LASERED LIPSTICK FROM MADINA MILANO
Byline: Cassandra Chiacchio
NEW YORK — When it comes to cosmetics technology, Madina Ferrari, creator of the colorful makeup line Madina Milano, is forging ahead a mile a minute. Literally.
Her newest cosmetic breakthrough, a lasered lipstick, is set to debut in her upcoming fall-winter Visual Effects Collection. The lipstick has a two-step finishing process. First it is oversprayed, a technique in which a thin film of gold is sprayed over the bullet of the lipstick, and then a houndstooth-like pattern is lasered into the surface. The entire process takes 60 seconds to produce a single lipstick, as opposed to the basic process in which a hundred are mass-produced in a matter of minutes.
The Visual Effects collection, which also contains lasered eye shadows, blush and nail lacquer, is the latest addition to her ever-growing collection of Madina Milano makeup. The brand already boasts more than 1,500 pieces at any given time. “My inspiration is always art and fashion and everything has been optical,” said Ferrari. “The Madina line is color and I always try to translate fashion into color.” Despite the extreme look of the lipstick, customers need not worry about its wearability — the gold overspray does not affect the true color of the lipstick, Ferrari assured.
Before starting up her own line, Ferrari designed cosmetics and contributed ideas for colors and collections at Intercos, a Milan-based cosmetics manufacturing company, of which her husband Dario Ferrari is owner and chief executive officer. Ferrari, who still acts as creative director at Intercos, has access to all the latest in cosmetics technology, especially lasers. “I used them for my summer collection,” she said, referring to the lasered eye shadows in the Coral and Waves collection.
Ferrari found that the Visual Effects lipstick was not as easy to produce as her eye shadows. “When I tried the laser effect before, it was on a flat powder. It’s difficult and expensive to have a laser design on something rounded like a lipstick,” she admitted. Despite the added expense, Ferrari was adamant about keeping the price low. “I created this for women like me,” she said. “Lipsticks for most women are like candy for a child: a joy.”
The Visual Effects collection will go on sale in September at the Madina Milano boutique, located in New York at 151 Spring Street. Visual Effects lipsticks will retail for $16. Eye shadows and blush will also retail for $16 while the nail lacquer will sell for $10.