Asian Beauty

Model Ada Tai

       AsianConnections is pleased to feature commentary from the world's top fashion and beauty experts and Asian supermodels.

     Bobbi Brown is one of the world's leading make-up artists today and has created the beauty looks for covers of Vogue, Cosmopolitan magazines and the fashions shows of top designers Vera Wang, Michael Kors and others. She is regularly on the set of photo shoots doing makeup for supermodels Christy Turlington, Kate Moss, Claudia Schiffer, Niki Taylor as well as entertainment stars Meg Ryan, Susan Sarandon, Tina Turner and Andi MacDowell.

Global Beauty

     Over the past decade, a whole new classification of beauty has emerged. Its hallmark is ethnic diversity. Almost by definition, global beauty implies exotic, thoroughly individual characteristics (which makes defining impossible).

     What is fascinating to my eye is the exotic mix of traits. I never am able to identify what a woman is exactly - other than beautiful. I often ask models where their families came from, just to know. The answers are a testament to how very small our world has become: German, Asian, and African-American. Despite their current acclaim on the modeling circuit today, these global beauties have in the past been left out. They are not white, not black, not Hispanic, and not Asian. They are perfectly unique.

Asian Beauty

How do I make my face look smaller?  How do I make my eyes look bigger?

     These are two questions I hear all the time when I travel in the Far East and when I meet Asian-American women at home. I always register these women's concerns, but I cannot offer an easy color trick or application technique as the solution. Instead, I talk beauty philosophy. Asian beauty is characterized by round, smooth faces and thick, gorgeous hair. I urge Asian women to take stock of their many unique and beautiful features and not try to appear Caucasian. I believe that Asian women are among the most beautiful in the world.

     In general, I think Asian women look their most beautiful when not wearing a lot of make. I recommend a light-to-medium hand at most.

     Fundamental to my approach to Asian makeup is the use of yellow-based foundation and powder. I encounter a lot of Asian women who are reluctant to try any product that is yellow-based. For years, Asian women were instructed to wear pink makeup colors to counteract their natural skin tones. But I feel adamant that pink- or red-based makeup looks old-fashioned on Asian women- it perpetuates a very unmodern "china doll" look.

     Asian women fear that they will appear more yellow doing it my way. Yet I assure you that an Asian woman will not look more yellow wearing a yellow-toned foundation: She will look flawless, as though she were wearing no foundation. Nothing is prettier or softer.

BOBBI BROWN BEAUTY. Copyright (c) 1997 by Bobbi Brown.
Reprinted by arrangement with Cliff Street Books, an imprint of HarperCollins, Inc. All rights reserved.