Beauty talk with Bobbi Brown

MANILA, Philippines - Long before the television curiosity Toddlers and Tiaras came to be, Filipina girls — maybe “babies” would be a more appropriate term — have already gone through the rite of passage of getting made up to look like an adult and parading around in a fancy gown. Whether it was through auditioning for Little Miss Philippines or the yearly sagala procession in the summer, a girl’s first encounter with makeup is also her first step into the domain of starting to feel like a woman. It also tends to shape how much makeup will figure in her life —whether it becomes a necessity, an unnecessary bother, or something in between.

This month, cosmetics maven Bobbi Brown releases yet another book on beauty and makeup. Beauty Rules is targeted at teenage girls and women in their 20s, much like Brown’s 2001 book Bobbi Brown Teenage Beauty: Everything You Need to Look Pretty, Natural, Sexy & Awesome. In fact, Brown admits, “Beauty Rules is an updated version. This time around, I address the changes that beauty, makeup, and the concept of self-image have gone through for the past 10 years, especially with the increased pressure on girls everywhere from television, movies, and the internet.”

Brown, known for her espousal of natural-looking makeup, discloses that growing up with a glamorous mother exposed her early to the power of makeup. “I was mesmerized with her, but I didn’t want to compete with her glamour — I took the ‘natural’ route.” That was the early beginning of a career built on transforming makeup not just as cosmetic products but also solutions to beauty problems. As she puts it, “Makeup should only make you look better.”

The power of makeup

This is the root of Brown’s Pretty/Powerful campaign. Even before the publicity drive for Beauty Rules began, Brown held a photo shoot of girls whom she personally knew. “None of them were models; they’re ‘real’ girls of different skin tones, shapes, and sizes. I took photos of them without makeup first, and even though these girls all have different backgrounds, they were all pretty even without anything on their faces.” When made up, there was also a profound change in their appearances. “They look pretty with makeup, and they look powerful with it.” Brown herself first felt the potency of makeup when she was 12 years old, fresh from a vacation in Florida. “I wanted to look tanned because I just came from a vacation, so I took my mom’s bronzer, blended it with blush, and applied it to my cheeks. I remember looking at the mirror; I still looked like me, only more powerful.”

The “natural look” label is often limited to the perception of having “barely there” makeup, but Brown says it’s actually much more flexible than it is thought to be. “A girl can work the dark red lipstick look, as long as it looks good on her; if it is, then dark red lipstick is natural for her,” she explains. “Dark lipsticks work with girls who have naturally dark lips. It isn’t always the case that dark lips look best on pale-skinned girls. Dark lipstick on naturally pale lips looks off.” In this sense, Brown doesn’t believe there is such a thing as a universally flattering lipstick color. What she likes, though, are stains. “I think it is the best way to color lips and it is the most forgiving. It’s definitely preferable to the obvious lip liner, lipstick, and gloss.” Brown is also a fan of metallic colors. “They’re great for the ‘natural’ look,” she says. “Sparkly shadows can add life to the face, and they’re great for young girls.”

How young is too young for makeup?

The mention of young girls brings up the question, how young is too young for makeup? Brown acknowledges that girls are growing up so fast these days, but ultimately answers, “They can experiment with makeup as soon as they can.” Admitting that she had a three-year-old model in her Beauty Rules campaign, the makeup maven believes kids are never too young to appreciate what makeup can do. “Preteen girls dabble with it, high schoolers go to parties with a little blush and gloss on. But the basis of it all is a clean face.” She adds that the most important beauty advice she has ever gotten from her mother wasn’t makeup related. “She always emphasized the importance of taking care of my skin.”

When asked what one beauty product is highly underrated, Brown says, “Facial oil. Moisture is the secret to looking good; when my face feels a little dried out, I just dab on some oil.” For those with oily skin already, however, she advises, “Hydrate yourself. Use a water-based moisturizer and drink plenty of water.” Regarding the problem of pimples, Brown instructs, “Put moisturizer on it to avoid flakiness; a stick-form moisturizer works best. Afterwards, put powder on top and blend well to camouflage the redness and swelling.

Brown’s beauty no-no’s

“Botox freaks me out,” Brown admits. “It’s poison applied to the skin! And when overused, people end up looking frozen and unnatural; the forehead doesn’t match the rest of the skin on the face.” Aside from Botox, Brown’s other beauty no-no’s are wearing dark lipstick and nothing else and wearing foundation that doesn’t match the skin. “Sleeping with your makeup on — well, we’ve all done that once or a few times, and that’s okay. My eye makeup and liner even looks better on the second day,” she says with a laugh. “Maybe I need to create one next, a 48-hour mascara.”

Since the debut of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics in 1991, Brown has witnessed beauty and makeup trends come and go, not just in terms of color palettes and application but also of makeup chemistry. One of the current buzz words in makeup is silicone, something that Brown finds disagreeable. “I don’t like silicone or micah in my makeup. Silicone on the face? That to me is like nails being scraped on a chalkboard. I prefer creamy, sheer formulations that have a little density to them.”

Despite the wide range of makeup and skincare products in the Bobbi Brown brand, there is still one thing that customers have been clamoring for: “A primer product. I’ve been working on primer formulas for five years, and I still have to find one that improves makeup quality and makes it stay longer on the face,” Brown discloses. “Proper skincare is still the best primer, I believe. Well, there is the vitamin rich Bobbi Brown Vitamin-Enriched Face Base that we have — I guess that’s our ‘primer.’” Made with shea butter with carrot extract, vitamin A complex, and vitamins C and E, the Face Base is one of the brand’s bestselling products.

Brown’s books have been praised and criticized for the Make-up 101 theme running through them — while highly informative in their covering of the basics, they don’t have the element of fantasy that the late Kevyn Aucoin’s The Art of Makeup, Making Faces and Face Forward have. But with her upcoming book’s target market in mind, Brown keeps to a “self-esteem-based, teach-y, and fresh approach. I started Beauty Rules by clearing away everything — no makeup first. That’s why with the before and after pictures in the book, and in the Pretty/Powerful campaign, you see dramatic changes from an undramatic point of view.”

The informative/instructional tone in her books and the natural look-based aesthetic of her cosmetics company might be rooted in a desire to relay a message to her teenage self. Brown admits, “I was a very insecure teenager. If I could, I would tell her that things would be okay, that she just has to breathe and do what she loves. ‘Stick to what you believe in and you will find happiness.’” It’s a message every woman, girl, and toddler can benefit from hearing.

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Bobbi Brown’s Beauty Rules is available at Bobbi Brown in Rustan’s Makati and Shangri-La Mall. Call the Bobbi Brown counter at 813-3739 local 225 for Makati and 633-4636 for Shangri-La Mall for reservations of the book.