But M.A.C.is about more than just makeup. For example, two years ago, Toskan decided to launch the 'Put your money where your mouth is' in-store campaign (M.A.C. does no advertising): he chose the best-selling Viva Glam lipstick and decided to donate all the proceeds from the $13 tube to AIDS programs, raising three million dollars so far. This spring he had yards of fabric dyed Viva Glam red and invited fashion designers, from Katherine Hamnett to Marc Jacobs, to participate in a Couture Colour fashion show for AIDS awareness. Explains Toskan "Our customers now not only come to us because they want a colour but because they share very much the same philosophies... I think what it's about is giving something back to people."
M.A.C. - Makeup artist, multi-million-dollar businessman and philanthropist, Frank Toskan's goal is simply to educate people about and through makeup and skincare. His program of Makeup Art Cosmetics leaves us all a little wiser indeed: M.A.C. products are for 'all races, all sexes, all ages.' Not many companies can claim the same - plus back up the statement in choosing Ru Paul, a stunning black transvestite, as their spokesperson. In order to cater to all these lifestyles and their myriad moods, M.A.C. offers an extensive range of colours, developed through the ten years this Toronto-based whiz has been in business. In offering over 120 shades of lipstick, 130 eyeshadows, 32 foundations and 40 different types of makeup brushes, Toskan explains that "M.A.C. is about offering a selection of products that provide the customer the freedom of being whoever he or she wants to be... We will always do the extreme colours, like the purple-black lipstick, but we also do the neutral, pretty colours for the woman who is not so extreme in her presentation of herself." He goes on to explain that "We have pared down in the past, but it is my experience right now that women are experimenting a lot more. Our new colour collection for Spring 1996 is called Fast Forward Colour, and it is about doing things that haven«t been done before. We're starting to see amazing developments in fabrics and dyes and I feel the same will hold true with makeup textures and colours."
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