STYLE / SPRING BEAUTY : BEST FACES FORWARD : Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

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?

No lipstick, no eyeliner, no blush--men are lucky. So how does a male makeup artist (called a groomer when he works on men) get ready for a big night out? Johnny Hernandez, 34, says it’s easy--a shampoo, a shave, maybe tweezing an errant eyebrow hair.

He plucks his eyebrows?

Not exactly. “I keep them clean,” Hernandez explains. It turns out that removing just a few hairs between the eyes and below the brows is a little-publicized trick of many actors and models--hmmm, Jack Nicholson perhaps? “It’s really subtle,” he says. “The brows can’t look reshaped. You keep the same natural line, just clean them up to make the eyes look bigger.”

With his clear olive skin and thick auburn hair, Hernandez’s daily grooming needs are minimal: no sunscreen (he wears hats and sunglasses instead), no bronzer, just a daily wash with Neutrogena Shampoo for normal to dry hair, followed by Neutrogena conditioner. To slick back his hair, cut stylishly long in front and short in back, he uses Sebastian Molding Mud. He prefers to shave after his shower, applying Erno Laszlo Active Phelityl Oil for dry skin, then lathering up with a shaving cream by Kiehl’s. And he never uses disposable razors: “They’re too light, and I always end up cutting myself.”

To lengthen his oval face, Hernandez keeps his sideburns trimmed about an inch long and avoids wearing shirts with band collars. His facial hair changes constantly--one month, a goatee, the next, a mustache. His one facial constant: Erno Laszlo’s men’s skin program.