He's backstage at Michael Kors, Marc by Marc Jacobs and Narciso Rodriguez. Color is his mantra; helping women feel beautiful is his goal.
Uber makeup artist Dick Page was in San Francisco recently for an appearance at Nordstrom as the artistic director of Shiseido, a position he's held since March 2007. He brought with him a team of Shiseido makeup artists to add color to the more than 230 women who came to the event. And what an event it was. Page consulted on color for the guests, and posed endless times with fans under the glare of bright lights in front of the Shiseido step and repeat.
He was in town to launch his latest addition to the Shiseido makeup line, a lip gloss called "Lacquer Rouge." Dick says his inspiration was Japanese lacquer artistry in Japan because of the "exceptional lustrous shine." He translated this into "wet-looking finish" saturated with color. This goes on smoothly and the texture is more like a lipstick, but with amazing shine. Dick says the fall 2012 Shiseido collection "is about speedy glamour and the simplicity of a lip gloss married to the intensity of a lipstick that creates a rich color payoff." Don't let the bright colors scare you. I tried RS404 "Disco," an intense fuchsia. It goes on much lighter than you would think, but it has staying power.
Meeting Dick Page was great. The first thing he asked me was, "Did you bring me wine?" I didn't, but I should have. Next time, I'll bring him a bottle of great California wine. I asked him what's been in his wine glass recently. "Through summer, I was really enjoying the Spanish Marqués de Riscal, but I like to try new stuff all the time. I love Italian Primitivo and some of the German reds, which were quite different for me. It all depends on what's for dinner, of course!"
Dick is really tall, even to me in four-inch heels. I love his accent, and he's very expressive. For me, he said let's do a "dirty eye." He chose colors from the new line of shadows called Shimmering Cream Eye Color, "Purple Dawn," a saturated purple. To make it even more intense he added "Caviar," a black shadow. I loved it -- bold, but not too much. The cream formula doesn't crease, slip or slide. I got many compliments on the eyeshadow color the rest of the day.
"I just love color!" Dick says. "It's all about context, look and attitude. I think pretty much any woman can rock some kind of red lip or dark eye makeup. Navy, purple and deep greens all bring a different vibe to the usual dark eyes."
Dick loves meeting his customers during personal appearances. "I get to see the stuff I design in real life, I hear raves, occasional criticism -- very occasional, I hasten to add! I hear questions, views, comments and I love seeing women enjoying the products."
Some customers are averse to color at first, but Dick is great about encouraging people to take a risk with color. After all, he says, it's only makeup and you can rinse it off. "When I'm meeting customers I often hear, 'Oh, I could never wear (fill in the blank)' and I always think, 'Why not?' I think a lot of beauty advice is based on archaic 'rules,' like not wearing dark lipstick if you have thin lips, which is obviously nonsense. If you're very beige with your makeup, add a pop of bright shadow; if you're a lip gloss kind of girl, try a true classic rose or berry lip, mix it up!"
Turns out Dick Page not only loves wine, but he's a foodie too. He had dinner the night before his Nordstrom appearance at Incanto, newly minted Top Chef Masters' Chris Cosentino's highly acclaimed restaurant.
Dick's appearance in San Francisco also coincides with Shiseido's 140th anniversary. The company was launched by Arinobu Fukuhara in 1872 as a pharmacy in Ginza, Tokyo. To celebrate, they launched a new fragrance (Dick was not involved) called Zen Secret Bloom. This is a limited edition based on Shiseido's iconic scent Zen which was created in 1964, with jasmine and vanilla. With October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Shiseido believes in the power of pink and is donating $5 from every sale of the new Lacquer Rouge in "Disco," a bright pink gloss.