layered and blended from the brow to the lid. Achieving an enhancing effect takes plenty of practice and skill, so an over-the-counter session with an expert at the time a purchase is made is practically a necessity.
Harsh eye liners are out. The black pencil that rims the lids is practically an extinct species in this year's panoply of cosmetics. Lancome, Maybelline, Lauder, and Chanel are all featuring navy or royal blue as a replacement, and smudging the liner to soften the effect is generally recommended.
