The Lipstick Page Forums Beauty Blog: Diagnosis of a Trend: Sheer Makeup Diagnosis of a Trend: Sheer Makeup Posted by Dain, Wednesday, May 18, 2005 1:55 AM (Eastern) There are nothing but sheer lipsticks these days. Witness: Dior Addict Ultra Shine Sheer Lipcolor, Smashbox Tinted Lip Treatment, YSL Pure Shine, Paula Dorf Lip Color Sheer Tint SPF 15, MAC Lustre, Lancome Juicy Rouge, Bloom Lip Tint, LORAC Sheer Lipstick, Vincent Longo Gel-X Lipstick, Delux Sheer Lipstick, Chanel Aqualumière, Bobbi Brown SPF 15 Lip Shine, Clinique Almost Lipstick (one might say, the first), Clinique Colour Surge Bare Brilliance Lipstick, Clinique Moisture Sheer Lipstick SPF 15, Estée Lauder Pure Color Lip Vinyl Gloss Stick, Origins Rain and Shine, Prescriptives Incredible Sheer Lipcolor SPFT 15, Awake Stardom Sheer Glossy, MAC Tinted Lip Conditioner, Kevyn Aucoin Lip Tint, Lola Lip Sheer, Chantecaille Super Lip Sheers and Lip Sheers, Maybelline Wet Shine, Revlon Moisturous, Laura Mercier Sheer Lipcolor (the "Lips" collection), Versace... oh, forget it. You get the point. Not all sheer lipsticks are created equal, of course. Some are little more than tinted lip balm, some meant to be a glamorous wet-shine sheer (YSL Pure Shine, MAC Lustre, Chanel Aqualumière, Dior Addict Ultra Shine Sheer, for example), some merely a lipstick with low-dose pigment, but the message remains the same. Women everywhere are demanding sheerer colors, all around. It's not just lipsticks, either. Foundations must never be cakey, the de rigueur finish is translucent, like Giorgio Armani's foundations or Becca. Powders, too, like Prescriptives Magic, or airy Stephane Marais', whisper sheer. Eyeshadows have become silkier, ultrablendable, whisperlight (MAC Veluxe). Even lipliner, once a bastion of cosmetic collections the world over, which has now been banished as unnecessary and stilted (indeed, how much use is a lipliner when your lipstick barely registers?), is attempting a comeback, by becoming sheer (Stila, Prescriptives). Part of the reason for this shift is the current cultural obsession with youth. Not that American pop culture has ever been otherwise, but nowadays, the phenonmenon is greater than before. Just look at the meteoric rise of supermodel Gemma Ward—an angelic, doll-faced beauty straight out of a Vermeer painting who also happens to look fabulous in couture, sure, but she also looks like she's going on twelve (as it is, she's seventeen). Contrast her, and other such Lolita figures such as Scarlet Johanson and Hilary Duff, to the models of only ten years ago: Cindy Crawford, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Elizabeth Hurley. All of the latter are beautiful women, with strong, polished features rather than a fragile delicacy, the prettiness of a girl just growing into her teens. If our understanding of female beauty changes, so too, do the products that make her beautiful. A young girl looks garish in full makeup—we've all heard that adage. Transparent colors work far better, and shimmers flatter. An older woman, or shall we say, a woman, can take the abuse of product accumulation. Or, according to 90s standards, actual makeup instead of the ghost of an encounter. Indeed, more definition, more contours, more depth, more work, more complexity, are probably better for a woman's features (if that's not a metaphor for maturity, I don't know what is!). Luminosity is better reserved for the young. Gone are the pigment-rich liquid foundations and cake make-up, the heavy matte shadows (sheer shimmers sell soon; the fortunes of Stila's empire was built upon that axiom), the luxurious cream lipsticks, to be replaced by Vincent Longo Water Canvas and Becca Luminous Skin Color, the aforementioned Stila shadows, and the cavalcade of sheer lipsticks with which we started on this mad journey. Of course, there is another factor. Given the choice, we'd all rather be lazy than not. Improvements in pigment quality, and above all, the new technology of superlightweight silicones, has allowed product designers to push sheer products as versatile and easy and expedient to use. Sheer is low-maintenance, not only because it's sheer, but also because the products blend better. This train o' thought all started one evening, as I was experimenting rather forlornly with a lipstick. A few years ago, this was "normal", a MAC Satin lipstick. A regular creamy sort of lipstick, with no shimmer. It's almost exotic to me now. One could dash it on, of course, with technical abandon, but it would be far better to use a lipbrush to apply it, for more control. A lipliner wouldn't hurt, either (not that I had one). I applied it with a brush. It was almost ritualistic, and more than a little erotic. It took a lot longer. But I felt empowered. It's like the difference between wearing a flirty ruffled mini and a sexy, curvaceous pencil skirt. Or the difference between flip-flops and a pair of Christian Louboutin pumps. Don't get me wrong, I love my sheer lipsticks. They're marvelous fine. It's enough that I put on undereye concealer/highlighter every morning, much less incorporating a bloody concealer-foundation-powder rite into it. And hey, I couldn't live without my Red Haute lipstick (a MAC lustre). But perhaps we can take a lesson from our selves ten years ago, and reckon, maybe, as our faces recover from that facial peel we had last Thursday, that sophistication is nothing to sneer at. And hey, my Mauve Chic quint is coming in the mail. Pair that with MAC Angel blush and real lipstick, and I'm halfway there. ; ) 0 Comment(s)    Email this post Rants, raves, and musings on all things cosmetic. 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