STYLE / SPRING BEAUTY : BEST FACES FORWARD : The Eyes Have It
Early on, they were drawn to their profession by a love of art, a fascination with the process of transformation, even the aroma of a beauty salon. Now six Los Angeles makeup artists polish the faces of those oh-so-gorgeous ones who pose for magazines, appear in commercials and decorate the movie screen. Making an actor or model more beautiful is usually easy. But what happens when they’re challenged with their own less-than-perfect features?
You either have the ability to do makeup or you don’t,” says Lori Matsushima, confirming the fears of women who are all thumbs with a lip brush. Her parents wanted her to get a business degree, but after finishing a few semesters at Santa Monica College, she decided to heed her calling.
Of all the features on a human face, 30-year-old Matsushima most likes eyebrows. Models generally have large, expressive eyes, but when it comes to her own, she lowers her sunglasses and confronts the awful truth: “I have no eyebrows,” she wails, “and I love eyebrows.” So she draws them on with a brown Eyebrow Liner by Shu Uemura, a soft pencil with a brush for blending.
Her daily beauty routine begins with Clarins Facial Toner. She creates her dewy-fresh look by using copious amounts of Kiehl’s Ultra Facial Moisturizer, followed by a light dusting of Shu Uemura Colorless Face Powder instead of foundation.
“All girls should wear eyelashes all the time,” she trills happily, opening a pack of individual false eyelashes--Duralash by Ardell--which she trims with tiny scissors, then glues to the lash line at the corner of each eye. She covers any excess glue with a brownish-black cake eyeliner, a trick only for the sure-of-hand. To finish, she applies one of her many berry-colored lipsticks, some of them by Chanel, a brand she favors.
Every few days, she washes her layered hair with a chamomile shampoo from Trader Joe’s. One thing she never needs is blush: She blushes naturally--especially in front of, rather than behind, a camera.
