On my last trip to New York City, I had a great time visiting the upscale department stores, but I had the most fun, and success, at the Face Stockholm store on Prince Street in Soho. The best part of going to Face was my terrific shopping companion, Pam from the Cosmetic Connection Product Panel! Pam and I had a great time choosing colors, and exchanging tips and techniques.

Face is a Swedish line that has been around for over 10 years in Sweden, and in NYC since 1989. Their easy-to-use displays of colors, tools, and brushes makes it really simple and fun to experiment with anything you want. I was greeted right away by one of the artists, and she helped me select a good foundation shade (Oyster) in their Matte formula. I really liked this foundation, and the color was great on me. After applying my base, I was ready to fill in the rest of my "canvas" with eye shadow and lipstick. Pam helped me choose eye shadows in Platina, a grayish slate blue that luckily looks more gray than blue on, and Joy, one of Pam's favorites (and now mine), a real chameleon color that looks sort of plum in the container but looked more like a grayish plum brown on my blue eyes. There are tons of eye shadow colors to choose from at Face, from matte classic browns to ultra-shiny loose iridescent reds, so take your time browsing and playing.

Picking a lipstick was more of a challenge - the first one I tried, Matte Brick, was too red for me, then the second, Fresh Plum, was darker than what I was looking for. One thing to keep in mind is that the matte formula lipstick can be quite dry and crumbly, so if you fall in love with one of the matte colors, be sure to moisturize those lips beforehand!

Since I liked my foundation and eye shadow choices very much, I didn't really think to find out the prices until I was ready to pay. I was amazed at how reasonable everything was for a boutique store - $19 for foundation and $12 for eye shadow ($14 for lipstick). I even got a free bottle of nail polish with my purchase, a sassy fushia-red (color #12).

FACE Update Oct. 97: Ever since my trip to New York City in February, I have enjoyed everything I got at FACE. Theirs was the first bottle of liquid foundation I have ever finished, and their "joy" eyeshadow is a permanent fixture in my eye makeup collection. When I learned they introduced a line of skin care, I thought, what better place than FACE to find a good fall/winter cleanser? Since I don't have a FACE store or counter near me, I took a chance on ordering over the phone. After talking about my skin type with a salesperson at FACE for several minutes, I decided on the Aloe Cleansing Lotion ($18 for 8 ounces) for "normal, sensitive, dry, or youth skin" (whatever "youth" skin means...).

About two weeks later, my package arrived and I was eager to try my new cleanser. The product packaging is simple, and the ingredient list short. The first thing I noticed as I opened the bottle was how strong the lavender oil fragrance was, even though it's near the end of the ingredient list. Lavender and rosemary oils have an almost astringent property that really aren't beneficial to dry or sensitive skin. I really wanted to like this cleanser, since I've liked many other FACE Stockholm products, but it didn't do a very good job of removing my makeup, and it left a strange filmy feeling on my skin, like some sort of coating was left behind in the rinse cycle. Not my idea of clean!

To add insult to injury, I had the same bad experience with FACE's Botanical Toner. On the phone, the salesperson said this one would be right for me, but when I saw "for normal to oily skin" on the label, I knew it was wrong again. FACE loves lavender oil - it's in everything! This toner smells very strongly of lavender and has definite astringent properties (from the witch hazel, arnica, lavender, and eucalyptus extracts). This is a good toner for normal to oily skin.

In an effort to fix things, FACE sent me the toner designed for all skin types, the Aloe Vera Toner. It stills smells strongly of rosemary and lavender, but the high aloe vera content (85% according to the label) makes it a little more soothing. For normal skin, this is a fine toner, but I wouldn't buy it again for my normal-to-dry skin.

If you find yourself in the Soho/Greenwich Village area of the NYC, I highly recommend visiting Face Stockholm for a truly fun cosmetic experience. They're located at 110 Prince Street. For mail ordering or more information, call (212) 334-3900.