One of the most interesting new trends in the world of beauty right now is the development of the personalized product. This is a phenomenon that started to emerge some years ago, along with the trend toward fresh beauty products, the sort of things sold by companies like Lush: refrigerated face packs and hair treatments that are all-natural and have a short shelf life due to their freshness.

Both of these trends respond to a sense that the customer now wants a more personal relationship with her products. She wants real, pure, safe products that are all-natural and as good as or better than homemade, a gourmet version of what she could whip up at home. And she wants products designed for her specific needs, not mass-market products that try to respond to many different needs at once. These trends arise from a general desire for truth, sincerity and soul in the products we put on our skin and hair.

In Paris recently I went to a seminar given by Terry de Gunzburg, formerly with YSL and now embarking on her own beauty endeavor: a line called By Terry which is a makeup line designed along the lines of the haute couture and pret a porter collections in fashion. Customers at her Paris shop will have a choice between a custom or a ready-to-wear approach to makeup. The custom client will have an entire laboratory at her disposal and a great precision in color at her fingertips, with, for example, 400 sample skin tones and 700 eye shadow hues to choose from.