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HD's view rough on skin

By Kelly Jane Torrance
April 4, 2008

The high-definition revolution calls for a slew of new products — big flat-screen televisions, pricey DVD players, surround sound stereo systems, state-of-the-art makeup.

Makeup?

High-def TV provides an unprecedented clarity of picture. Anyone who's bought an HDTV has compared regular and HD channels and marveled at the difference in quality. When the camera catches an actor in close-up, it's no exaggeration to say you can practically see the person's pores.

And therein lies the problem. The same technology that lets you see a perfect sunset in jaw-dropping detail also lets you see an imperfect face in jaw-dropping detail. Wrinkles and blemishes are suddenly visible. Actresses that look perfect in airbrushed magazine photographs or the more forgiving medium of film begin to look a little more like the rest of us in high-definition.

The cosmetics industry is responding. Several companies — including Christian Dior, Smashbox and Make Up for Ever — have developed products for use on actors and actresses filmed in high-definition and, in what looks like a first, one has just launched an entire line of them.

Cargo's new blu_ray collection, named after the recently victorious high-definition DVD format, is available to both the professional makeup artist and the regular consumer. It includes a pressed powder and a blush with "micronized light diffusers" to reflect light and hide imperfections, a mattifier that minimizes lines and stops shine, and lip glosses that plump lips and smooth lines. The best product, and the one most unlike its regular counterpart, is the mascara — you apply the product with a comb rather than a brush, making it virtually impossible to end up with the fake-looking clumps that normally result.

Toronto-based Cargo founder Hana Zalzal says the company developed the line after discovering there was a real need for it. "One of our top-selling products is a bronzer that's got a bit of shimmer in it," she says. "We were hearing from makeup artists, 'Can you develop one without shimmer? It's picking up on-screen.' "

One of the challenges makeup artists face is the competing demands between full coverage and a natural look. As anyone who saw Katherine Heigl at the Oscars in HD knows, heavy makeup looks extremely unnatural in high-definition. Cargo paid attention, and it's one reason the company is pitching its line at the consumer as well as the professional.

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