LONG GAME
Advanced adaptable formulas and ideas pinched from the medical world— KRISTEN VINAKMENS reports on the next generation of long-wear cosmetics.
WHEN BOBBI BROWN WANTED TO ILLUSTRATE
the tenacity of her long-wear eye makeup, in a recent ad campaign, she had a champion skydiver drop out of a helicopter and sent a pro surfer crashing into an ocean’s waves—both wearing the product. While most of us won’t be swimming with sharks anytime soon, the experiment shows how far long-wear makeup has come, with extreme sport mirroring the demands of our evermore hectic lives. That level of performance is at the heart of a new crop of lip and face makeup that boasts serious staying power, comfortable wear and, in some cases, active ingredients to simultaneously treat skin.
And that’s no mean feat. Foundation longevity, for one, is notoriously tricky; it’s difficult for formulators to create something that stays put, feels lightweight and can adapt to the complexion’s furrows and smile lines. What’s more, assaults like oil and sweat can break down the formula or even change its colour. Meanwhile, long-wearing lipstick
IN “505” has the opposite problem: Lacking sebaceous glands, the lips easily dry out and adding emollients to the formula to ease dryness can decrease its wearability.
The first forays into long-wear makeup came by way of brands such as Max Factor in the early 20th century. Factor, the man, created face paints for silver screen stars that held up against the makeup-melting heat of studio lights. The first commercially available foundation—dubbed Pan-Cake Makeup—was famous for its lasting power, with no need for retouching. Such was the case with NoSmear Lipstick, introduced in 1950 by entrepreneur Hazel Bishop. One of the first long-wearing lipsticks, it purportedly stayed on through smoking, eating and, most notably, kissing, as touted in its famous tagline, “Stays on you, not on him!” The success of No-Smear led to the rise of “indelible” lipsticks by the likes of Coty, Revlon and Helena Rubinstein later that decade.
Traditionally, long-wearing makeup has relied on a
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