Politically correct makeup

All women, regardless of color, are beautiful and they just need the right foundation, skin care and colors to discover their own beauty.

This is the belief of Prescriptives, a cosmetics company that styles itself as the "foundation authority." At the core of Prescriptives is Colorprinting, a complimentary service to help a woman find her true skin tone and the exact shade of foundation that suits her. The Prescriptives beauty expert dabs four shades of foundation to match your skin and then groups you into your color family. Colorprinting also works for choosing your powder, your lipstick, your whole makeup palette. If you do not find your exact match among the 100-plus shades in the Prescriptives line, their color experts will mix one for you in both powder and foundation.

There is a very deeply personal story behind this manic devotion to providing all women of all skin tones with the right shade of foundation. Annie Carullo, senior vice president of worldwide product development, remembers an episode from her teen years: "I remember being 14 years old and seeing Cheryl Tiegs in a commercial – the one where she comes up to the camera and puts a little dab of beige stuff on each cheek – and thinking, ‘My God! That’s why she’s so beautiful.’" She then marches to the drugstore to buy the foundation and what follows is far from beautiful. "There wasn’t a boy in my school who let me live that day. The makeup didn’t look like beautiful skin. It looked like Pepto-Bismol, because that was what was beautiful at that time: rosy pink satin."

That experience has stayed with Carullo all her years in the makeup trade, through years at Revlon, L’Oreal, Max Factor and now, Prescriptives. She wants women to have the total opposite of that humiliating situation. In 1996, she began her first product development for Prescriptives. She was obsessed with recreating a baby’s skin. So she decided that they would make a foundation that would give a woman, "virtual skin." She declared, "If we wanted to create a new kind of makeup, we had to throw out everything we’d ever used before and start from scratch." So instead of emulsifiers (which is a bit like mayonnaise) and soap-like surfactants which are the traditional ingredients in foundation, Carullo directed her team to look for ingredients used in skincare instead. They discovered that Novaspheres, hollow cell-like spheres filled with skin-enriching ingredients, could be suspended in a gel formula that felt light on the skin but still provided coverage.

Carullo also developed the Magic line, a product line meant to harness the power of light to create the illusion of perfect skin. I got to try some of Carullo’s innovations, and I have to say, she is a genius. At the Prescriptives launch at Rustan’s Makati, Malou, one of the knowledgeable and perky Prescriptives counter girls, dusted my face with Magic Liquid Powder, a strangely cooling powder that is 70 percent water and it was truly, truly amazing. I felt as if I had been given a new face, free from dust, grime and worry lines. Imagine the feeling inside your mouth when you pop a mint. Now think of that feeling all over your face. Isn’t that (literally) cool?

She also dabbed some Vibrant (also in the Magic line), a vitamin-infuser for dull skin and like some strange kind of osmosis, I did feel a real genuine lift to my spirits.

Origins: The Mother Lode

Origins is seen primarily as a back-to-nature organic body and bath and skincare line, but they bring the same quirky, fun, but environmentally-friendly approach to their makeup. If other lines are about glamour and art, the Origins line is more about looking as if you just took a walk on the beach or a really vigorous Spinning class. In fact, the cult favorite in the Origins makeup line is Pinch Your Cheek, a gel-like liquid blush that gives you the most appealing, natural flush. I heard through the grapevine that a top matinee idol dabs on some Pinch Your Cheeks to get his "La Cara Rosa." But that could just be a rumor.Another ingenious product is the Perfect Makeup. It comes in powder form and if you mix it with moisturizer, it can be a concealer. If you mix it with water, it can be a foundation. And then you can just use it as a powder. Now, isn’t that perfect.

Origins is so devoted to their environmentally-friendly philosophy that they waited for the technology to use natural pigments in their makeup and man-made fibers in their brushes. And in line with their natural approach, the products smell truly clean and fresh. My favorite product is the Liquid Lip Color. It has mint in it so every time you apply it, it’s like you are freshening your breath.

Prescriptives and Origins are important companies because instead of telling women how they look, they offer options to help a woman. There is no one autocratic image of beauty anymore. And to make every woman believe that she can be beautiful is a powerful message. To top it all, their products really work. How do I know? Well, after using their stuff, a dear friend who has known me for 15 years asked me, "‘What is it with you these days? You always look in love," In love, indeed.