The Skin Game

Whether you stayed in the shade through Dallas’s sweltering summer or spent every last second soaking up the sun, this year you can brighten up your fall complexion with a glowing artificial tan that’s better (or at least safer) than the real thing or highlight your hair with wild new colors that’ll either wash out or stay put.

SKIN: COSMETIC COLOR

The focal point of skin care today appears to be protection from the damaging rays of the sun. Thankfully, the new season has brought with it new cosmetics that offer health-conscious solutions to people who like looking tan year-round.

Color washes give a translucent glow of color via a light liquid that blends well with traditional liquid and cream foundations. Manufacturers such as Clinique and Estee Lauder offer a good variety of sheer colors, but they don’t include a sunscreen.

If you generally use foundation but participate in a lot of sports, a tinted moisturizer may be your best bet. These products hydrate the skin while offering your face a hint of color. Most have sunscreens as well, and top names include Lancome’s Bienfait du Matin Protective Day Cream, Chanel’s Teint Sport Protective Color Creme, and Ultima II Protective Moisture Tint.

Because they are quick-drying and stain the skin rather than coating it, gels are a bit trickier to use, but when applied with a damp sponge they create a long-lasting bronze. Popular with men as well as women, Paco Rabanne and Jan Stuart have bronzing gels on the market, along with Clinique and others.

If you need an all-over tan for your newest bare-as-you-dare outfit, a product like Clarins Self-Tanning Milk will leave you with a “suntan” that lasts several days and fades gradually every time you bathe.

Meanwhile, mousse is changing the face of skin care. Elizabeth Arden’s Simply Perfect Mousse Make-up provides eleven shades of airy foundations that spread and blend easily. Similarly, Max Factor’s water-based mousse, Maxi Endless Sun Radiant FaceColor, is a light, non-greasy bronzer.

Overall, the experts say, makeup has taken a turn toward lighter, more natural-looking styles via sheerer foundations, softer lipstick shades, and warmer eye colors.



Hair: Contours & Colors

“When fashion changes, so does hair,” explains Raymond Adams, a local stylist. Adams says that many hairstyles were straight and shaped close to the head last year as a balance to the bulky look of clothes. This year’s styles will have more volume and longer lengths as a complement to the season’s form-fitting fashions.

“The layered look is back,” adds Meredith Boyd, manager of The Verandah Salon in the Anatole. “Although you’ll still see the bob cut, it will be a bit longer with more layers and more shaping at the sides. A lot of the looks are softer and more feminine.”

Even men’s styles are getting longer, although short hair is still dominant. Shoulder-length hair is being sported in many male fashion magazines, and many cuts show more length along the nape of the neck while the sides remain cropped above the ears.

For women, bangs are back in a big way, as are body waves, wigs, and hairpieces. Longer lengths work into classic evening looks with French rolls or exotic buns piled high on top of the head, while medium lengths are being pulled back into chignons or ponytails at the nape of the neck and decorated with colorful scarves.

Hair coloring is one of the biggest aspects of the season’s fashions-for women and men. Cellophanes by Sebastian and Jazzing by Clairol are two popular non-peroxide, temporary hair-coloring techniques.

“Rather than the heavily frosted look,” Boyd explains, “we’re doing lots of tone-on-tone coloring, and we often use three different shades that closely match the natural hair color. That gives hair a rich look and natural-looking highlights.”

When you get a wild hair, though, the most fashionable thing to do is a bit of temporary hair painting with mousses and shampoo-in hair colors in not-so-natural shades ranging from bright pink to green. Clairol’s Pazazz Mousse is a trailblazer in this category.

Of course, whatever your fall hairstyle and color, sculpting lotions, mousses, and hair-sprays are almost standard styling tools. The usual mousses and sprays claim to hold hair in place without being sticky or stiff, but a few newer brands have added a refreshing bit of honesty to their promotional efforts. A spray called Stiff Stuff is exactly that, and similarly, L’Oreal’s Studio holds your hair in place no matter how hard you dance.