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 ALL-DAY COSMETICS
WITH A BIG DIFFERENCE
by Marilyn Green
I can now get out of the swimming pool with perfectly colored brows and lashes, lipstick completely intact, even perfect blushing cheeks. Have I suddenly been blessed with naturally perfect coloration? Not on your life. Until a couple of weeks ago I got out of a pool, a shower or a workout looking like a cross between an albino rabbit and a drowned rat. In summer my eye makeup has tended to move into raccoon territory – circles and smudges under the eyes. When I performed under lights onstage, I had the same problems, only more so. My experiments with long lasting color left my lips dry and, on one memorable occasion, about half my eyelashes fell out. (They grew back, but…) What I have found is a product well known in Europe and South Africa, but about which the word is just beginning to spread in North America: LipTint, which is far more than its name.
LipTint is a waxless, herbal, botanical semi-permanent eye, lash, brow, lip and cheek makeup. Mary Michailov, Sales Manager, pointed out, nothing is permanent except tattooing and even if you did it, you’d be stuck with one look and color forever. But LipTint is plenty close enough – I put it on, wore it for 24 hours, and it didn’t come off until I used their universal remover (simply called Off). What’s more, this makeup is so pure and so carefully crafted to preserve the skin that the company has found a strong market among women undergoing chemotherapy.
Today I can go through a sweaty hour-long workout and shower and I emerge needing only a little powder. The blush is still on my cheeks, my liner, lash and brow makeup is still exactly where it was, and my lip color is perfect. It’s like being given perfect coloring naturally.
The colors alone are a tremendous incentive: they have dozens and dozens of luscious shades of lipstick, gloss, eyeliner, lash tint, brow tint, blush, etc. They come with applicators, brush or wand, and except the blush and some tinted conditioners, they are all in liquid form.
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“It will take quite a bit longer than conventional makeup at first,” Michailov cautioned me, “and it goes on in thin layers of color so you can build it or stop when you want to.”
“That’s fine,” I said, thinking of all the times I wouldn’t have to do anything during the day.
It was even finer than I thought: I really didn’t have any problems from the first. What did take longer was reading the instructions – very important! For example, you use a little Off on your lips before starting, then you condition them, then you apply the color. It just takes minutes, but it’s a little different from my normal routine. You also don’t flatten or purse your lips when you apply the liquid lip tint, just let them relax normally. I put on the first layer, decided I wanted another and added it, getting a little of the tingle they tell you about in the instructions. The color was then exactly what I wanted, but another day I went too far with the fire engine red color and needed to reduce it. A little Off on a towelette (they offer it this way as well as in a bottle and on a wand) brought the color down to just where I wanted it. Although you can’t blend colors, you can layer them – a thin layer of one topped by a thin layer of another does the same thing.
The blush is a gel and my little bottle was a test of strength. I finally got out the requisite tiny amount by squeezing it carefully with both hands and then taking the little blob on my finger and applying it. It goes on smoothly and feels natural, and again you can layer on the depth of color you want.
The ingredients sound like an herbalist’s cabinet: Arnica, Arrowroot, Bayberry Bark, Beta Carotene, Blessed Thistle, etc., etc., all skin conditioning, soothing, antibacterial, refreshing and healing. The product has garnered raves from the film, television, fashion and beauty industries.
“I did not have to be concerned about the girls messing up their lipstick once it was applied. To a make-up artist do you have any idea what this means?” asked Debra Dietrich, make-up artist for Paul Mitchell Systems.
The eyeliner was most difficult for me, but by far the most rewarding, especially after a swim, when my eyes hadn’t disappeared into my pale skin. All the little bottles of liquid have to be shaken until you hear the beads inside move freely. The eyeliner comes with its own brush, but I had a problem not bringing it inside the lid – it stung slightly when I did, and then it was fine. You can’t smudge your liner, but then it doesn’t smudge when you don’t want it to, either.
The eyelash tint is wonderful; a couple of layers gave me good, dark color and it stayed where it belonged through swim and shower. The product doesn’t lengthen or thicken lashes – it’s a tint – so it’s recommend that if you want that, you first put on the eye tint, then add thickener, as you would if your eyelashes were naturally just the color you wanted.
 The same is true of the brow tint – great colors and it works perfectly. There are also lip and brow liner. What the brow color doesn’t do is fill in spaces; it colors your brows – so you may want to add something after.
Even the first time, once I had read the instructions, it only took me an extra ten minutes to apply the colors, and it’s getting easier every day. My handbag is much, much lighter now – a little powder, sometimes a little lip gloss. It feels very strange to be able to eat a meal without putting on lipstick and to go through the day without any mascara smudging. But I’m sure I’ll get used to it!
Most products run $16.50 and they last a very long time, since you only have to apply them once a day.
Web site: www.lipink.com.
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