STYLE / SPRING BEAUTY : BEST FACES FORWARD : Optical Solutions

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?

Liz Rizo has a lovely oval face and olive skin but an oily “T zone” (forehead and nose) and the occasional annoying bout of adult acne as well. For her sensitive skin, she uses The Body Shop’s Cocoa Butter Hand and Body Lotion as her moisturizer, followed by Prescriptives Makeup 1, an especially light foundation. To conceal blemishes, she dabs on Prescriptives Camouflage Cream.

With a tapered, angled brush from Columbia Stage and Screen Cosmetics, a Hollywood beauty-supply store, she blends in MAC’s Brun eye shadow on her eyebrows. She then covers her lids with Almay Easy to Wear matte-brown eye colors, which she likes for their creamy consistency.

Rizo, 30, has large, almond-shaped eyes, one slightly larger than the other. The difference goes unnoticed after she has shaded her eye area from the top lashes to slightly above the creases and just below the bottom lashes. With a Prestige Kohl E12 pencil, she lines the inside of her lids to make her eyes appear smaller. Using white inside the lids, she notes, would make her eyes look too big.

After mascara, Rizo uses Revlon’s Spicy Peach powder blush and a coating of lip balm. She prefers a lip liner, not lipstick, for color. Her current favorite: MAC’s Spice.

Rizo’s career began four years ago, when, burned out from a job in art consulting, she enrolled in beauty college. She trained in Northern California and, with friends from her hometown of Modesto already in the business, soon began working as a makeup assistant. In the past two years, she’s graduated to full-time L.A. makeup artist.

Four years ago, Rizo had burned out from art consulting, so she returned to Northern California to enroll in beauty college. With friends from her hometown of Modesto already in the makeup business, she soon began working as an assistant. And in the past two years, she’s become a full-time L.A. makeup artist.