In a new lipstick, a kiss of old-Hollywood glam

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      Gabriela Hernandez–petite and fine-boned as a bird, wearing a dapper navy dress and jacket with white embroidery–is a ringer for the late-show heroine who gets the guy, the happily-ever-after conclusion, and The End superimposed over a heart-shaped closing shot of lips meeting. And even if the movie's black and white, you know those lips would be vivid red. In 2007, when lip makeup is sparkled, spangled, and, in the case of the scarier glosses, flytrap-sticky, Hernandez is happy to display a more ladylike and subliminally sexy past.

      In Vancouver recently to introduce her line of retro-inspired Bésame cosmetics (available at Holt Renfrew), the Argentine-born U.S. resident scours Los Angeles thrift stores and flea markets for vintage ideas and asks friends to hunt down more in her native Buenos Aires. The packaging draws her, appealing aesthetically to this former art director and photographer. Her muses, she says, are long-lost names like Harriet Hubbard Ayer and Richard Hudnut.

      Hernandez looks for inspiration as far back as the 1920s, an era of mirrored dressing tables, diminutive evening purses, and cosmetics that were noticeably smaller than today's. Alongside a modern drugstore example, a Bésame lipstick is the little sister, a scant five centimetres in length (the size lipsticks used to be) versus the usual seven centimetres. Its packaging, which she designed, harks back to the past, too. The gold case, a replica design from the 1940s, bears her signature stylized red chrysanthemums. It even comes in a small velvet bag. The company name, Bésame, translates as "Kiss me".

      A lipstick was Hernandez's first dip into the sea of cosmetics in 2004. It had taken her five years of development with fellow artist and husband, F. Joseph Hernandez, whom she met while at college. While many small cosmetics companies buy off the rack from large manufacturers, Hernandez works with two L.A. chemists to formulate her custom-made colours. The rich pigment means they last longer, she says. "I started with reds, reproductions from the 1920s to the 1950s. I have Marilyn's [Monroe's] red." (Scheduled for publication later this year, her book on makeup history, Classic Beauty, will include colour palettes from different periods.) Aware that women occasionally want to play it in a minor key, she has since broadened her palette to include pinks and neutrals–all classic shades, she stresses.

      The lipsticks are all small. "I'm anti–manly containers," says Hernandez (and not just because she's just under five feet tall). Eye shadow comes in a wee case three centimetres across, but it still has a mirror. Her eye pencil (among the softest around) is a standard 15 centimetres, but is double-ended. "When you travel, you don't want to carry huge things. All of my things are tiny because they're concentrated," she says as she applies a sample of foundation to the back of her hand to demonstrate. "It's not supposed to look cake-y. You don't need makeup all over your face, only where you have discolouration." She uses natural ingredients wherever possible. "I don't like to do preservatives, or petroleum-based things. I steer away from things [ingredients] that are going to cause problems." She doesn't just copy old colours either. "Some of the powders were really pinky-white," Hernandez says. "They didn't have the pigments to make actual flesh tones." Living in Los Angeles puts her close to the movie industry, and resulted in her supplying all the red lipsticks for The Good Shepherd. Inspiration works both ways. An eyebrow pencil is grey one end, taupe the other. "I made that [grey] shade, because all the makeup artists were using lead pencils so I matched that colour," says Hernandez. "Mascara took me a long time [to develop]. You think it would be easy to make. It's the hardest thing. It mustn't irritate your eyes. Plus it took a long time to get the colour correct."

      The Bésame collection is a work in progress. She's bringing out larger lipsticks this fall (prices range from $24 for lip glaze to $38 for soufflé foundation) and will be creating some products exclusively for Holt Renfrew. Coming, too, is a cream range that works for lips and cheeks, and dries to look natural, only more so. "It doesn't look like you have lipstick on," she says. Everything about her line evokes old-fashioned glamour. A Delightful Rose Balance Moisturizing Lotion smells as it sounds. Her Loose Powder is scented with vanilla. Even the prototype eye-pencil sharpener she's brought along is shaped like a hummingbird and will be made of a substance that resembles Bakelite. Her passion for the genteel past also extends to her own wardrobe, she says. "I am drawn to the '20s and '30s as far as tailoring and attention to detail. Those cuts of suits, you can't find them anymore. Most of the time I end up buying vintage stuff. They never go out of style," Hernandez says. "That's what I try to do with the makeup."

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