Tailor-made Beauty
Sun Herald
Sunday November 30, 1997
The latest cosmetic trend - custom blending - allows you to put your stamp on the products you use.
The whole concept of made to measure is luxurious. It smacks of wealth and the power to exercise one's sense of good taste. In this consumer age, when the logo you wear and the way you spend your money defines who you are, custom-made products are de rigueur.
Although there's nothing revolutionary about tailor-made cosmetics, revolutions have been fought on the premise that things made for the privileged few are decadent, indecent yet highly desirable.
Our modern-day perfume industry was founded on the 17th-century fetish for fresh fragrances. Luminaries like the Comtesse du Barry and Marie Antoinette bought new personalised perfumes every day. Thanks to its opulent history, perfume still carries a highly personal and indulgent patina.
Perhaps the first modern brand built on customisation was Charles of the Ritz. Prized by a clique of French women in the 1920s, the Charles of the Ritz blended face powders were a must among the chic set. Customisation has remained a small and discrete part of the beauty business. Now, several brands are cashing in on its cachet.
Faith Popcorn, an American trend analyst who advises big companies about how to develop new brands, explains that customised products are becoming popular because they appeal to the part of us that says "I'm special and I deserve to be treated like an individual". She has identified a trend she calls "egonomics" and believes it is a reaction against an increasingly depersonalised society.
It's not surprising that, in a culture whose citizens are bombarded with aggressive advertising messages, the stand-out products are those that seem to whisper to us in a private and personal way.
Imagine a perfume that expresses "you" in a bottle. That's what the trend towards personalised fragrances is aiming to do: using perfume not to identify your social status or to make you sexier but to help you be the best you can be - calm your nerves, boost your confidence levels and subtly enhance your moods.
The "sensory journey", as the Aveda blending experience is called, is like experimenting with an aromatic chemistry set. The idea is that you smell 30 key aromas - a range of essential oil blends. When you find one that attracts you, a consultant will add that aroma blend to your desired product.
"We realise that mass-market products don't work for everyone," says Horst Rechelbacher, the chief executive of Aveda. "At Aveda we have developed a range where the individual literally designs and mixes their own products. They are able to create something that no one else has, something that is truly right for them".
Bloom is another company that is encouraging self-medicating with scent. The little do-it-yourself aromatherapy kits contain three vials of essential oil selected for their therapeutic characteristics. Whether it's relaxation, romance or energy that you need, you can blend two or three of the oils to help shift your mental state. Bloom recommends using single-note essential oils to alter moods and emotions - lavender is said to relax the central nervous system, peppermint promotes mental agility and geranium helps produce a feeling of contentment and harmony.
The area where customisation is booming is make-up. Prescriptives Custom Blending is an on-counter spectacular. Clients are mesmerised as coloured powders and creams are poured, tipped and squirted into pots and jars and transformed into a skin-tone-perfect foundation and matching powder.
At The Look By Napoleon you can have your own colour-correct SPF8 foundation in a texture you love in 20 minutes. A consultant will select a formulation to suit your skin type from three foundation bases; Liquid Jojoba, Whipped Souffle or the New Generation Light Diffusing Foundation.
According to Napoleon Perdis, the owner of The Look By Napoleon, one of the reasons his custom blending service is taking off is because it caters to the needs of non-white skin tones. "In this multi-cultural market there are many women who are left out of the mainstream", he explains. "With custom blending you don't have to be satisfied with something that's almost right."
Instead of having a counter consultant mix your foundation, Chanel's Teint Exact allows you to mix it yourself at home. The system was designed to enable women to modify the shade of their foundation according to the season and changes in the light. The range includes three shades, Blanc, Rose and Brun, that can be combined or added to your existing foundation to create the right shade.
The Look By Napoleon even provides clever take-away compacts containing compartments that allow you to blend lipsticks. Aveda, Prescriptives, Estee Lauder, Nutri-Metics and The Look By Napoleon all enable you to pick eyeshadow and blusher shades and put them together in easy-to-carry compacts.
Biolage Blends brings the benefits of a specialised treatment system to the hairdressing salon. The regime employs essential oil-based shampoos and conditioners, which are specifically formulated to treat hair and scalp conditions. The hairdresser analyses the hair and asks questions about your hair, diet, lifestyle and general wellbeing. After the in-salon treatment you go home with personally prescribed products.
Custom-made products appeal because they are indulgent, but they also present a path to power. By honouring the parts of ourselves that don't respond to the McDonald's version of marketing - what's good for one is good for all - we exercise our free will and our right to choose.
WHAT DID WE DO BEFORE WE HAD SPF SUNSCREENS?
We peeled. Every kid in Australia returned from summer holidays with layers of skin peeling off the nose and shoulders, fresh pink skin peeking through ragged brown islands as a mark of achievement. Of course, the really diligent used Johnson's Baby Oil, which nicely fried the skin. Thankfully it has returned to its rightful place as a wipe for babies' bottoms.
CUSTOM MADE
* Hilton Lifestream offers mail-order naturopathic remedies and will customise them for patients. The remedies include Bach flower remedies (which affect mood), therapeutic herbal creams or liquid herbal formulas for the mind, body and spirit. Contact: 1300 361 362 or http:www.lifestream.com.au
* Heritage Healers is an Australian company that makes holistic beauty products containing Australian wildflower essences. Sold through beauty salons, the idea is that a beauty therapist will assess your skin and general health and prescribe an appropriate remedy.
* Coming soon, and already in the US, Elizabeth Arden uses a spectrophotometer at some of its department store counters to aid foundation blending. A sensor, placed at the jawline, takes skin-tone measurements in natural, incandescent and fluorescent light. Your personalised foundation is then mixed in a mini factory under the counter.
© 1997 Sun Herald
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