STYLE / SPRING BEAUTY : BEST FACES FORWARD : Same Art, New Canvas
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?
In her Long Island high school, Cheryl Marks was recognizable as the girl with blue highlights in her hair. When she announced that she planned to become a hairdresser, her father bribed her into college with a car. She worked as a shampoo girl on Saturdays until she received her fine arts degree. Then hairstyling won out. After a few years, she traveled to Milan to build a photo portfolio, learning makeup by assisting makeup artists. “I found it exactly the same as working on a canvas,” she says.
In both her work and personal life, Marks’ style is natural and minimal. Now 35 and fond of water sports, she worries about skin care, faithfully using Kiehl’s Dermal Protection Eye & Throat Creme, Kiehl’s SPF 8 Dermal Protection Face Cream and Origins Line Chaser. To her nose and forehead, she applies Origins Zero Oil, a matte-finish liquid for oily places. On most days, she stops there. For nights on the town, she whips out a Shiseido sponge and, using short, even strokes, lightly covers her face with MAC Day Emulsion, a tinted moisturizer. “I have sad dog eyes--they slant down,” she explains, so she doesn’t line her lids. Instead, she highlights them and her brow bones and adds MAC Brun eye shadow in the creases. On her lips, she uses “tons” of The Body Shop Lip Balm, plus MAC Captive lipstick.
For her dry hair, Marks likes shampoos with oil and Aveda Cherry Bar conditioner. Still fond of highlights (though not blue ones), she periodically streaks her hair--”surfer girl highlights,” she calls them--sweeping a Mason Pearson nylon-and-natural-bristle brush through her locks.
