Chicago - When Sandy Di Stefano sees a woman wearing a lot of makeup, she doesn't think "pretty;" she thinks "face paint."
Di Stefano prefers a more natural look. No foundation or powder for her in the morning. A little lip gloss, blush and eyeliner and she is good to go.
"If it's really noticeable, it's like, 'That doesn't look good,"' said the 31-year-old marketing coordinator for the Italian Trade Commission in Chicago.
Like Di Stefano, lots of women are paring their morning makeup routines. The hottest look in makeup right now, beauty editors agreed, is looking like you're not wearing any at all.
"No one wants to look like they are spackled," said Sarah Brown, beauty director at Vogue magazine. "The point is to make your skin look better than it is."
Signs of the "less-is-more" approach are popping up in unexpected places.
Designer Diane von Furstenberg's spring makeup collection was called "In the Nude," and was billed as the "no make-up makeup."
High-profile models such as Gemma Ward sported a natural look on designer runways this spring.
That prompted Vogue to declare the "Flemish Face" the hot new look.
"Forget dark lipstick. Don't even think about mascara. The look of the season carries with it the painterly signature of the Dutch masters," a headline in Vogue's July issue proclaimed.
The lighter approach is an easy sell to women in their 20s and early 30s, beauty experts said.
Many young women are rejecting lengthy beauty routines that require more than a dozen products for quick dustings of bronzer and swipes of lip gloss.
The pared-down look is low-maintenance and matches the casual wardrobe they've embraced. The fresh-scrubbed look seems natural when you're wearing a camisole and flip flops.
Where younger women go, many older women try to follow, according to marketing experts. One goal of many women who wear makeup is to disguise flaws and make them appear more youthful than they are.
Women who can afford the services of dermatologists are flocking to the doctors' offices for regular micro-dermabrasions, treatments that make their skin appear fresher by sanding off the top layer with a stream of crystals that are then vacuumed away. Prices run about $160 per session.
Others opt for more expensive dermal fillers such as collagen or Restylane to minimize wrinkles around the mouth or Botox, an injection that paralyzes frown lines on the forehead. Still others seek out chemical peels or laser treatments that zap away broken blood vessels on the face.
Dr. Jerome Garden, a practicing dermatologist and associate professor of clinical dermatology at Northwestern University, hears it all the time from patients in their 40s and early 50s.
"They're noticing they need more and more makeup, and they're not comfortable with it," Garden said. "They come in and ask, 'Is there anything I can do so I don't have to wear so much makeup?'"
If makeup consumption is slowing, it's hard to detect at department store makeup counters.
Sales of so-called prestige makeup rose 6.7 percent, to $2.79 billion in 2004 from 2003, according to NPD Group, a marketing information company that tracks cosmetic sales at department stores.
But unit sales of makeup rose 2.7 percent in 2004, suggesting that much of the top-line increase is coming from higher prices.
The picture isn't as rosy at the mass-market level.
Unit sales of cosmetics at mass merchandisers, excluding Wal- Mart, have declined for the past three years and are down slightly through July 16 of this year. Last week, Revlon Inc. reported a second-quarter loss of $35.8 million, citing a 4 percent drop in North American sales, among other factors.
Some cosmetic companies are trying to adapt by bringing out new products that help women use less makeup without feeling naked.
Popular products include tinted moisturizer that usually comes with sunscreen protection, bronzing powders and creamy blush sticks and tinted lip gloss.
Source: The Advocate. Powered by Yellowbrix.
