They all have day jobs: Shira Kastan lobbies for a university. Leslie Munsell applies makeup for photo shoots and co-owns a hair salon. And Tracy Wilson Mourning heads a charity, filling her schedule with philanthropic endeavors.
All three are busy, high-energy professional South Florida women — who still found time this year to launch new makeup and skin care lines, fulfilling their entrepreneurial dreams and tapping into an industry many feel is less sensitive to a recession.
Formulating the products with the help of outsourced manufacturers, designing the packaging, creating a logo and website, marketing and selling to distributors — all have taken loads of time, effort and resources.
But all three women are excited to harness their creativity in a new direction, mixing business with beauty, offering something different to enhance a women’s daily aesthetic ritual.
“I think there’s a market for it,” Kastan said. “I think women will still splurge on themselves. And they should.”
Experts agree that the beauty business, while highly competitive, is an industry ripe for new small businesses. Unlike some other types of start-ups, contract manufacturing helps drive new enterprises and keep costs down.
“There’s always an opportunity for somebody with an idea to start up a cosmetics company,” said Jeff Falk, editor of Global Cosmetic Industry, a trade publication based in Carol Stream, Ill. “It’s a self-regulated industry, so there’s responsibility in launching a company and a line, but there are not some of the hurdles you might have to go through to get a food on the shelf or an over-the-counter drug.”
We’re headed into the high season for “good” movies, and I think the one I’m most excited for is Country Strong, which opens next week. Sure, it doesn’t have accents, corsets, or lavish period settings, but it does have big hair and country music. Gwyneth Paltrow and Leighton Meester are usually known for their upper east side sensibility (the former was born to it; the latter plays it to perfection as Blair Waldorf) and we spoke to Country Strong’s head makeup artist, Sherri Laurence, about how she got these city girls Nashville-ready. “The country look these days is very put together—not a hair or a lash out of place,” says Laurence. “Their hair is very curled, with lots of extensions.
What ever happened to Fay Wray? We’ve lost her in the tunnels of time, but the new starlets out there are just as gorgeous as Wray ever was- and we do it with a little bit of air! Sounds light? You’re right! Airbrushing! The flawless coverage and natural translucency that airbrush makeup offers is a huge step in the evolution of makeup art.
When the average person hears the word airbrush, we think of a car being painted, or the final stages of prints for magazines that are finessed into perfection. Today, these processes are accomplished digitally. The model’s print (who already happens to be stunningly gorgeous) is color corrected, her teeth are made whiter, her pupils enhanced, her lashes made thicker, her skin tweaked to perfection, her legs thinned out and elongated. It’s quite an artificial process and it leads me to the conclusion that I – or any farm animal for that matter… could probably model for Vogue. However, what would you say if some of these adjustments could be made on your face instead of on your picture? I said prove it!
As I watched the tiny droplets leave the airbrush gun and dance in the air before landing on the subject’s face I was intrigued. I was sold when I saw a pretty great result dry into flawlessness. “Lets just wait a minute and watch the paint dry to see the final result,” the demo makeup artist whispered. (It reminded me of an episode on the original Star Trek with William Shatner hanging out with a colony of women taking “the beauty pill ” and watching all the “Plain Janes” turning into sexy amazons with the blink of an eye).
Spending time with the system I discovered the secrets that airbrushing holds. The airbrush gun takes the tiniest, most fragile foundation molecule and oxidizes it into a high opacity. In other words, one can wear the sheerest of sheer foundations and have virtually perfect skin. When I took the airbrush foundation and tried to apply it by traditional methods (a sponge and my finger tips) it was too watery to work with. Yet the same foundation passed through the air system takes on a new characteristic and a strength that I have not seen in the twenty-six years I’ve been painting faces.
THE PROS OF AIRBRUSH MAKEUP:
- Maximum coverage with minimal product
- Delivers a natural and translucent look
- Great for oily skin
- Fantastic for overly active skin that tends to “eat” makeup
- Lasts ten to twelve hours – a bride’s best friend
- Does not require powder, which can be aging
- Some foundation formulations are silicone based
- Silicone is as smooth as silk
THE CONS OF AIRBRUSH MAKEUP:
- Set up fee for airbrush technician: $500 to $800. Requires a skilled technician/artist or a lot of home practice
- Airbrush Make-up session $80 to $200
Beauty airbrush is slowly making its way into the television and the film industry. With the transition of high definition television, it’s definitely a makeup artist’s and television personality’s new best friend.
Robert Closs is the Founder and Managing Director of The School of Professional Makeup in Toronto, Canada. The School of Professional Makeup is one of the premier makeup schools in Canada. Rob has provided fashion advice, makeup tips and beauty tips for almost 25 years.
The origin of make-up dates back to 3100 BC, during the 1st Egyptian Dynasty. Unguent, a substance used to prevent the skin from drying up due to heat and to avoid wrinkles, was extensively used by people of both genders during that era. The women of Egypt were known to apply kohl to their eyes to give them a smoky look. Antimony or soot was usually used to make kohl.
The use of cosmetics and make up was found among Romans also. They grew popular approximately around the middle of 1st century AD. Kohl was now used by Romans too. The cheeks were decorated with rouge. You would be amazed to know that people used to take good care of their teeth along with their skin. For cleaning teeth, Romans used pumice.
Henna dyes were used by Persian women for darkening their hair. Pale skin became very popular during the European time. A lot of women used harmful substances to achieve a pale look, which in turn spoiled their skin to a large extent. During the Renaissance period of Italy, women started using lead paint in order to lighten their skin, which in fact proved damaging.
Due to the damaging effect, makeup was criticised during the time of Elizabeth I. Cosmetics came to be seen as a threat and people started avoiding them. Except for prostitutes who donned themselves with heavy makeup, people usually shied away from it.
The French loved to adorn their lips with red lipsticks, and wore rouge on their cheeks. Though earlier it was repulsed by other countries, eventually it trickled down to other parts of the world also.
A lot of people started using herbal products to make cosmetics and makeup. Herbs, flower extracts, vegetable extracts, strawberries, brandy, spring water etc were widely used. Unfortunately pale complexion was still considered royal and so the efforts of most women were directed towards achieving skin lightness. The use of whiteners and blemish removers proved fatal at times. One of the most lethal products was white lead, which not only caused harm to the skin cells but also led to hair loss and stomach problems.
The irony is that, in spite of knowing the harm they are causing to their body, women continued using dangerous cosmetics like white lead for the face, belladonna for the eyes, and even mercury and nitric acid. Shockingly enough, coal tar was used to dye hair.
Even today a lot of people use harmful cosmetics, though thankfully the focus is shifting towards safer products.