Itinerary: Makeup

Ever since Max Factor helped create the looks for early screen stars like Jean Harlow, Claudette Colbert and Bette Davis in his legendary makeup studio on Highland Avenue, cosmetics have shaped the fantasy peddled by Hollywood.

Skillful work can transform Jim Carrey into a Grinch and Eddie Murphy into a weighty nerd. It can also turn a suburban mom into a glittery boudoir babe at the local mall. Celebrities, drag queens and those who wish Halloween came around more often all know that makeup is a powerful weapon that arms, disarms and charms.

Thursday

Since 1977, the Joe Blasco Make-Up Center in Los Feliz has trained Academy Award-winning artists for the entertainment industry. It was founded by professional makeup artist to the stars Joe Blasco, and it offers courses in professional and beauty makeup artistry as well as film and television hairstyling taught by professionals with extensive film and TV credits. Learn how to create liver spots, broken capillaries, broken noses and bullet holes in classes like old age, monster, bald cap and injury simulation. The retail store is open to the public and sells professional Joe Blasco cosmetics (1670 Hillhurst Ave., L.A., [323] 467-4949; store open Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.).

Friday

Chocolate, lard, pigment and wax are the materials used by artist Janine Antoni in a three-part installation titled “Gnaw” at MOCA’s Geffen Contemporary (152 N. Central Ave., Little Tokyo, downtown L.A., [213] 626-6222. Open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.).

Composed of two 600-pound blocks of chocolate and lard, and an attractive, department store cosmetics case, “Gnaw” takes a subversive and avant-garde stab at makeup and all that it represents in the modern world. The installation is formed of chocolate and lard that Antoni “gnawed” with her teeth, then mixed with pigment and wax to create attractive tubes of “lipstick.”

Saturday

Get wigged out at the grandest punk-rock-meets-glam-rock ball at Club Makeup (El Rey Theatre, 5515 Wilshire Blvd., between La Brea and Fairfax avenues, L.A., [323] 769-5500; first Saturday of every month; $20 cover; 9 p.m. to 2 a.m.; 21 and older).

Hundreds of groovy scenesters rock out to the best ‘70s and ‘80s hits at this intense monthly party that rivals anything you’ve seen at Carnival or Halloween. Saturday’s event pays tribute to Andy Warhol. Dust off your fluffy white wigs, soup-can outfits and Velvet Underground glasses.

Join the happy and diverse club crowd at this “anything goes” club, where attitude isn’t a must. Past Makeups have paid tribute to David Bowie and Cleopatra. Watch for hair, makeup and T-shirts that are thrown from the stage by members of the house band and host Alexis Arquette.

Sunday

See how makeup artists turn actors’ faces into space aliens, ghouls and ghosts in a tribute to movie magic at the “Making Faces, Playing God: Identity and the Art of Transformational Makeup” exhibit at UCLA Fowler Museum (west of Royce Hall on the UCLA campus, Westwood; [310] 825-4361. Open Wednesdays through Sundays, noon to 5 p.m.; Thursdays, noon to 8 p.m.; $5 adults, $3 kids).

The exhibit explores the fascinating power of human transformation through the ages, from carnival to theater--and makeup’s role in telling human stories, supernatural, mythic or otherworldly.