POETRY IN POTIONS
I remember watching my mother put on her makeup, but mostly I remember listening. To the wet lick of bottled foundation spread smooth, the sharp, glassy snap as the shiny compact closed, the barely audible shush of the brush against powder and then skin, the pop of the lipstick tube being opened, then the swooping sigh as all was whisked into a drawer. That tucked-away box was magic, full of sleek instruments that sang and shone and left trails of color and scent. It was my first encounter with the power of packaging.
Since then, I’ve followed the ever-changing wardrobe of beauty products. Right now, we’re in the A-16 phase. Functional, informative and androgynous, lines such as Origins, Kiehl’s and Banana Republic have put their makeup in bottles, jars and tubes that would not look out of place in a backpack or a locker room. They are slick and somehow scientific at the same time, environmentally friendly as well as sporty, which makes sense because these days everyone seems to want to be a jock, or at least look like one. And what are beauty products but a pep talk, a big “Go Team!” for the face and body?
It’s no wonder then that today’s cosmetics are more overtly verbal. A year or so ago, Stila introduced its artist-in-the-outback packaging--foundation and lip gloss in aluminum tubes and bottles, lip liner disguised as a sketching pencil made from recycled paper. Tucked inside each of Stila’s biodegradable cardboard pots of eye shadow and blush is a surprise: a quote from a famous gal. “One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done,” says Marie Curie from inside Oasis, an ecru-colored eye shadow. “To live is so startling it leaves little time for anything else,” notes Emily Dickinson in Tint, a rosy blush. There are also bons mots from Christina of Sweden, Charlotte Bronte and Edith Sitwell, all sure to enrich any beauty routine.
Other makeup lines--Aveda, the Body Shop and Lorac--tout aromatherapy and herbal curatives, elixirs in jars and bottles of colored glass and plastic that look as though they were plucked from a Dickensian apothecary shop, complete (or rather, compleat) with pamphlets that breathlessly offer advice on product combinations and their possible effect on self-esteem and physical well-being. So I should have been prepared for the brand-new line called Philosophy. But I wasn’t.
“Philosophy products are a way of life for the thinking mind and feeling heart,” the brochure says. “Our goal [is] to help you better maintain the integrity and health of your appearance while addressing the healing of your body, mind and spirit.”
Just in case you don’t get it, the brochure is 49 pages long and goes on to explain the entire line, which includes makeup, skin care, fragrance (including--no kidding--scents for dogs and cats), books and music. Still, the brochure is nothing compared to the products. The packaging is generic plastic bottles and pots in black and white. The names are something else: Real Purity (facial soap), Eye Believe (eye cream), Stuck in the Mud (charcoal mask), Coloring Book (a lip, eye and cheek palette), Soul Owner (foot cream). Every product comes with its own, ahem, philosophy: “When you can’t move forward or backward you’re not stuck, you’re scared. Solution? Take small steps, not giant leaps,” for example, and “Let’s review your only true assets. You own your values, your integrity, your thoughts, your words, your actions and therefore, your destiny. Question: Are you proud of what you own?”
The elimination of fear is a lot to expect from a mudpack and reviewing my assets is not what I normally do mid-foot exfoliation, but there’s something sweet and brave about the whole thing, like those smiley-faced Post-it notes your college roommate used to stick all over her mirror. Certainly Philosophy seems a natural confluence of trends--one part beauty product, one part aromatherapy and one part 12-step program. A bit chatty perhaps, but then I’ve always liked listening to makeup. Even an eye cream that preaches: “What you believe is what you become.” Hey, there are worse things you could hear first thing in the morning.
